A DOOMED SOCIETY HERE

E.F. Banks (Jan. 19 Viewpoints, "Simple: Don't do drugs") must be living
with his head in the sand or maybe he enjoys seeing black people arrested on
the evening news. The injustice created by the drug war is deplorable.

Although African-Americans represent just 13 percent of the drug users, they
make up 74 percent of those incarcerated for drug offenses.

At a time when African-American leaders seem to be attacking windmills, the
Confederate flag, the black family is being rent by the war on drugs.

When I see homes in affluent white neighborhoods having their Bill of Rights
trampled on by drug task forces kicking in their front doors, I will say we
are getting closer to equality.

But let's get very real: Any society that spends more on incarceration than
education is surely doomed.

B. J. Bloomfield, Houston