REACTIONARY COSTS

Republican reactionaries are a peculiar lot. They decry drug abuse
but oppose a tobacco tax. They want harsh penalties, like Rush
Limbaugh, except for themselves. They will fund incarceration rates
that civilized nations find barbaric, with our great-grandchildren's
money, while cutting spending for beat cops and programs that
actually tackle crime causes and provide alternatives. Dogma
masquerades as purpose in public policy; if it doesn't work, just do
much more of the same.

Now they are singing full-throated and with their usual unison
against common-sense proposals made to the Legislature by Sheriff
Lonny Pulkrabek. Personally, I would rather see my law-enforcement
tax dollars used to track and incarcerate the sociopaths preying on
our communities than stigmatizing those whose only infractions in a
lifetime might be simple possession. To those who say that would be
sending the wrong message, I would ask what message we send by
criminalizing the behavior of large swaths of otherwise law-abiding,
productive citizens? Whatever might be the message we are sending
now, there are an awful lot of people it hasn't reached.

We've had plenty of "tough on crime," with an attendant explosion of
fiscal and human costs, as the war on drugs has filled our jails with
nonviolent offenders. We are way past due for some "smart on crime."
Thank you, Sheriff Pulkrabek, for bravely articulating an intelligent
alternative if controverted by the few.

Gary Smith

Iowa City resident