Law and order

Apparently the state of Deleware has some problems with how they care for those unfortunate souls locked up in their jails. Wilmington’s News Journal recently concluded a six-month investigation into the state’s prison system. Uncovering an ongoing issue of inadequate medical treatment for inmates incarcerated and under the care of the state, the News Journal exposes an issue that I’m sure is widespread across the U.S.

It was 20 years ago that yours truly worked for the Indiana Department of Corrections, as a med tech in their medium security prison in Westville, Indiana. At the time, I was a wide-eyed 22-year-old, in need of a job in a state with a paucity of living wage options. With a young family and not many other options, I drove the 30 miles up U.S. Route 30, making my way to the walls of Westville Correctional Center, with hopes of a job that paid more than minimum wage.

That experience almost two decades ago, gave me a first-hand look at conditions inside many of America’s jails and correctional institutions. As I read sections of this four-part expose on Delaware’s incompetence and blatant disregard for the welfare of those under their care, I marvel at how many Americans are comfortable with our country’s archaic and barbaric treatment of many who made a mistake and got caught. Granted, there are those sociopaths and others who have committed violent crimes. But in our country, growing numbers of those locked up behind bars, with ever-increasing sentences, are for drugs and other non-violent offenses.

With an AID’s death rate that is the highest in the nation, the incompetence displayed by the state-contracted private health provider, CMS, reveals conditions that routinely violate constitutional provisions that require that states provide adequate medical care to inmates. CMS is one of the country’s largest providers of contracted medical services to correctional facilities across the fruited plane. They provide care to some 285,000 inmates in 360 facilities, located in 25 states.

For those right-wingers who subscribe to the philosophy towards prisoners that says, “lock ‘em up and throw away the key”, I might point out that the U.S. Constitution has prohibitions against “cruel and unusual punishment”. May I direct you to the Eighth Amendment?

With over 1.3 million Americans behind bars, the U.S. rate of incarceration is 2nd in the world, behind only Russia. Add to that number, nearly 1 million more in local and county jails, and you get a clearer picture of this country’s obsession with law and order and a form of justice that’s problematic at best.

Like so many aspects of life in America—capitalism and the drive for ever-increasing profits, makes a caricature of concepts such as justice. When prisons became just another tool for economic development, then dealing with issues of right and wrong, retribution, and rehabilitation take a back seat to good ole’ fashioned greed.

Price-gouging of the finest sort

Here are the friends of those in power, the oil companies. Everytime you go to the pumps to fill up your vehicle, remind yourself that those in power are not your friends and could care less whether working class Americans suffer--this is truly class warfare in its most basic form.

From the Center for American Progress:

Americans are feeling pain at the pump. According to a recent CBS News poll, 86 percent of people have been affected by higher gasoline prices "some" or "a lot." A recent Associated Press/Ipsos poll showed that 70 percent believe that higher gasoline prices will cause financial hardship for them or their family. Yet while ordinary Americans suffer under the weight of high gasoline prices, the world's largest energy conglomerates are enjoying record breaking profits.

According to The Washington Post, the 2004 profits for ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips broke records across all industries. In fact, last year, at over $25 billion, ExxonMobil booked the highest profit of any company in any year in history. Yet, oil company memos show that they made part of these profits by constraining refining capacity to drive up prices. These record profits have not only more than doubled CEO salaries, but they have driven up political contributions, a staggering $450 million in the past six years. So, while consumers are paying at the pump, oil companies are getting billions in tax breaks and sweetheart deals from the Bush administration and their congressional allies. You can read more, here.

And then there is this. I for one would be happy if the opposition party would openly oppose the thuggery of those in power on a daily basis. If not now, then when would be a more convenient time?

The dying art of statesmanship

I’ve often remarked that America feels like an “alternate universe” to me. Interestingly, former VP and the winner of the 2000 election, Al Gore, mentioned that very phrase in a speech he gave on Wednesday.

Gore has become an intriguing figure and member of the elite landscape, albeit, offering an alternate viewpoint than the current wisdom in vogue. While I don’t intend to lionize him, he’s given some extremely provocative and dead-on speeches over the past year or two. I’m not sure why he didn’t fare better in his run for president in 2000? I mean, he did actually win, but my point is, why did someone with his obvious intelligence end up in a photo finish race with El Dumbo? Then again, we are living in a time when intelligence and analysis are liabilities, rather than assets. Hence, his great oratory and keen analysis are ignored by our friends in the MSM.

Not surprisingly, Americans, like the citizens of Rome, have given themselves over to “bread and circuses,” i.e. the pursuit of the trivial and mindless self-gratification. As Gore notes in his speech, our democracy is now threatened by the general ill-informed citizenry that now constitutes our nation. Gore speaks directly to the role that media plays in this dumbing down of understanding.

“Among the other factors damaging our public discourse in the media, the imposition by management of entertainment values on the journalism profession has resulted in scandals, fabricated sources, fictional events and the tabloidization of mainstream news. As recently stated by Dan Rather - who was, of course, forced out of his anchor job after angering the White House - television news has been 'dumbed down and tarted up.'

The coverage of political campaigns focuses on the "horse race" and little else. And the well-known axiom that guides most local television news is "if it bleeds, it leads." (To which some disheartened journalists add, "If it thinks, it stinks.")”

As a reader of history, there is a certain sense of déjà vu that occupies my thinking, observing the American experiment increasingly resembling that of the Roman Empire, as it began to unravel and eventually implode.

As Juvenal, the Roman satirist noted, the empire’s glory days were behind, as his fellow citizens had become so preoccupied with entertainment and personal pleasures that they no longer cared about the great civic virtues of the past. They were content, as his famous phrase that we refer to states, with “bread and circuses” and blindly following the weakened succession of civil authority. How is that any different from where we find ourselves in our time?

Gore’s speech is worth reading in its entirety. Rarely, does one hear a leader and someone from the ruling class speak with clarity and truth any longer. Gore, for whatever reason (maybe he actually cares about the future of our nation), has seen fit to speak some truth to those in power—hopefully someone is still listening.

An old-fashioned ass-whooping, in Chicago

My level of interest in professional sports is about 25 percent of what it used to be. While I respect the abilities of players who are good enough to reach the pinnacle of their sports, the corporate co-option of so much of sports leaves me disinterested and apathetic.
Looking back on how much energy I invested in caring whether some anonymous group of players won or lost makes me wonder what was lacking in my life at that point. Recognizing how we’ve shifted our focus from local sports to the national level, also bothers me, having studied this phenomenon rather extensively over the past year.

Having said that, I do find myself mildly interested in the fate of the Red Sox, mostly for my own selfish reasons. I figure that if the Red Sox can make another heroic late season run for post-season posterity, then baseball will remain on people’s minds. If baseball stays on the minds of book buyers, then maybe I can squeeze out a few more sales of When Towns Had Teams.

I watched the early innings of yesterday’s debacle in Chicago, versus the White Sox. As a former resident of northwest Indiana, I made several forays into Chicago, including visiting the former Comiskey Park (the new one). It’s an ugly, extremely fan unfriendly structure, with lousy sitelines and at the time, rude staff. Maybe things are better. I do know that it is located in a South Side neighborhood that most people whisk by with windows rolled up and doors locked (sort of like parts of Worcester).

I am amazed that a big league pitcher such as Matt Clement, can look so awful. I don’t think he’s been right since he took a 95 mph line drive off his coconut. Pitchers that have been hit by line drives haven’t fared particularly well (I was in attendance the night Bryce Florie got smoked). What I was troubled about was Terry Francona’s inability to recognize Clement’s lack of command (or anything else) and remove him. Maybe he was too busy focusing on his between-innings banter for ESPN; I’m sorry, but even managing in the Twilight League in Portland, I don’t want anyone talking to me between innings. I can’t imagine that a big league manager would comply with this request. Just another reason why I’ve come to despise corporate sports.

Support your local downtown

Whenever I travel outside of my own parochial parameters of place, I try to see as much of a new area as possible. Regardless of where one goes, it takes effort to get away from the strip malls, shopping complexes and chain stores and visit the actual places where local people live, work and congregate.

Yesterday, my wife and I traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts, to watch our son participate in a fall baseball game, against the home Holy Cross Crusaders. If you’ve never been to Worcester, it is typical of many former industrial and manufacturing hubs scattered across the New England landscape. With the loss of the manufacturing sector and jobs that supported a former functioning working class, the last two decades have been especially tough.

I’ve heard the comments about Worcester before—“be careful where you go,” or like I heard yesterday from a parent of one of Mark’s teammates, referring to the nearby area as a “rough part of town.” Well, Mary and I drove through some of the “rougher” parts of Worcester, near Federal Square and in the area near Clark University. These areas are “rough” or better, rundown, because any semblance of a local economy has been stripped away by jobs shipped overseas, or the trend towards white flight and urban sprawl that was common during the 1970’s and 1980’s, as businesses vacated downtown for suburban shopping centers and malls. This all adds up to a recipe that leaves the urban center neglected and decaying. As convenient as it is for some to blame the residents that inhabit this urban core, it has more to do with the attitudes of members of the business community and others who could make a positive difference. Even the local visitor’s bureau website seems bent upon keeping folks away from the downtown area.

While it is all too easy to whisk by these areas with the windows up and the doors locked on one’s Lexus, Jaguar, or BMW, Mary and I drove through town in our Toyota Corolla with the windows down and our eyes wide open. Yes, much of the area that we drove through was populated by non-Caucasian individuals, but I’m always curious why that elicits such fear in others? Have we not risen above the level of being able to appreciate someone for who they are versus the color of their skin? Quite honestly, I don’t think so.

I particularly was struck by some of the wonderful architecture and some of the older homes that we drove past. Some of them seemed to have had better days, but I saw so much potential in and around the city center of Worcester that I wondered why it has such an unseemly reputation? Did you know it is the third largest city in New England?

While our lack of time prevented us from getting out and walking around, we did see the Worcester African Culture Center and some neat little local markets and bodegas that I’m sure had some great culinary treasures inside. Just about a ½ mile form Fitton Park, where the day’s games were to be played, Mary and I found Culpepper’s Bakery and Cafe, a local eatery and bakery with pastries and other decadent treats to die for. Located at 500 Cambridge Street, an easy exit from I-290, it’s definitely worth a visit. While I didn’t have a hankering for a full breakfast, I noticed an abundance of $2.99 specials on the board.

I’m sure there are those who grow tired of my cheerleading for the home team/local economy, but I don’t think our economic long-term is served by our current fixation for lower prices and supposed convenience. At some point, the lack of sustainable options is going to jump up and bite us squarely in the hindquarters.

If anyone cares to read more on the issue of inner city poverty and the factors associated with the phenomenom, I dredged up this document from a conference held back in 2001, in Massachesetts. The speaker, David Rusk, is speaking about many of the issues I raised regarding my visit to Worcester.