Re: Remailers/PayPhones and Today's NYT

["George A. Gleason" <gg@well.sf.ca.us>]

Citizens lobbying for removal of payphones in their neighborhoods sounds
like more of the same old "fix a cut toe by chopping off the foot" syndrome.
People have to be pretty desperate to go that far.  Next step: remove indoor
plumbing because some dope dealers flush their stuff when the cops come to
the door.  Gee, how about tatooed ID on the wrists, eh?  

Drug dealers and violence: now there's a decent issue.  And of course the
idea of removing the *guns* won't go anywhere, but since there isn't a
National Payphone Association, taking away the phones is easier politically.
On the other hand, a lot of parents have themselves to blame for letting
their little kiddies play with toy guns and watch violent BS on TV.
Training, as it were.

Alderman Payphone Permit: is probably also violating FCC rules there; a
decent Federal case could be made.  Too many phones?  Hey, what about the
number of places where one can purchase alcohol?  Here in the Bay Area,
they're starting to crack down on liquor stores, since these seem to attract
a lot of nastiness also.   That seems more reasonable, given that 50% of
homicides and suicides involve alcohol.  

Baddies in Cyberspace: oh, as soon as they get Cellular Modems, you can bet
they will.  

Back to race & class.  Take a look at what has happened to the urban
ghettoes over the last 10 years.  If you look at drug abuse as
self-medication (which has been well demonstrated), what we see is an
incredible number of people in intolerable pain in their daily lives.
Reduce the pain with jobs, decent places to live, and some sense of
opportunity, and drugs will have far less attraction.  I'll never forget the
woman who was interviewed locally on the radio; saying, essentially, "we
have nothing at all, no hope of anything better, and every day is a
desperate scramble to survive; when I do a hit of dope it's like I've eaten
a meal, had a bowel movement, made love, and taken a nap all at once."
Sounds like hyperbole until you see the numbers, that something like half of
black children don't get three meals a day, and over half of black families
can't afford rent *and* food every month.  When you're dying slowly anyway,
shaving off a few more years with a dope habit is a bargain if those
remaining years hurt a little bit less.  *We are developing a serious
underclass in this country,* have been for ten years now.  Take a look at
any 3d world city; look back at the slums here, it all looks the same.
Punishing these people even more by taking away one after another of the
amenities of civilisation can only make it worse over the long run.  People
are very obliging; if they're treated like animals, they respond
accordingly.

-gg