Al Giordano, via Facebook:
Having spent a quarter century working to free nonviolent drug offenders from prison, I have something to say right now. It’s controversial still today, but it was radical heresy to suggest in the eighties to liberate people who have been demonized by the media as criminals and somehow dangerous. Obama’s pardon of eight such prisoners yesterday is a case in point and should be a teaching moment for anybody who wants to affect real change.
To say, “Oh, it’s only eight, he should have released all tens of thousands of them” is trademark “Eeyore Activism” (the syndrome in which any one step toward progress is never enough, in which some even express anger at the person who made that step). As one with scar tissue upon scar tissue from the slings and arrows of having fought to end all imprisonment for drug crimes for so long, I see it as a watershed moment. It “normalizes” the concept for public opinion, opening the door for the rest of us to organize to free the rest.
Can you imagine the media shit storm if all tens of thousands were released on the same day before public opinion was ready to embrace it, the media witch hunt sensationalizing any error made by any single one of them after release, the blowback and subsequent retreat setting back our cause another 20 years? Every long march happens one step at a time. A step in the right direction should always be applauded and encouraged. In fact that’s the only thing in history that has ever paved the way for the second step to be taken, something the Eeyores would do well to study and understand better…
I really have nothing to add.
Back in the late 70’s, until Reagan came into office and the state stopped the program, I used to teach college level courses at Greenhaven, a Maximum Security prison in NY.
The people who went through that program, and got Bachelors, BA’s or BS’s, or even Masters, had remarkably low rates of recidivism. And a lot of them were the people trapped in the draconian “Rockefeller Drug Laws” – which a lot of the rest of the country decided to copy. Stupid.
And even though there are probably hundred’s of thousands, if not millions, of people incarcerated in prison in our stupid, expensive, and wasteful “War on Drugs” (more like a “War on Young Minority Members”), and would like to see them free, I can see his point.
There has to be a plan for each one of them. You don’t release the long-term prisoners without making sure there is some sort of a support system – whether that’s family, church, or the government.
I very much agree with your last.
It’s vital to assist these half-way style programs. There was some really good work being done in a few states with new or modified approaches (Michigan is one I recall reading about) but the recession forced the closure or reduction of many.
“there has to be a plan for each one of them…”
Once convicted, they are branded for life, we really ought to put a big scarlet F on their forehead.
From now on, they must be forever controlled, monitored, identified, tracked. They are, now, the “usual suspects” to be rounded up. No voting. Restricted employment. Dangerous. Check the box.
Never mind that they were just the ones who got caught, and were unlucky, got convicted in the lottery of the law. Others who did the same things… you never hear about them, but they are all around you, free and unbranded.
The first step may pave the way for the second, but without the Eeyeore Activists, it might never be taken.
If the Eeyore Activists want to believe that then they are welcome to do so.
Good stuff. Wish Al still made his thoughts available to non-Facebookers.
He closed down his website?
Al’s last post was on Mandela dated December 6 and has something to add to this post…..
“A step in the right direction should always be applauded and encouraged. In fact that’s the only thing in history that has ever paved the way for the second step to be taken, something the Eeyores would do well to study and understand better…”
Applause and encouragement is the only thing in history that ever paved the way for progress? Is this true? Did the Civil Rights movement applaud every gain, or did they take it and demand more? Did Mandela? Did the Suffragettes and Suffragists?
This strikes me as very nicely encapsulating the difference between right-wing and left-wing activism. We greet partial victories with dances in the end zone. The right greets partial victories by moving the goal posts and going into overtime for seven decades.
Dayenu Activism is in our DNA. Why fight for single-payer when we don’t have the votes? It’s a waste of time. The public option is enough. Why fight for the public option when we don’t have the votes? A Romney-esque plan is enough. Why not plant a flag in a Romney-esque plan as a BFD and major victory? It’s enough, it’s enough, dayenu, it’s enough.
Great
and Eeyore activism is a great term. Seems clear he doesn’t mean those who push for Step2, rather residents of Eeyore’s Gloomy Place which is Rather Boggy and Sad
comment was supposed to be general, not a reply to steggles.
anyone else having trouble posting? screen goes blank when trying to post, for example?
With all due respect, Steggles, you apparently have never been part of a boots on the ground union organizing drive in the Deep South.
One step at a time is the only way to MAYBE not get people killed …. ACTUAL DEAD, not ValleyGirl hyperole.
“We greet partial victories with dances in the end zone. The right greets partial victories by moving the goal posts and going into overtime for seven decades.”
Let me point out something to Steggles and the many others who share this view. Yes, the right greets victories by moving the goalposts. But you know something the right does at the same time? Celebrate their policy victories as bringing them one step closer to their goal.
Current example: the forced birth fanatics in Texas are dying to see Roe v. Wade overturned. This year, their Legislature regulated the vast majority of facilities who provided abortion services out of business. Did the fanatics’ organizations spit on the ground and say, “SO WHAT BABIES ARE DYING EVERY DAY GET THESE BABY-KILLING REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE AND REPLACE THEM WITH PEOPLE WHO WILL STOP THE KILLING TOMORROW”? No, I didn’t see that. They supported, and continue to support, their Legislators who voted for these regulations, and don’t talk s*** about them or their supporters.
Current alternative: on a fairly consistent basis, polls show about 15% of Americans say that they are in opposition to the Affordable Care Act because they think the law should have created a single-payer system or other options which are MORE liberal than the ACA. On a fairly consistent basis, polls show about 55% of Americans oppose the ACA. So, a minority of Americans oppose these reforms from the right, but because tens of millions of Americans are unwilling to wrap their minds around the idea that it is possible to desperately want a single-payer system AND support ACA reforms that regulate private insurance much more heavily, vastly expand Medicaid eligibility for the poor, and provide financial assistance to middle-class Americans so that they may more easily purchase private insurance, we have to hear every single day about the “unpopularity” of the ACA.
Yes, part of that is a media problem. But, to borrow from Al, part of that is an Eeyore problem.
if so, why release any? because even if just a single pardon were granted, any error would set off an immediate media and political shit storm, especially against this president. i can see the hit pieces already: “obama sez willie horton could’ve been my son” …
so i don’t think folks should squelch their demands for more progress on fox news’ account. as they say, “haterz gonna hate …”
Which is the problem with most professional Democrats. Just look at Shirley Sherrod.
Why are some people acting as if Giordano said we should be satisfied with this step and not push for more? He didn’t say that.
He was talking about people who look at what was done, either in this case or others, and dismiss it as basically meaningless because it didn’t go far enough.
By dismissing it, it actually increases the likelihood of nothing more happening. By cheering it, even while acknowledging it is just a first step and more needs to be done, the probably of a second step being taken is much higher.
“Why are some people acting as if Giordano said we should be satisfied with this step and not push for more?”
Maybe because he positions himself in explicit opposition to people who are suffering from a “syndrome in which any one step toward progress is never enough.”
Obviously, everyone on our side thinks we should push for Step Two, even him, and even the people he insults as cartoon depressives. The only disagreement is how to best do that. He thinks that celebrating baby steps is wise–maybe necessary. Others think that when given an inch, the wisest approach is to demand a mile. And when given a mile, demand another. That’s a genuine strategic disagreement, not reason for smug dismissal.
He also can’t think of a number between 8 and 20,000.
No, he was talking about people who are dismissive of any gain, as if the gain had no meaning.
Maybe this will be like the president coming out to say his view on gay marriage has been evolving, and he is now for it. And, boom, it seemed like something very critical changed in that moment.
I hope this can be the catalyst that allows our country to really address this issue.
Given the fact that I had heard no criticism of the pardons (except that it came on the same day that President Obama told a tech CEO that he could not pardon Edward Snowden–true politically but not legally), Giordano’s gratuitous slam at Eeyore activists is a bit of a surprise and sorta like the Jesse Helms’s sucker punches before he went off and did something really offensive. Not making that slam at all would have put his point across clearer.
Besides, Eeyore is a fundamentally sympathetic character. And a donkey.
Sorry, Tarheel, it seems you and I are destined to see the glass half full and half empty, respectively, in perpetuity.
In another twenty years, you will likely change.
Nah, I think Booman is on a transcendent path. He will become aware that the glass is completely full, half with water, half with air.
I like that. Other option: the glass is too big
He can’t pardon Snowden as Snowden has not been convicted of any crime, yet, even though he in all likelihood did commit some.
Presidents have issued pre-emptive pardons before. It is not at all unprecedented. And the issue came up because there are a lot of folks in the tech world who think that hitting Snowden with a 100-year-old espionage law that has been rarely used was prosecutorial overkill. Many people draw the parallel with Daniel Ellsberg. And at last report the US public was not considered an enemy of the state.
Also, the actions to force Snowden to remain in Russia are contrary to international law. And the aggressiveness with which they were pursued was unprecedented.
Look at the context:
A Facebook post by a guy who doesn’t just write about drug war issues occasionally but for whom the drug war is the main scope of his journalism.
Chances are good he is hearing and reading criticism from people we don’t even know about.
For those not familiar with Al Giordano, many us got acquainted with him during the 2008 election and his demographic analysis of primaries and general elections.
His main base though for years has been a website called Narco News. He has covered the “War on Drugs” from a perspective close to Latin America. (He also lives in central America I believe.) He supports and is constantly referring to many Latino journalists the likes of whom most of us never hear about outside his blog, The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
He lives in Mexico. Mexico City, I believe.
The link doesn’t work for me.