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.