America, America, God mend thine every flaw; Confirm thy soul in brotherhood, thy liberty in law . . . from 'O Beautiful for Spacious Skies'

AMERICA'S
`Drum major` for justice

King   the Man of God

Though African Americans make up 13 per cent of the nation's regular drug users, they represent 35 per cent of narcotics arrests, 55 per cent of convictions and 74 per cent of those receiving prison sentences, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group that lobbies for alternatives to prison. And the vast majority of these largely non-violent offenders, are male.

Why the harsher treatment of blacks? For one thing, under federal law, it takes 100 times as much powdered cocaine as crack to land you behind bars. There is a built-in discrimination against urban substance abusers, regardless of gender, and a built-in lighter treatment of suburban ones. To put it even plainer, whites tend to get off easy, while black and brown men get the book thrown at them.

Far worse, perhaps, than the horrible loss in terms of wasted lives and thwarted contributions of the imprisoned males, is the potential loss in the next generation. Why the continued assault on the black male? Is society afraid of his true potential?

It is now a fairly strongly established sociological fact that a host of social problems in America can be directly traced back to fatherless homes. Never before in America's history have all races, but especially African Americans, suffered such an epidemic of an absence of fathers.

Morever, the general public seems to be ahead of the experts in realizing this. A 1996 Gallup poll revealed that 79% of all Americans agree with this statement: "The most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home." 91% said that "It is important for children to live in a home with both their mother and father."

And yet, half of America�s children live apart from one or both of their parents. In the black community of the inner cities, the proportion has reached stratsopheric levels.

It is almost as if there is a deliberate and malicious and systematic attack upon inner-city black and brown males in our country.

A study conducted in Tallahassee showed that lengthy jail and prison sentences of convicted males, rather than improving conditions in their neighborhoods, actually made them worse. Younger males, absent the restraining influence of older, though imperfect males in the family and community, turned at increasingly younger ages to crime, and resorted to increasingly more violent behavior patterns. "Zero tolerance," in this case at least, was a terrible mistake.

Older males had by and large been convicted for non-violent, that is, for low-level drug offenses. However, the younger males turned more and more, without their older role models and male authority figures around to restrain them, increasingly to ever wilder and ever more senseless violence.

Society has an obligation, not simply for altruistic or moral reasons, but out of its own self-interest, to address these issues honestly. The highly respected economist Glenn Loury (often called Conservative) writes that we are wrong "to simply incant the 'personal responsibility' mantra, if [we] are not also prepared to help people who so desperately need to be helped."

"'Those people' languishing in drug infested, economically depressed, crime ridden central cities -- those people are OUR people. We must be in relationship with them. The point here transcends politics and policy. The necessity of being engaged with the least among us is a moral responsibility. We Americans cannot live up to our self-image as a 'city on a hill,' a beacon of freedom and hope for all the world, if we fail this test."

It is time, once again, to

Let Freedom RING

Innocent men slated to Die Wrong Men on Death Row

Scandal and Controversy: Mumia death sentence COMMUTED

American Justice Gone Amok Lawless Lawmen

Lopsided injustice Disproportionality in sentencing along Racial lines

So who are the natural Bad-boys? More whites use drugs, More Blacks in prison

Skewed Sentencing Stark Race disparities in drug incarceration

Resources, Penpals, Advocacy Prisoners & the Justice System

with credit to NOI

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

We Need Our

Families Whole

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Bought with the Blood of heroes the freedoms we enjoy by Gen. Powell
Pursuing justice and values: Powell addresses Republican Convention

Colin Luther Powell
Integity - Loyalty - Stature

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One Blood G Praxeis Apostolon Epoiesen te ex enos haimatos pan ethnos anthropon God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth -Acts 17 v26-

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RobtShepherd, the author of this page, is a Chrisian, an American, and committed to the cause
of justice and peace for which Martin Luther King lived his life, and for which he gave his life.

"I don�t speak about affirmative action from an academic sense. I speak about it from experience�E I didn�t do it alone�E There are those who say that all you need is to climb up on your bootstraps, but there are too many Americans who don�t have boots, much less bootstraps. And so, Colin Powell, he believes in affirmative action. I believe it has been good for America." -General Colin Powell, May 25, 1996

Anthem for

the christchild