May 16, 2009

Oba-blowing-it

Believe it or not, back in 1969, Nixon did something right.
He didn't just launch the fiasco of the ‘War on Drugs,’ he started a treatment-in-lieu-of-prison option for those who were caught using drugs [though not those who sold them]. And he gave the treatment programs wide latitude to develop their own approaches to the ‘problem’.
The fact that he probably added the treatment option because, for the first time, lots of middle-class kids were running into the drug culture doesn’t change the fact that the funding of the treatment option did a lot of good. How much good depended, of course, on the effectiveness of the respective programs.

In 1972, I voluntarily entered one such program called Renaissance West [Rennis]. It was a ‘year-long’ program [people could graduate successfully anywhere from 6 to 18 months after entering—as assessed by the individual, the staff and the ‘family members’ within the program]. And the focus was not on drug use.
Instead, it concentrated on the fact that the lives of clients involved in the live-in, commune-like program were out of control and they had engaged in a form of self-medication in order to make their lives tolerable.
In-depth therapy was practiced and, in fact, the entire program, from house cleaning to meals to the development of personal support systems to the group therapy sessions themselves were used to address the issue of building more effective lives for ourselves.

A learning center was included and clients who wished to do so could pursue any courses of study they chose. I picked classes on astrology, creative writing and psychology. A student from the University of Missouri at Kansas City taught several pupils in the writing course and a professor taught the psychology class in which I was the only student.
After I graduated from Rennis, I wanted to go back to college. I had flunked out twice before and when I applied, UMKC refused me entry. I solicited letters of recommendation from the directors of the program and that psychology professor who had been teaching me for the last several months. In fact, I wrote the letters and they signed them. Based on those letters, I was accepted on probation.
I was the first graduate from Rennis to enter college and I felt the full weight resting on my shoulders. If I didn’t succeed it would reflect badly on the program and on the people who had helped me get in. I HAD to do well.
xxx
During the course of our history, if a White president did a bad job, he was judged as an individual. The next person we elected was also a White Male—because that’s just what we did.
But, things are different now. For the first time, we have departed from our standard operating procedure. We have elected a type of person who is ‘different’ from our norm. [No, he’s not really different, but he is perceived as different—and that’s what matters.]
Odds are, we wouldn’t have done this if Bush/Cheney had been even remotely competent. They weren’t and, as a result, the people of this country, collectively, made history.

And Obama is in exactly the same position I was in in 1973 when I walked into my first class at UMKC. If I did well, I opened the door for other clients of Renaissance West. If I did poorly, I slammed that door in their faces. It was that simple.

Obama is what? 48 years old? I was only 25 and I recognized the fact people who I might never meet but who might attempt to follow me from Rennis to college could be adversely affected by my actions.
Doesn’t Obama realize the plain reality that, if he keeps flip-flopping, reneging on his promises, alienating the people who elected him, screwing up generally, he will close the door of the Oval Office to any person who follows him who is not a White Male?
xxx
Update:
OK. Maybe it's not so bad.
I know I'm flip-flopping myself—in fact, I'm starting to experience whiplash.

Today I saw a clip of Obama's press release during which he said he will fight the publishing of the torture photos. I hadn't, before, heard the argument that releasing them might hamper future investigations of the torture and the people who instigated it as well as those who carried it out.

OK, then. That's an argument I can understand and believe in. If they might drive the whistle blowers back into the closet—keep the pics close to your vest. So long as the reason for withholding them isn't to keep the torture as secret as it still can be kept, I'm OK with that.

I just wish he had thought this argument through before he made the initial announcement that he would release them. If he keeps doing these switch-backs he'll do neither the nation nor himself any good.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I am quite sick and tired of Obama and his minions. It bothers me because he hasn't even been in the oval office for 6 freaking months yet.

I try to relax and calm down...but hell, the next day or week..he flips,or just changes his mind again.

Good post..and it would be hard to do what you did..in both instances. Good for you. ;)

two crows said...

thanx, Dusty,
the program was a toughie, and it saved my life--literally.

meanwhile, I just wish the O would figure out what he owes us AND all the people who are not White Males and pursue the gold ring in the future.

so, do the RIGHT thing-- not the expedient one, goddam it!

jmsjoin said...

Congratulations two crows, I guess non of us took the easy road. I am afraid I am very disappointed with Obama. I knew nothing would change with the so called war on terror but it is a disappointment to see him as a Bush 3rd term. Yesterday Republicans welcomed him aboard.

two crows said...

omg, Jim!
I hadn't heard about that!
Where did you see it?

And to think I wrote all those posts about McSame.
Who knew we would get Obsame?

Well, Mary Ellen of Divine Democrat knew. And she warned us. And got a lot of grief for it. She's no longer blogging these days.

I'm sure she would rather have been wrong. But it seems she wasn't.

jmsjoin said...

That was me two crows. Now the tribunals are back, 80 more Billion for 4 more months of war, changed his mind on the torture tapes, Gitmo, warrant-less wiretapping, what the is next?

two crows said...

hey again, Jim--
where did you hear that the repubs welcomed O? radio, tv, newspaper? and what program or paper did you see it in?
I've got to find it!

jmsjoin said...

Hi two crows
I was watching hard ball last night and the Republican who usually derides him said the party is welcoming him aboard.

two crows said...

thanks for getting back to me, Jim.
I'll see if I can access that show online.

Matthew | Loving Awareness said...

Howard Zinn wrote a nice piece recently on Obama in the progressive. It basically says that yes, he sort of likes Obama but that he is a politician. He's totally a politician.

It's amazing how we expect politicians to not behave like politicians after they're elected!

two crows said...

hi, Matthew--
yeah, you're right.
still, I know I'm naive but I kind of expect them to act like human beings, too.

like, put themselves in the shoes of someone being tortured and figure out what they would want done in that scenario.

and, stop and think about their actions before doing them. that way they don't have to recant and give the goppers something to foment about.

**sigh**
I guess it's a good thing I'm not a politician.