Occupy Brain Cells

Legislating in the streets

It is a complex world in which we live. We’re sure we know what we want, our grand vision. Social activists protest, lobby, and press. The President wields his pen and his phone. Legislators legislate. Bureaucrats regulate. The politically correct cudgel us into their approved mindsets. Humiliation is used as a weapon to ensure lock-step thinking. Yes, we are a happy people, all happy together, thinking our approved, happy thoughts.

But sometimes this man-made nirvana falls short. Here are a few examples.

The Cecil Effect

You may recall Walter Palmer, the dentist who shot Cecil the lion. The outcry was enormous, Palmer thoroughly villainized, and trophy hunting put into the shame locker. All as it should be, you might observe.

Except that it’s not.

On February 23, the Los Angeles Daily News published a piece entitled “Why the Cecil effect is bad news.” Apparently trophy hunting has dropped sharply in Africa. The Bubye Valley Conservancy, a huge wildlife reserve in Zimbabwe, is reporting a sharp overpopulation of lions.

According to the article, “Bubye Valley Conservancy has more than 500 lions, and they may have to cull 200 in order to reach a level that is sustainable.” (To those not in the know, a cull is a selective slaughter).

The other animals in the conservancy are suffering as a result. Hungry lions are “eating up way too many antelope, giraffe, cheetah, leopards and wild dogs.”

It is also reported that villagers who had relied on the hunters’ trade are sinking deeper into poverty.

This is a perfect example of an unintended consequence. Activists and lobbyists and shamers were quick to jump on Dr. Palmer in particular and trophy hunting in general with no thought of the predictable outcome.

That’s a good start… here’s another one closer to home.

Legalized Marijuana and Heroin Deaths

There has been a sea change in how marijuana is viewed in our nation.  According to Governing Magazine, “Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form.”

One of those states is Massachusetts, where medical marijuana has been legalized and personal use decriminalized. This is the right thing to do from a classic libertarian point of view. But perhaps not without consequences.

While the pot smokers are happy, there has been a disturbing, and very deadly, increase in deaths from opioid overdoses. (This includes heroin and painkillers).

For Massachusetts, according to Masslive, “the number of confirmed cases of unintentional opioid overdose deaths for 2014 was 1,089 – a 63 percent increase from the 668 deaths in 2012, and a 20 percent increase over the 911 cases in 2013.”

It’s not just a local issue. The Boston Globe tells us that “nationally, 125 people a day die from overdosing on heroin and painkillers.” That’s over 45,000 deaths per year, about the same as automobile deaths and gun homicides combined. Where is this plague coming from?

The Washington Post has a clue. In a January 11^th article, they tell us “Mexican traffickers are sending a flood of cheap heroin and methamphetamine across the U.S. border, the latest drug seizure statistics show, in a new sign that America’s marijuana decriminalization trend is upending the North American narcotics trade.”

We shouldn’t have been surprised by the outcome of legalizing weed. It was perfectly predictable, and could have been accompanied by mitigating actions with only a little foresight. (For instance, the Swiss drug policy model, which offers free, safe opioid substitutes to addicts).

Alright, time for just one more.

Shootings double in Chicago

The Chicago Tribune reported just a few weeks ago that the homicide rate in Chicago has doubled compared to a year ago.

In Chicago, “The city has recorded at least 95 homicides since the first of the year, compared to 47 last year, according to data kept by the Tribune. The city has also more than doubled the amount of people shot - about 420 this year compared to 193 last year.”

What is happening?

One theory is this – police are pulling back. They have reportedly seized far fewer illegal guns so far this year as compared to last. “Evidence of a pullback starts with an 80 percent decrease in the number of street stops that the officers have made since the first of the year.”

Again, it is not entirely a surprise that if we vilify our police, they may feel less anxious to put their lives and careers on the line for us.

We have now seen several instances of social or public policy which seem to have backfired. What is the common theme here? One is the preeminence of emotion over logic. Public policy should be carefully based on reason and fact, not on feelings and sentiments. We are far too often tempted by emotion – but should always pause and calculate.

Better public policy is possible. Perhaps, one day, when the computers are in charge…

These kids deserve far better

Pathways to Education Graduates - Celebrating

Attleboro, Massachusetts, and Uniondale, New York, have something in common. Both are safe, with annual crime rates around 3.5 per thousand residents.

Uniondale, situated on Long Island near New York City, is home to many successful middle class families. Of the households with children, 73% are headed by married couples. The poverty rate is about 6%  and average household income is over $70,000.

Attleboro, quite similarly, has  67% of households with children headed by married couples and an average household income of about $64,000. The poverty rate is below 7%.

Attleboro and Uniondale are remarkably alike in important ways: low crime rate, solid average income, low poverty rate, and a high percentage of children living in married households.

But while Attleboro is predominantly white, Uniondale is  one of the most successful majority black communities in the nation.

Contrast this to Chicago, a majority minority city, where the annual crime rate is over 10 per thousand, more than three times higher than Uniondale. The average household income is $47,000 and nearly 30% of its residents live in poverty.  And those are the averages. For many, it is much worse.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the poverty rate for female-headed households soars to 40%, and over half of the city’s children live in such households.

What is the social cost arising from the cauldron of Chicago’s streets?

In the days since the lamentable events of Ferguson, nearly 200 victims have been shot and killed in Chicago, almost 800 wounded. Seventy five percent of these victims are black, as were the great majority of shooters.

For the year to date, 362 poor souls shot and killed, 2,484 wounded. There is a war going on in Chicago that rivals  our losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. And when you add in Detroit, and Boston, and Los Angeles, and Washington DC, and Miami, the statistics are truly staggering.

Activists, academics, and protestors (ably abetted by the media) have stoked the narrative that there is a war on blacks being waged by police. There is indeed a war being waged on blacks, but it is being prosecuted within their own communities. The greatest danger to a young black male in Chicago is another young black male. While this may be an uncomfortable concept, it is a truth revealed in Department of Justice statistics.

Imagine being a young urban black child, where every outing risks a credible threat of death or serious injury. Imagine the effect on his or her psyche, the damage it causes. The social costs are enormous, the moral stain on us for not responding is shameful. How can our leaders, political and activist, not speak out?

Some are responding.

Carolyn Acker, then the Director of the Regents Park Community Health Center, saw that the children of the neighborhood were its future. They would become its doctors and nurses, administrators and lawyers. But to do so, they would need an education, and the dropout rate in the community was an abysmal 56%.

She collaborated with others to create a program called Pathways to Education in 2001. Soon after Pathways went into action, the dropout rate began to drop – to 10%. This was an enormous success. The Pathways program has been replicated to several other communities with similar results.

How does Pathways operate? It is based on four pillars: counseling, academic, social, and financial.

For counseling, each student who signs up is assigned a counselor. The counselor regularly checks in with the student to see how they are doing. The counselor maintains high expectations and provides the student with encouragement and suggestions for achievement.

In the academic arena, tutors are provided and sessions are mandatory unless the student maintains a grade average above 70%.

The social aspect consists of regular activities with peers where students get to interact socially with other like-minded, academically achieving kids. They will have fun, learn new skills, and develop hobbies in a nurturing environment.

The final pillar is financial, in which students are given financial aid for public transportation. To the kids, it is a big deal to be able to ride the bus to school. But if their grades don’t stay up, or if they skip school, the aid is incrementally reduced.

The students participating in this program are amazingly successful compared to their cohort. They are graduating high school, going to college, and getting good jobs.

Pathways is a great success, albeit an expensive one.

But let’s stop and think a moment. Imagine a child in Uniondale growing up in a household with a caring mother and father. She would be counseled to succeed and expectations would be high. Her parents would assist academically, sitting down to help with homework. She would be enrolled in sporting teams, school band, church choir, and other social activities. And her parent would certainly support her financially.

Pathways works because it operates in place of the family, filling the role of the parents.

Here’s our call to action. Our policies and programs, designed to help and with all the best intentions, have devastated the black family. It is time to think constructively, with open, honest debate and determination to find a better way.

These kids deserve far better. To fail them is a sin.