From: wbrown@access.digex.com (William Brown)
Subject: Re: Spike Lee
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 14:01:11 GMT

Stromer,
    That was a VERY thoughtful and well-appreciated reply to my questions.
 Thank you.  You have helped ME to understand a little more.  But of
course, I have several points (don't I always?) :)

    I don't think Rev. King, Jr. has ever lost popularity with the Black
community.  I think the American media portrays King and Malcolm X as
mutually exclusive.  They are not.  They are variations on a theme -
liberation of a people.

   Now, I am fully aware that King stood for more than that.  His beliefs
stemmed from Ghandi's non-violent movement.  Malcolm's obviously did NOT. 
One can even argue that King really stood for non-violence, as opposed to
simply Black liberation.  (And for the record, it is my opinion that the
following argument is true - non-violence was King's message in my
opinion, NOT liberation. [Although one should follow from the other.]) 
But I believe today's younger Black generation, at least on the East Coast
and Southern California) believe in a hybrid of those movements.  The
hydrid sounds something like,  "Please show no violence towards me, either
physically or economically (from King) but if you DO, I will fight you by
any means necessary (from X)."
   Does this technically violate the foundation of the King philosophy? 
Wellll... Yes.  On the other hand, the liberation movement is stronger
than the individual philosophies from whence it developed.  And by
defination the liberation's philosophy today is defined by those fighting for
liberation today. 

   I really should have started a new thread...

    One other point.  I don't believe drugs should be legalized for the
following reason.  Drugs kill people, whether legal or illegal.  Alcohol
has proven that.  Although this country buckled under and repealled
Prohibition, every year proportionately many more people die from drunk
drivers than the number of people who died in the violence associated
with prohibition. This doesn't even include the tremendous social damage
caused by alcoholism.  For the same reason I believe guns should just be
flat out removed from this country in their entirety.  As a Guardsman, I
obviously fire weapons.  Let me tell you, there is NO PLACE, NO REASON, NO
JUSTIFICATION for a .45 in a civilian society.  It just kills me to see
the heroes on television take a bullet and same, "Oh, it's just a surface
wound - I'm O.K." and get up and run on the same leg that was just shot. 
Do you know what an exit wound for a .45 looks like?  It's HUGE.  You can
drive a TRUCK through it!  I wish they would show the REAL sequelae to
being shot - it would scare the living daylights out of people who
otherwise would think "Oh, if I get hit it will probably be a surface
wound, I'll survive.."

   No you won't.

   Of course gun control is a limitation of rights.  Then again, DEATH is
much stronger limitattion.  The patients I see may never get a chance to
ponder their mistakes.  It's hard to ponder your mistakes when you're
going into shock.  And most of the victims are young, younger than me.  I
often wish that young Black males could magically skip the ages of 16 to
26 in this city.  If they can only survive until then, they'll be okay. 
But every time I go to the Office of the Medical Examiner, I see someone
who looks just like a younger me, usually several people, with more
bullets than you can count in them. 

  Words begin to fail you.

   Gun control will not stop people from being violent - but it will
drastically DECREASE the amount of damage they can easily do when they are
violent.  And I would be very happy to settle for that.  That alone will
save lives.  It's the same theory behind the arms reductions - the basic
ideological differences were not even brought up.  The only issue being
addressed was "if we must fight, let it be at a litlle lower cost to both
of us."  I think the same argument can be applied to gun control.

   Most of our murders are drug related.  I know that legalizing drugs
will almost immediately stop the majority of these murders.  I know
that.  I also know that the pathology will then switch over to the
high drivers, the addicted parents, the fractured familes.  You simply
trade one type of evil for another.  We did it with alcohol.  We will
do it with drugs.

   If I removed all of the patients I've
seen with severe medical problems related to either guns, drugs, or
alcohol, I would be unemployed. 


    Under those circumstances, I'd LIKE to be unemployed.


Peace.


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