American Gulag incompatible with Democracy

             " Criminal Population in U.S. at 6.6 Million " reports

    a front page AP story ( August 26 ) .

              While he was Attorney General of the United States, when

    he had become highly sensitized to outrageous social injustice, Robert

    Kennedy's favorite word was UNACCEPTABLE , I read somewhere.

                 I hope that spirit of moral outrage did not die with

    the unforgettable 60s, with the remarkable individuals who - like

    Kennedy - symbolized a passion for a better world.

                  For some Americans JUSTICE is still a passion , not a

    phony cliche. And there is something very, very wrong with the JUSTICE

    system that makes criminals out of so many of the population. And it

    is mostly the poor - the poorest of the poor - who are consigned to

    the hopelessness of the American Gulag.

          6.6  million souls in jail is  UNACCEPTABLE in America of all

    countries -  where FREEDOM shines.

                We cannot begin to change things as long as decent people

    cling to the myth of equal opportunity. Millions of people inherit

    poverty just as surely as a privileged minority inherits vast wealth.

                The Law studiously  avoids the CLASS issue - right where

    it explains just about everything.

              Poor kids are not stupid about the fundamentals of the

    social order. Very early in life they must experience a certain

    RATIONAL despair about their prospects in life.

                  And that is one reason to legalize drugs: at least they

    kill the pain. Walking up Cranston  St. in Providence Rhode Island, I

    am reminded of scenes out of " Manchild in the Promised Land " by

    Claude Brown. " Better to have sweet narcotic inspired dreams than

    to be stuck in this neighborhood ", I reflect.

                Dreams today but  THE FIRE THE NEXT TIME ! When will

    it all explode ?