[Peace-discuss] Forgiveness Weekend program schedule

[C. G. Estabrook]

What, specifically, is the disenfranchisement of felons that this
conference seeks to end?  In Illinois, strictly speaking, there isn't any:
the franchise (right to vote) is restored to felons who have completed
their sentences.  Metaphorically, disenfranchisements for released felons
include the prohibition of owning a gun.  Is this the sort of thing you
have in mind?  What else?

I ask this with a clear understanding that the War on Drugs creates many
(but not all) felons and the suspicion that efforts should be directed to
penal reform and reform (that is to say abolition) of the drug laws.

The War on Drugs is a vicious attempt to control a potentially dissident
segment of the population defined by class and indexed by race. As a
result, we Americans imprison more of our fellow citizens per capita than
any other country: with 4% of the world's population, we have 25% of the
world's prisoners.

The War on Drugs should be ended, and so should laws on "controlled
substances."  Our Libertarian friends are right: governments should not be
enforcing what we can put into our bodies.  But corporations should be
controlled by public policy on what they can sell, and (accurate)
informational campaigns by governments on the dangers of drugs (notably
alcohol and nicotine) are appropriate.

I have the impression that the Forgiveness Weekend is at best working on
the edges of a serious social problem, perhaps inefficiently and even
wrong-headedly.

Regards, Carl


On Sun, 13 Feb 2005, Randall Cotton wrote:

> Folks were asking during the AWARE meeting today about what the
> program schedule was for Forgiveness Weekend. On Feb. 3rd, Danielle
> Schumacher posted the following website link with that information:
> 
> http://citizen.freeshell.org/forgiveness.html
> 
> Danielle, is this schedule current? Is it final?
> 
> Thanks R
>