When the GOP lost control of Congress last week, there was much talk about Nancy Pelosi bringing San Francisco values to the nation’s capitol. Today, local officials in San Francisco take on two issues that show how remarkably out of touch San Francisco is with the rest of th
e country.
The San Francisco‘s Board of Education is expected to vote to eliminate the JROTC program from San Francisco public schools today. In typical San Francisco style, supporters of cutting the program say that the military has no place in public schools and that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is in conflict with the school district’s anti-discrimination policy. They ignore the fact that the popular program has 1,600 students enrolled. Even the SF Chronicle editorialized in favor of keeping the program (!), saying the board is at a "crossroads" and that “They can keep a program that students and their parents wholeheartedly support — or cancel it in a burst of misguided righteousness." (Click here to read the entire editorial).
Today,
the SF Board of Supervisors are expected to approval a measure that requires the city’s police department to put pot crimes at the bottom of their list of priorities. That is, don’t ask, don’t tell where the pot is, who is growing it and who is smoking it. Supporters of this policy change say that the police need to focus on city’s growing violent crime program instead of the city’s potheads.
So, if I get it right, the city is going to rip a popular program out of the public schools that serves 1,600 kids and is, no doubt, a positive alternative to gangs and other illegal and dangerous activities that may compete for these urban kids’ attention. At the same time, the city will begin to ignore the illegal activity around the growth and sale of marijuana in the city, even though New York City and other cities have shown that nabbing the small criminals can bring down the level of violent crime in a city.
There is a reason that famous song says, “I left my heart in San Francisco” and not “I left my brain in San Francisco.” This is a city short on brains.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 14th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.
November 14th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Why is anyone surprised at anything the socialists in charge at San Francisco City Hall do or do not do? San Francisco Values has real meaning. Among other things it meansthat there is no such thing as property rights. Here up is down, down is up, north is south and south is north.
The vote on not enforcing marijuana law passed 8 yes, 3 no. The ordinance comes complete with a citizens’ oversight committee to take complaints from anyone busted for possession or use of pot.
November 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
As a former SF resident, I was reminded just how frustrating political life was there when I saw Dan Kelly, one of its lefty school board members, on FNC this morning, spewing the usual cliches in defense of his arrogant vote to deprive schoolkids of the ROTC option. Forget that the board “empowered” two students to sit on the board, but then ignored their two votes to save ROTC, or the entirely voluntary nature of the organization, which contrary to the board’s beliefs – yet by the participants own admission – DOES provide much needed direction, discipline and drive for kids who themselves recognize they need it most, but now have one less avenue for channeling their energies in a positive path. For a town that brays loudly about the “many wonderful and diverse choices it offers,” here’s one less for it to crow about.
Solution? How about some State “oversight” over SF’s misguided and profligate ways. Translation: cut its funding, and cut if big. To hear Pelosi tell it, she can afford to fund these loony projects. Put her to her proof – and stop subsidizing these goofs!
November 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Jennifer you are half right. Given that the two largest determining factors for success in this nation are whether you were an Eagle Scout or a Marine, dropping a great program like the ROTC would in my opinion be a huge mistake.
However, you are dead wrong on the pot issue. We need to completely rework our approach to recreational drugs. It is too important of an issue to leave to the black market. The war on drugs fosters corruption and crime and leaves distribution to unlicensed dealers who target children in parks and schools. Furthermore, the failed war on drugs is undermining the war on terror. The following is from a Newsweek article from about two months ago:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14975282/site/newsweek/
“NATO officials say the Taliban seems to be flush with cash, thanks to the guerrillas’ alliance with prosperous opium traffickers. The fighters are paid more than $5 a day—good money in Afghanistan, and at least twice what the new Afghan National Army’s 30,000 soldiers receive. It’s a bad sign, too, that a shortage of local police has led Karzai to approve a plan allowing local warlords—often traffickers themselves—to rebuild their private armies. U.N. officials have spent the past three years trying to disband Afghanistan’s irregular militias, which are accused of widespread human-rights abuses. Now the warlords can rearm with the government’s blessing. Afghanistan is “unfortunately well on its way” to becoming a “narco-state,” NATO’s supreme commander, Marine Gen. Jim Jones, said before Congress last week.”