Aside

Finally, a story by The Wire

5 Mar 2008

So much has been written about the HBO drama The Wire lately, as it nears the end of it’s final season. It only took the mainstream media, and therefore the uninformed public, about six years to catch on. Hopefully the impact of what it’s fans have been calling the greatest program to grace the television screen from the first episode, will endure for a long while as well.

And during the time that the media has been making up for lost time, the people most qualified to comment on the success, impact, intent and lasting effects of the show have managed to lurk mostly in the shadows, as I assume they’d prefer.

But now that the brain trust behind the wire has been generous enough to grace us with their first person views in a story on Time.com. They’ve provided us with the one thing The Wire might have been lacking. An actionable idea that every voting-age American can express in the hopes of profoundly changing the landscape of the world we live in.

I hate to spoil the surprise of their piece, and if you haven’t read it already I highly encourage you to before you continue reading this, but I’ve got to share it. Vote your conscience in the jury room. Exercise your right as an American to provide the checks and balances that our founding fathers granted are triptic government. Acquit any person facing non-violent state or federal drug laws, “regardless of the evidence presented.”

It’s a novel theory, one I’ve never heard or thought of, and one I’m sure they’ll catch hell for. But to anyone who watched The Wire, it can’t help but bring back thoughts you surely had about Hamsterdam. Are they serious? Could this really work? Why doesn’t someone try this?

If nothing else, it’s time for a change. After 40 years of the “war on drugs” it’s plain for anyone to see that it’s not working. We’ve tried troop surge, after troop surge, after troop surge and all we end up with is more money being taken away from meaningful policies and programs and prisons that are even more crowded.

Bubbles wasn’t a criminal. He was a caring, loving American who needed hope and another chance. Don’t make the mistake of locking him up and throwing away the key.