Inner Cities and Iraq Have Similarities

Inner Cities and Iraq Have Similarities

It doesn't surprise me that Islamic fundamental terrorism evokes a mindset of waging war as the only reasonable response. Most Americans do not understand the terrorist motivation beyond hating us and radical ideology. In American's absence of a rational explanation they are willing to adopt a fight policy, a fundamental response we all have. However, that which we don't understand, leaves us at the mercy of the conservative thinking in times of unimaginative leaders.

This law and order mentality is evidenced in a long history of the inner cities plight in this county. Gangs and organized crime hold hostage residents of these areas through terror and intimidation. Yet after years of toughing laws and escalating incarceration the characters may have changed but the problem goes unabated. What makes the current administration believe that our inability to solve the same problem in one place will occur to us in another at a rate of $9 billion a month?

At this point I think I'm going to abandon whatever scraps remained of my pretention of objectivity. You'll be seeing a lot more from me about why Obama is the best damn thing ever and why I'm all twitterpated over him. Until a couple of days ago I hadn't even seen him speak, but his voting record and certain statements by him and the other candidates had already decided me.

Now I'm not just decided. I'm enthused. As an anthropologist, the idea that people would be interested in questioning their own perspectives is thrilling. The connection among our approaches to marginalized people is certainly interesting. I fear that delving too deeply into it will send me on a Marxist bender, so I won't go there. I will say that this is an excellent point. How is an administration that doesn't care about the "dregs" of society supposed to convince the one-time dregs of someone else's society that we're there for them?

This isn't an angle I'd heard before. I'm not presenting it because it's flawless, but it's food for thought.