Readers of my blog know I’m a big fan of Bill Moyers and his Journal on PBS. Friday’s show was one of the best, dedicated entirely to an interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire. I’ve rarely heard someone express as clearly how I feel about the state and the future of America as Simon does in this interview. Make sure to listen through to the end. Video [part 1 and part 2] or audio.
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Blogarithms 
Wow.
It isn’t that I’m speechless, it’s that I’m afraid I might never shut up, brevity not being an inherent Southern trait and all.
It was my good fortune to be scanning the channels at 4 a.m. just as Moyers’ interview with David Simon began. Half way through I was sitting up in bed, hanging on his every word as if a backlog of my own thoughts and experiences had at last found a voice. Simon’s is a voice of reason -unapologetically honest and rarely encountered where it should be most called for. Such is the irony with which the masses have become sadly complacent. For me, it was the next best thing to a chicken-choking tent revival. Amen.
Angry? You bet I’m angry. The list is long and getting longer and it includes one of tonight’s most troubling topics – decriminalizing drugs.
As someone who majored in botany and horticulture in the ’70’s, you might say this concept occurred to me quite some time ago. “Surely logic will eventually prevail,” I thought, but it seems I “mis-overestimated” the powers to be.
How long must we wait for those who continue to opine that left unregulated “the market” would “right” itself to realize another market exists on every street corner, a market driven by the same greed and desperation that fell our economic core? I was elated to see that President Obama is attempting to direct our efforts to rehab programs, but what, the angry cynic in me wonders, are the odds that will happen? We’re still under the thumb of tobacco, drowning in booze and filling our prisons with potheads and small-time dealers.
What perplexes me most is government’s inability or perhaps their refusal to see the BIG picture. If they can’t acknowledge what is going on or are afraid to act on what happens on our street corners 24/7, how do they ever hope to solve the issues with our borders? Am I way off target here or just sleep deprived?
Moving on…
I confess I have been a skeptic in regard to media in general for much of my life. Too many journalistic imposters have left me frustrated and confused, questioning what I know and what I don’t. Perhaps the truth is there if we truly seek it.
Mr. Simon has re-awakened me, albeit with a somber validation my perceived American reality. His integrity, wisdom and vision make for good company on the edge of a crumbling republic.
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