Our Production Schedule
April 3rd, 2009 | Published in Blog | 5 Comments
Latino USA is distributed to public radio stations across the country on Friday afternoons. Your station decides when the program will air in your local market. Some stations air the program on Fridays, some on Saturdays, and some on Sundays.
This helps to explain why this week’s program makes no mention of the immense tragedy that occurred in Binghamton New York on Friday 3 April. Our program had already been sent to the public radio system before we learned of the events at the immigrant services center in New York, even though many of our listeners will hear our show broadcast later in the weekend.
I wanted to explain this so you’ll understand that we are not ignoring this story. We’ll make a decision in our editorial meetings next week how we might cover this tragic event.
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On this week’s program we report on a re-thinking of American drug policy, with an interview with Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California and with a sociologist who has researched the racial profiling that seems to accompany marijuana arrests.
We have a report from Colorado on a community that’s rallying behind a young immigrant who has been denied asylum in the U.S.
And I tell the story of the recent discovery at Duffy’s Cut: a mass grave believed to hold the remains of 57 Irish immigrants who vanished from the historical record in 1832.
As always, we welcome your feedback.
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April 4th, 2009 at 8:59 pm (#)
I have been an avid listener to LatinoUSA for three years, even though it is broadcast at 5AM on Saturdays here in Philly. Every time I’ve heard the name “Sean Collins” for the executive producer, I’ve wondered if that was the same Sean Collins, younger brother of my boyhood friend Terry, from back in Belleville, Illinois.
I too have been following the story of Duffy’s Cut as it has been in our local news. When I heard your voice this morning at the beginning of your story, I just knew that this person was the Sean Collins I had been thinking of.
But here is the most important point. The way you made the connections between immigration, separation, heartbreak and the relative value of newcomers is so poignant and powerful. I’ve loved this program for its heart. It lifts my spirit in many ways, unabashedly celebrating connections between people and giving voice to what needs to be said.
I thank you for your work and the work of all who make this program what it is. I feel strengthened and lifted up by the stories which need to be heard. And it was cool to hear your voice, which is reminiscent, for me, of your brother’s voice. I’m very grateful for my particular connection to you, your brother, and your family.
Joe Fritsch
April 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am (#)
The 5 flaws in any prohibition of a “vice” widely desired by the population are: 1. It gives rise to a black market illegal source. 2. Much of the money generated by the black market goes to corrupting police and prosecutors, thus the whole justice system. 3. It is a major tax avoidance system. 4. Its illegality puts large numbers of users into the criminal class and in prison. This severely damages their potential to be productive citizens.
5. If the “vice” is not a major health & safety issue (as organically grown marijuana is not), it frequently becomes one by the various methods of diluting and often contaminating the plant for commercial reasons.
Now there is the horrible side effect of this prohibition along the U.S. - Mexican border. A “war” is killing thousands, many of them innocents. An illegal gun trade and the movement of vast sums of U.S. cash into criminal hands is hardly a trivial outcome. Legalizing and regulating just the marijuana aspect of this trade would make a huge reduction in the scale of this abomination.
The political difficulty in legalizing and regulating marijuana intimidates many politicians and other leaders. Only a grass root movement has the possibility of changing the conversation from fear to reason.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:35 pm (#)
The decriminalizing of Marijuana is a good idea. Everyday more and more arrests, murders, and hardship come from these drug dealers selling something that hasn’t been proven to have an addictive attach rate as cigarettes… yet that’s legal. I think is still boils down to not having enough money trickling into the higher up offices, since some do get more money doing it illegally.
Alcohol went thru the phase of Bad to good, and it can do more damage than Marijuana I think. From what I have read, alcohol ban was a MAJOR thing, then they slowly said wait a second, there’s money to be made! as the Bacardi commercial plays on the tv now. I support the idea of making Marijuana legal, but with rules attached to it like good deals at a store, only a certain quantity is allowed per purchase. Sure there will be those that can get more, but if it is legal and alot more people are less agitated, the violence will start to decrease (maybe, but hopeful). I just think there are more important things we have to ban, like cigarettes or the additives in them.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:38 am (#)
Alcohol — and cigarettes for that matter — being legal but not marijuana is arbitrary. It’s one of those things that can seem “right” just because it’s always been that way. I think the idea of piloting in CA is smart. If it lowers crime and the cost of law enforcement, generates new revenue for the state, and doesn’t have any unforeseen side effects, other states can follow suit whey they’re ready. Otherwise, it can be rolled back.
Thanks for the story.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:40 am (#)
Our country has a tendency to the “little Dutch boy” approach when solving problems. Just as the little boy put his finger in one leak in the dyke and another leak sprung, we think that legalizing marijuana may end the drug wars without thought to the other problems that this may cause. I am amazed that intelligent, dynamic people like the senator from California can be so simplistic in suggesting a solution to such a complex problem. And she threw the idea out there admittedly without knowing much about the subject.
In the 30s, ending prohibition ended the mobs wars, so we can conclude that legalizing marijuana will end the drug wars? The mobs that trafficked in “moonshine” may be gone but the devastation that alcohol misuse and abuse wreaks on our country is barely measurable. If this rationale were logical,then why don’t we consider legalizing cocaine and methamphetamine? These two illegal drugs are coming across the border as well. And we know that prescription drugs are heavily abused by young and old and represent a significant portion of and addiction problem in American. The argument that marijuana is less harmful than cocaine and meth is really beside the point.
People in AA will tell you that a drug is a drug is a drug. Substance use is directly tied to substance abuse and it doesn’t matter whether or not the substance is legal or illegal. We are a country of substance users with a high level of abuse.
We should be asking ourselves “Is this a safe substance to legalize?” How will we monitor its distribution, strength, use and abuse?” “Will legalizing marijuana make it easier for young people, who are at risk of abuse and addiction, to get it?” In terms of our neighbor country Mexico we should
ask “Will the end of the trafficking of marijuana significantly impact drug trafficking?” “Are there other factors that could be remedied that would lessen the problem and help the country such as government corruption, our
own culpability in providing arms, the lack of social services as well as educational and employment opportunities?”
It is reported that the US is currently the number one user of illegal drugs in the world and the largest provider of illegal weapons to Mexican drug cartels. It seems to me that there is a subliminal message in this fact. We need to examine that and ask ourselves if we really need another
legal drug.