Prohibition

The United States of America is a great country full of wonderful people. Sure, we have our share of assholes, but what country doesn't? I could spend a lot of time talking about all our good qualities, but that would appear immodest. If there was one thing my parents taught me, it was not to be a show off or a braggart. So rather than go against my raising, I am gonna talk about one of our lesser qualities. As a nation, we are a bunch of hard headed, slow learners.

Somewhere back in the late 1800's to early 1900's, a bunch of folks figured out that there were some problems with alcohol. Ben Franklin is credited with saying that God must have loved mankind because he gave us beer, but some folks didn't see it that way. As a person of Scots Irish decent, I can tell you first hand that there are indeed some problems with alcohol consumption, but taken in moderation, it is not bad and in fact may be beneficial. Those folks I mentioned earlier did not see it that way. They saw alcohol as a great evil that had to be stamped out. They formed  a temperance movement and whined and moaned and marched and lobbied until , in 1920, they got the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed. That amendment banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. That brought in what is known as the era of alcohol prohibition.

This might have worked if the laws of men were as binding as the laws of nature, but they are not. The laws of men are more like suggestions than they are actual laws. They only work if the majority of the people respect and honor them. Unfortunately for the prohibitionist, the majority of folks did not respect prohibition and set about finding ways around it. While alcohol prohibition was not successful in stopping alcohol consumption, it was successful in creating a black market. The black market provided an opportunity to make lots of money and competition for that money fostered increased violence. This sad state of affairs went on unchecked until 1933 when the 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed which repealed the 18th amendment. Alcohol was once again legal, but you can never put the toothpaste back in the tube. Organized crime had 13 years to make money and grow strong. A whole generation had come of age learning to use alcohol illegally instead of responsibly. I don't have the numbers to prove it but I have read that alcoholism, drunkenness and alcohol abuse were worse problems during prohibition than they had been before it and that after prohibition ended, they never quite returned to their pre-prohibition levels. There should be a lesson in there somewhere.

Fast forward to the 1970s. Richard Nixon didn't fool around with an amendment to the constitution, he just declared a war on drugs and away we went. It is now 40 plus years later and we have as bad a drug problem in this country as we did prior to 1970 and we have spent 1.5 trillon dollars fighting the war on drugs. Back in the 1960s when I was a teenager in rural Alabama, the biggest drug problem we had was the occasional drunk driver. Now, 40 years into the war on drugs, not a week goes by that the local paper in the county where I grew up doesn't have an article about the county sheriff busting up a meth lab. Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, speed, crack, meth, and dozens of other drugs are prohibited, but drug use appears to be as high as it was before the war on drugs started. Drug dealers kill each other in territorial disputes. The land on either side of the border between the United States and Mexico has become about as safe as the no mans land between the armies in World War I. The illegal drug trade is a multi billion dollar business. In fact, some folks estimate that it is the single thing keeping the US economy from sinking. If the goal is violence and illegal profits then drug prohibition is a resounding success, but if it really is intended to make the USA and its citizens safer, then it is an absolute failure. Again, there should be a lesson in there somewhere.

Today, in light of the tragic murder of 26 innocent teachers and students in an elementary school in Newtown, CO. there are a lot of people crying out for more gun control laws, taking certain types of guns away from citizens and there are even those who want a total prohibition of guns. To those who call for the total prohibition of guns I can only say, have you been paying attention? Do you realize what you are asking for? The nearly certain consequence of such a law would be a black market in weapons followed closely by increased crime and violence worse than anything we have seen to date.

To the others that think that some kind of new law, some kind of new gun control is going to protect us from the misfits, malcontents and mental defectives of society, I can offer only one illustrative story. If you have ever seen the Movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, you certainly remember the scene where the mad dog was coming down the street toward Atticus Finches house. For those that don't remember it, briefly, the dog is some distance away from the house but staggering in that general direction. Sheriff Hech Tate knows that Atticus is a crack shot and is much more capable of making a shot at the distance the dog is located. Although Atticus is not a man of violence, the sheriff prevails upon him to take his rifle and shoot the mad dog. They do not stand there talking about how all dogs should be vaccinated for rabies, or that all dogs should be on a leash, or that people ought to have to apply for a license before owing a dog. They don't go up and down the street in front of Atticus' house putting up "mad dog free zone" signs. Tate hands Atticus the rifle and Atticus drops the dog in his tracks. 

Friends, no law is gonna keep guns out of the hands of criminals and human mad dogs. If they want to bad enough, they will find a way to obtain a gun.  When those people come to prey on your family, your children, your love ones and your neighbors, the only way to prevent a tragedy is to have some one like Atticus Finch, some one who, although their disposition is such that they normally would not hurt a fly, is trained and capable of dropping a mad dog with one shot and who has a firearm available for them to take that all important shot. 

To my fellow Americans, learn from the past or re-live it, it is your choice.

Fresh Ham

A week or so ago, I saw a Youtube video by Jim Foreman  showing how to make posole. To borrow a term from Jerry Clower, it flung a craving on me. All this past week I had intended to go by the grocery store and pick up the items that I needed, but it did not work out until yesterday. For those of you who don't know, posole is a soup that is made with pork and hominey. Jim made his with some pork stew meat. When I checked at the local FoodDepot, I could not find any meat that I felt was suitable. I came back by Publix and had just about given up on finding what I wanted there as well until I spotted a fresh pork ham butt. It was about 3 1/2 pounds which was at least  2 1/2 pounds more than I needed, but I knew that a good portion of that was inedible bone and fat and it was only $5 including tax so I got it.

When I got home I sliced off about a pound of the fresh ham and set about to make the posole. But what to do with the remainder? I remembered back when I was little the Kelley side of my family often boiled a fresh ham for Christmas. They had a big cast iron wash pot that sat in the backyard. They would clean it out, build a fire around it and drop in a fresh ham. I don't have a wash pot, but I figured that a pressure cooker might serve the purpose. So, I washed what was left of the ham, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and put it on in the pressure cooker with 4 cups of water for 55 minutes. It got done long before the posole and turned out real well. There is nothing else quite like boiled fresh ham on white bread with Louisiana hot sauce. Although I do have to admit that the posole was also real good for supper.