A press release about prisoner soda pop is making headlines, but it's nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the poor.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Too many people with limited life experience make public charges. The Group "Common Sense For Oregon", which frankly I had never heard of, has managed to get news attention over its non-revelation that Oregon is spending, according to them, $773,000 for free soda pop for prisoners.
The first point to make in regard to this, is that we have 1 out of 31 Americans incarcerated today and it is a national shame. So why are they there? One reason is the simple fact that new laws are continually enacted and implemented, further outlawing more and more activity.
These are laws designed to criminalize residents of this state and land them behind bars. The problem isn't how much it costs to buy soda pop, the problem is why this society is so gung ho on jailing and imprisoning its own people.
Another area to examine is the private industry that supplies the soda pop and other products. Groups are quick to blame the public sector for any problem they perceive, but the state has bills too and those same critics certainly don't seem to be after corporate America.
But in the end I could give a damn how much it costs if it gives those people behind bars one small thing that they need to feel a little bit like a human being. More power to them.
Prisoners are an easy target and they always have been. I'd like to know how the folks at Common Sense for Oregon would like to live without so much as a soda pop. There is a heartless element in this state and while it has taken a beating in recent months, it still blabs on radio and attends tea parties.
I personally helped the Arizona state prison population keep its right to receive family Christmas presents in 1995. I learned through a press release that then-Governor Fife Symington was supposedly going to save taxpayers a million bucks by eliminating the right of prisoners to receive holiday gifts from their families. I found a woman recently released from prison in Arizona who talked about how much safer the corrections officers are when the prisoners don't have their only possessions taken from them.
My story aired on KYMA Channel-11's 6:00 News and the prisoners saw the story. They used an attorney to file an injunction and stopped Symington's attempt to rob them of Christmas presents. Two years later I was working for the NBC station in Las Vegas and Symington was convicted of federal charges and sent to prison in, of all places... Las Vegas, Nevada. Karma is a real bitch sometimes.
I absolutely do not believe that Common Sense For Oregon is non-partisan as it claims, and I hope that everyone sees through the fog on this. We have so many thousands in prison, of course it is expensive, that isn't brain surgery.
This press release about prisoner soda pop is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the poor.
So therefore I am pleased to announce that this group, Common Sense For Oregon, is the recipient of the Salem-News.com "White Bully Award", for signifying and representing the interests of those who are willing to attack the poor, whine endlessly about paying their fair share of taxes, and stir up non stories on slow news days that prey on the fears of the population.
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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Common Sense of Oregon Wins Prestigious 'White Bully Award'Salem-News.com