THE DAILY TRAVESTY for February 29,
2000
Volume 1, Issue 40
One can never stand in the same river twice; the
water that made up the river at that moment is forever gone once the moment has
passed.
We would like to amend an announcement printed
yesterday. The SNL gameshow special will be aired tonight, Tuesday, at 8
PM ET, on NBC.
To Be or Not to
Be?
DT reader Angela Burroughs
You’re walking down the street. A series of
people passes you. The first, a professional looking man in a pinstripe
business suit, his short hair combed back, and his shoes perfectly
polished. The second person passes, this time a teenage girl. Her
hair is dyed green, she is wearing black velvet clothes, black eyeliner, black
lipstick, and hordes of silver adornments. Shortly after she walks by, two
men pass you. They are dressed similarly to the first man, both wearing
suits, both with perfectly polished shoes, but these two men are holding hands
as they walk. Later in the day, you see these same four people in a local
café. You’re bored and are looking to start conversation: which of these
four do you approach most readily?
If you’re anything like most of the people I know,
your answer is the first man. Why? That’s the question I’ve been trying to
answer for years. Each of the people that passed in the hypothetical
scenario were simply being themselves, but for some reason that intimidates
people when it involves being any different than the hegemony. Society tends to look down on any one with a
difference, such that the difference becomes almost a handicap. Nobody
talks about Jane or Sarah any more, they talk about those kids that are
lesbians, or those kids that are dumb. If you don’t fit into the "perfect"
mold that society has formed, you lose your identity to the rest of the
world. Constant ridicule is your punishment for being yourself.
The ridicule and constant insults are enough to
make people question if showing their true self is worth it. They are
stuck with the dilemma: should I be who I know I am or keep it inside to avoid
being laughed at? Nobody knows how to handle this situation. There is no
ideal answer, because in an ideal world, situations like this wouldn’t exist,
but no one ever said this life was ideal.
I offer this not so much to criticize those of you
who torment people without reason, but to give the tormentees hope. Anyone
who cannot or will not accept you for being who you are is not worth your
time. Any one facing the question of to be or not to be: BE. That’s the
only way to be happy in life. If you hide yourself from others, you make
yourself miserable. You can’t decide how much other people hurt you, but
you can stop hurting yourself by being honest with yourself, and don’t let
anyone in the world tell you you’re wrong.
Thus ends my ranting about injustice.
US Becomes History's Biggest
Jailer
The US reached a ghastly milestone on
February 15, according to the
Justice Policy Institute, a
nonprofit research group that advocates
alternatives to
incarceration..
On that date, the US prison and jail
population reached a record 2
million
persons.
More than half of those imprisoned are nonviolent
offenders. And the
largest single category of prisoners are drug
law violators.
The US comprises 5% of the world's
population, yet has fully 25% of
the world's prisoners.
According to the November Coalition, a drug law
reform group,
the US has a higher proportion of its citizens in jail
than any
other country -- in all of history.
The Libertarian Party,
in a media release, pointed out the following:
* In
1970, fewer than 200,000 Americans were behind bars.
By
contrast, in the 1990s alone, 840,000
Americans were sent to
prison.
* Over the past two decades, one new jail or
prison has been built
in America every
week.
* Violent crime has dropped by 21% since 1993
-- but the number of
Americans being
incarcerated has grown by 5%-6% each year
since
then.
* Less than a third of the people sentenced to jail each year
have
been convicted of a violent crime,
and at least 400,000 inmates
are serving
time for non-violent drug offenses alone.
* By one
estimate, as many as 750,000 people are in jail
for
victimless crimes -- like gambling,
violating censorship laws, not
wearing a
seatbelt, or consensual sex.
* The cost of keeping 2
million prisoners behind bars is $40
billion
a year -- or about $20,000 for
every man, woman, and teenager
serving
time.
* 30% of all African-American males will be
sent to prison at some
point during
their lives. A major reason for this: While only
15%
of all drug users are black, 74% of
the people in prison for drug
crimes are
black, according to government statistics.
As a result of
the Drug War, prison has become one of America's
biggest
businesses. The multi-billion dollar prison industry employs
more than 523,000 people, making it the US's single biggest
employer
after General Motors. Some 5% of the population growth
in rural areas
between 1980 and 1990 was due to prisoners being
moved into new rural
jails.
(Sources: The
Guardian [UK newspaper]; November Coalition; Justice
Policy
Institute; Libertarian Party media release)
Excuse me, what did you say? Oh, I
thought you said "Whop".
douglas adams