Lubbock Left

The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) is ordering all of its juvenile inmates removed from the privately run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in West Texas. The A-J covered the story today. “Unsanitary and unsafe conditions” were the reasons cited for the removal of juveniles. The private facility was run by the GEO Group, which appears to be a multinational corporation. From their website (emphasis mine):

We are a world leader in the privatized development and/or management of correctional facilities. The North American market is growing rapidly, and we are focused on expanding Federal procurement opportunities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is operating over capacity and Federal law now authorizes longer term contracts than ever before, resulting in more favorable financing alternatives for new privatized development.

We are an industry leader in the international privatized corrections market. We expect substantial growth in Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and other areas in Europe for corrections and immigration services.

Our diversified services include health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, home detention/electronic monitoring and secure prisoner escort/transportation and court custody services. Our success in delivering some of our industry’s finest diversified services is evidenced by our numerous contracts in the United States and around the world. We are intently focused on extending that success in privatized health care, mental health care and other diversified services to government agencies around the globe.

Does anyone else find the fact that the private prison industry wants to “branch out” into the private health care industry a little creepy? I’m glad these guys are no longer operating anywhere near me… oh, except for Littlefield and Spur (not to mention Santa Rosa, Hobbs, Pecos, Bridgeport, and Fort Worth). Crap.

Also in the news today: Blackwater is defending the actions of their contractors in Iraq. This is fine, and it’s expected as the FBI begins investigating the company. Did you know:

Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single “protective security specialist,” the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service.

Now I can list TWO functions of government that I definitely do not want to be privatized, backed up by terrible examples of same: Military operations and Prison/Correctional operations.

Six years and a day after 9/11, my mind is drawn once again to the advice our crappy president gave us in the days following the collapse of the twin towers: go shopping.

I think our country took him too literally and followed his advice too enthusiastically. Now we are a nation of debtors and over-spenders. Not only is this debt situation very un-conservative (now it’s no surprise to see that the Bush administration is not really conservative, but, in 2001, I’m sure some people still bought the neocons’ “compassionate conservative” line), it’s very un-American also. Before Reagan/Bush, our national pursestrings were very tight indeed. Clinton restored budgetary sanity, but now our national debt is in the tens of trillions of dollars. To me, that looks like two things: (1) a rejection of 200 years of American budgetary morality, and (2) a very bad example set by our leaders that is being followed by our citizens.

Here’s a short list of things that could help our national spending problem:

• Don’t allow predatory lending companies to exist. Period. Stop loaning money to people that can’t pay it back. Usury is a sin for a reason.
• Implement a single-payer national health care system so that ordinary people — even people that are “well off” — don’t go broke from illness.
• Start enforcing the trust-busting laws again. Anti-competitive mergers and monopolies allow corporate conglomerates to fix prices beyond the reach of consumer budgets. The petroleum and telecom industries are great places to start.
• Make net neutrality a firm and well-written law.
• Regulate college tuition and improve federal student loan assistance programs.

The above list is all over the place, but it pretty much has to be, since our national financial situation is screwed up all over the place.

I also stop to think today about what Bush could have said to the American people after 9/11 — what he could have suggested we do instead of goddamn go shopping. Here’s a short list of the infinite possibilities:

• Today, right now, go outside and meet your neighbors. Knock on their doors and tell them you’re glad to know them and that you’ll be there to help in a time of need.
• Make a commitment to train yourself in one aspect of disaster recovery — first aid, food bank work, search&rescue, construction/rebuilding, crisis counseling, or any such skill — and then share it with your family. Volunteer to help when that skill is needed in your community.
• Set up a regular monthly contribution to your favorite charity — as little as $5 a month will still go a long way.
• Join the Peace Corps or a similar program for six months to a year (assuming such programs weren’t scaled back or eliminated).
• Contact your friends and family that you haven’t heard from in a while and catch up, tell them you love them, etc.
• We still have “nothing to fear except fear itself.”
• Anything!

Picture an America where service, rather than spending — community over consumerism — was encouraged in the wake of 9/11. I believe we wouldn’t have individual or national debt to the degree that we have today, and we would be a proud nation working together to better ourselves and our neighbors. Instead, we are an international baby, screaming and kicking because we’re angry and scared.

And broke.

Why did ListenLubbock blame the people’s poor opinion of the bond package on the Mayor and “current” City Council? (It’s unclear if the “current” City Council in this description includes Todd Klein, who has served on the council for just two months.) I believe that they wanted to distract the public from the fact that this bond package was strongly supported by the Chamber of Commerce.

Look at who is a part of ListenLubbock, a PAC formed specifically to support the bond election. (Has anyone gone through the FEC to see who was funding ListenLubbock?) Their listening report (pdf) includes a member list with big names from the Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, UMC, etc. Their listening sessions were staffed by Chamber members.

People join the Chamber of Commerce for specific benefit to their business, not to their community. To be fair, those are occasionally the same thing, but not generally.

My conclusion is that the Chamber was very much in favor of this bond issue, and when they found out that the public was very much against this bond issue, they pinned it on the already unpopular Mayor, City Council, and City staff — those who actually decided not to have the bond election. Worse, it’s not clear from their “listening report” whether they are basing their blame on an actual polling statistic or on an unscientific general feeling. The public needs access to the full crosstab of their scientific poll.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Tonight I participated in the mad rush that is a liquidation sale at the 50th St. Hastings. It has been one of my favorite stores to shop at because of its late hours and wide range of products. Throughout the years several of my friends have worked there. I can honestly say I will miss it when it closes.

Rumor has it that the building owner wanted Hastings to sign another 10-year lease, which the company did not want to do because the margin of profit at the store was not high enough for that long of a commitment. I respect the choices of the businesses, even though I am sad to see the store go.

I have a hunch that we will see a new Hastings store in Southwest Lubbock soon…

The store closing got me thinking: this sort of thing is exactly why I don’t want to see our public education system privatized. Picture a low-performing school with declining attendance. The responsible, public system of education would try to find and fix the problems at the school and correct them for the good of the community. A private system of education would likely close the school and seek out better, more profitable schools — undoubtedly in Southwest Lubbock! After all, competition between schools will send the students to the best schools, right? Never mind the gaping holes in our community that business will judge “not worth the risk,” right?

It makes me sick to my stomach to think about an education system with no accountability to the community.