Letter to the editor: A better option

To the editor:

“Citizens For A Better Douglas County.” Who is this? Ostensibly, a group recently created to encourage support of Proposition 1 on the ballot now in the hands of voters. I suggest, however, that it is more useful, and more accurate, to broaden it to include everyone who cares about the future of our community. Seen that way, it includes as well, “Jail No” people involved in the effort to defeat that same proposition.

How so? Who doesn’t …

• care about the physical and mental well-being, of our friends and neighbors?

• want to help people escape from substance abuse issues that cripple and stunt lives?

• want people to be treated with respect and dignity?

• want a jail that safely and humanely houses people who need to be there?

• want a community that lives the all “are created equal” ideal we claim to revere as a nation?

• want our youth and all citizens to have the tools and opportunity, and sometimes assistance, to successfully manage their own lives?

• want these things that enable people to realize their own life plans and dreams, and thereby to live harmoniously with their neighbors?

How to make this happen? We are a town centered on higher learning, the advancement of knowledge. Have we no faith in its research and methods? Research that tells us bigger jails don’t facilitate any of the things listed above, and communities which do practice alternatives to incarceration are better off, fiscally and socially?

Have some faith, Lawrence. There is a better way. Proposition 1 is not it.