A few days ago, I mentioned the courageous action of El Paso city councilman, Beto O’Rourke.  He brought forward a resolution to express the solidarity of the city of El Paso with its neighbor, Ciudad Juarez, in light of the horrific violence occuring there.

The resolution which passed the city council, was swiftly vetoed by the mayor, and when the veto override was looking possible, the council caved to federal threats to cut the city off from vital funding.

The hubbub was not about the solidarity, it was a carefully crafted call for the governments of Mexico and the United States to “support legislation that examines the nation’s policies on drugs with a focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration”.

A Q&A with O’Rourke highlights his intentions to go big with this phrase.  He wanted to draw attention to the issue, and spark a real dialog on this critical issue.  His strategy seems to be paying off, he got a chance to talk about the resolution on CNN, NPR, and he’s been the subject of a Lou “serious discourse” Dobbs rant. Nicely done!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 10:42 am and is filed under Ben. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.