“The House I Live In” is one of the most important documentaries made in the last 10 years. I urge each and every one of you to watch it today. As a student of the War on Drugs, I had knowledge of many of the individual facts and issues Eugene Jarecki brings up in his film. What makes this film different is the conclusion it draws and the clarity of the evidence used to support that conclusion:
The Drug War is a holocaust in slow motion
David Simon, Writer/Director of “The Wire”
People have to understand that the drug war is actually a war on ALL Americans…
Charles Ogeltree, Harvard Professor
Jarecki does a wonderful job of putting together a wide variety of viewpoints from people on all sides of the drug war. From narcotics officers on the streets of Rhode Island to a Federal Judge in Idaho to dealers on the streets and behind bars to a Louisiana prison guard, the conclusions are all the same:
I don’t know what the solution is; but I do know that the solution can’t be more of what got us to this spot. It can’t be more of the same.
Mike Carpenter, Chief of Security. Lexington Oklahoma Prison.
What I really like about the film is that Jarecki does a great job of talking about the evolution of the drug war. The origins of the drug war go back to racially motivated laws against various populations: opium laws used against Chinese immigrants in California, marijuana laws used against Mexican immigrants, crack cocaine laws used against African Americans, and most recently methamphetamine laws used against the poor (regardless of race). Jarecki speaks with Richard Miller, a Lincoln Historian, who gives some of the most powerful testimony that makes it clear that the War on Drugs has evolved much the way the Holocaust did during Nazi Germany. He talks about the “Five Links in the Chain of Destruction”:
- 1st Link: Identification. A group of people is identified as a cause for problems for society. People start to perceive fellow citizens as bad or evil.
- 2nd Link: Ostracism. We learn how to hate these people, take their jobs away, make it harder to survive, people lose their place to live, often they are forced into ghettos where they are physically separated from the rest of society.
- 3rd Link: Confiscation. People lose their rights, civil liberties. The laws themselves change to make it easier for people to be stopped on the street, patted down and searched, and their property to be confiscated. Once you start taking people’s property away you start taking the people themselves away
- 4th Link: Concentration. Concentrate them in facilities such as prisons, camps, people lose their rights, can’t vote anymore, can’t have children anymore, often their labor is exploited
- Final Link: Annihilation. This might be indirect. Withholding medical care, withholding food, preventing further birth, or it might be direct where death is inflicted where people are deliberately killed.
Eugene Jarecki – Writer and Director
I had a personal interest in watching the movie and writing the review: I went to school with Eugene Jarecki and I am a big fan of his work. That said, I didn’t expect that the movie would affect me the way it has. Like I said, I am well versed on all of the individual talking points about why the War on Drugs is a total disaster; but I’ve never been exposed to any theories of what may happen if we sit back and allow the status quo to continue. David Simon puts it in the clearest of terms:
Be honest about what’s happening… Let’s just get rid of the bottom 15% of the country. Let’s lock them up. In fact, let’s see if we can make money off locking them up in the short term. Even though it’s going to be an incredible burden for our society even though it’s going to destroy these families where these people are probably integral to the lives of other Americans. Let’s just get rid of them. At that point, why don’t you just say ‘Kill the poor’… If we kill the poor, we’re going to be a lot better off. Because that’s what the drug war’s become.
David Simon, Writer/Director of “The Wire”
Working on Weedist over the last year has been a pleasure. I am the “tech” guy behind the scenes who makes this site look good. I’ve tried marijuana but in general I don’t use it. I really don’t even drink either. I am the son of an immigrant who fled Europe after spending the first few years of his life in German work camps. My father is one of the most patriotic people I know. He joined the US Army and served for almost 30 years as a police officer and detective in the NYPD. I was blessed, and my parents — through luck and hard work — kept me, my sister and brother out of poverty and opened all the right doors for us. With all of that, I consider myself to be an American who struggles with being an American given where this nation is right now.
The War on Drugs is one of the things wrong with this country. I am proud to be part of a team and growing community of “Weedists” who are out there fighting the good fight against the War on Drugs. As we’ve said time and time again on this site — it’s up to us. We have to get out and vote as a community. We have to push for reform. The beauty of America is that our founding fathers wrote directly into our governing documents that we have the right to overthrow our government every four years. What we also have to realize is that we need to fight this war at the polls AND with our wallets. The modern form of our government does almost everything based on what special interests pay them to do. We need to start spending our dollars where they can make an impact. We can “vote” every day if we simply educate ourselves.
The House I Live In – Now Available On Demand
The House I Live In – Links
Tags: activism, documentaries, drug arrests, movies, prison nation, prohibition, video reviews, war on drugs.
By:
Michael Blonsky. Permalink: 
Shortlink: http://weedi.st/luvwn