Is 'Latino' A Race, Or An Ethnicity?

WASHINGTON -- It long has been assumed by sociologists that Latinos eventually would be redefined as "white" as they joined the mainstream, but the Census Bureau now wants to classify Latinos as their own distinct group in the next census, in 2020.

The proposal is based on census research that finds many Latinos do not identify with the current race categories.

One possible revision, urged by Kenneth Prewitt, a former bureau director, would drop the word "race" from the census form altogether, simply offering a set of check boxes for categories such as black, white and Hispanic that is preceded by the question, "Are you ...?"

"Whether we're tabulating by income or poverty, Hispanic is treated as a de facto race," said Roberto Ramirez, chief of the Census Bureau's ethnicity and ancestry branch, in an interview. As it stands now, he says, many Latinos are checking "some other race."

• 18 Geniuses

  The MacArthur Fellows Program, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1997-06-17/news/mn-4187_1_genius-grants" target="_hplink">nicknamed the "Genius Grant,"</a> is given to U.S. citizens and residents that<a href="http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/" target="_hplink"> "show exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work."</a> In other words, these individuals are awarded funds not based on their past merits but because they are likely to contribute to the world in a positive way in the future. Currently, 18 Hispanics have received the coveted grant including writer Sandra Cisneros (pictured), cuban-born anthropologist Ruth Behar, and playwright Luis Alfaro. <a href="http://www.sandracisneros.com/macarturos_bios.php" target="_hplink">Check out the full list of these 'MacArturos' and their impressive resumes.</a>

• Salsa Music

  Of course Salsa originates from Cuban rhythms like son and rumba (among others) fused with Puerto Rican, Colombian beats. But the truth is that <a href="http://www.thelatinworld.nl/salsahistory-english.html" target="_hplink">the term "salsa" was born in New York during the 1970's,</a> where Latin American immigrants and musicians came together and brewed this new collective sound that has evolved through the decades. From "nuyorican" Willie Colon to cuban legend Celia Cruz up to present day salsa stars like Marc Anthony -- the genre continues to <em>play</em> an important role in the American music industry. Pun intended. Photo shows: Some of the greatest salsa musicians ever, members of the <a href="http://www.fania.com/content/fania-all-stars">Fania All-Stars</a>, including Yomo Toro, Roberto Roena, Papo Lucca, Adalberto Santiago, Johnny Pacheco, Reynaldo Jorge, Ismael Miranda, Puchi Boulong, Luigi Texidor, Leopoldo Pineda, Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Cheo Feliciano and Pete 'El Conde' Rodriguez.

• Helped Prevent World War III

  The tension of the Cold War came to a climax during the October 1962 "Cuban Missile Crisis" -- an event that could have very well led to nuclear war. That's when Puerto Rico-born Vice Admiral Horacio Rivero came (or navigated) into the scene. On October 15, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/us/adm-horacio-rivero-jr-90-vice-chief-of-naval-operations.html" target="_hplink">Rivero was given command of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's amphibious force</a>, which helped set up the naval blockade in the Caribbean. Rivero's long career with the U.S. Navy included rising to be the first-Hispanic four-Star Admiral, and serving as the NATO Commander In Chief of Southern Europe and as U.S. Ambassador to Spain during the Nixon administration.

• What happened to the Dinosaurs?

  That's right, Hispanics are behind the extinction of dinosaurs -- well, the theory actually. <strong>The Alvarez Hypothesis</strong> In 1980, physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, (both of Spanish descent) teamed up on an expedition to Italy, where they found a layers of sedimentary rock with high levels of iridium. Long story short, the father-son duo came up with the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do80di.html" target="_hplink">theory that 65 million years ago an asteroid hit earth and brought about the end of the "terrible lizards"</a>! Now just think how different your sixth-grade science class would have been if the Alvarez family hadn't answered the giant question on everyone's mind: What happened to the Dinosaurs? <em><strong>CORRECTION: A previous version of this slide referred to Dinosaurs as "giant lizards" when in fact the <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dinosaur" target="_hplink">term's etymology depicts them as "terrible lizards."</a> </strong></em>

• Greatest Hitter Of All Time

  Yes, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/25-celebrities-you-didnt-know-were-latino_n_1739113.html" target="_hplink">Ted Williams was Hispanic</a>. Williams' mother was Mexican, but truth be told he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/sports/baseball/26latino.html?_r=1" target="_hplink">wasn't very vocal about his heritage.</a> <a href="http://tedwilliams.com/index.php?page=hfame&level=1" target="_hplink">As the Baseball Hall Of Fame best put it: </a> "[Williams'] 521 Home Runs place him 4th on the all time list. There are many who insist that Ted Williams ranks with Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb as the greatest hitters who ever lived. While Ted's life-time figures are taught by only a few, there is no telling to what heights those figures would have reached had he not given nearly 5 full years of his baseball career to the US Marines." A legendary baseball player and a U.S. Marine... need we say more?

• Latin American Cuisine

  The brand that brings you all your Latin American guilty pleasures--otherwise nearly impossible to find in the United States--Goya Foods is the largest hispanic owned food company in the United States. What started as a small Lower Manhattan business set up by Spanish-Puerto Rican Immigrant Prudencio Unanue Ortiz now <a href="http://www.goya.com/english/about.html" target="_hplink">distributes over 1,500 products originating from every corner of Latin American.</a> If you grew up watching Spanish-language TV, you never forgot their slogan, '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYxPj-wsbUU&feature=share&list=PL2C02C6C0985BAE82">Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno</a>.' In 2012, Goya Food partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture and First Lady Michelle Obama in promoting healthy eating and wellness with the "My Plate" or "Mi Plato" program.

• Coolest Iconic Christmas Song

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xMtuVP8Mj4o" target="_hplink">Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Prospero Año Y Felicidad</a> These are iconic lyrics to Puerto Rican singer José Feliciano's Christmas songs, a tune that has warmed the hearts of U.S. Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike during the season of giving season. But perhaps these first verses sound a little mumbled when sung by non-Spanish speakers, who clearly and loudly belt out the song's second part in English. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xMtuVP8Mj4o" target="_hplink">I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas From the bottom of my heart.</a>

Welcome To The New Off-White America!

WASHINGTON -- Welcome to the new off-white America.

A historic decline in the number of U.S. whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political alliances as "whiteness" begins to lose its numerical dominance.

Long in coming, the demographic shift was most vividly illustrated in last November's re-election of President Barack Obama, the first black president, despite a historically low percentage of white supporters.

It's now a potent backdrop to the immigration issue being debated in Congress that could offer a path to citizenship for 11 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants. Also, the Supreme Court is deciding cases this term on affirmative action and voting rights that could redefine race and equality in the U.S.

The latest census data and polling from The Associated Press highlight the historic change in a nation in which non-Hispanic whites will lose their majority in the next generation, somewhere around the year 2043.

Despite being a nation of immigrants, America's tip to a white minority has never occurred in its 237-year history and will be a first among the world's major post-industrial societies. Brazil, a developing nation, has crossed the threshold to "majority-minority" status; a few cities in France and England are near, if not past that point.

The international experience and recent U.S. events point to an uncertain future for American race relations.

In Brazil, where multiracialism is celebrated, social mobility remains among the world's lowest for blacks while wealth is concentrated among whites at the top. In France, race is not recorded on government census forms and people share a unified Gallic identity, yet high levels of racial discrimination persist.

"The American experience has always been a story of color. In the 20th century it was a story of the black-white line. In the 21st century we are moving into a new off-white moment," says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, a global expert on immigration and dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

"Numerically, the U.S. is being transformed. The question now is whether our institutions are being transformed," he said.

The shift is being driven by the modern wave of U.S. newcomers from Latin America and Asia. Their annual inflow of 650,000 people since 1965, at a rate that's grown in recent years, surpasses the pace of the last great immigration wave a century ago. That influx, from 1820 to 1920, brought in Irish, Germans, Italians and Jews from Europe and made the gateway of Ellis Island, N.Y., an immigrant landmark, symbolizing freedom, liberty and the American dream.

An equal factor is today's aging white population, mostly baby boomers, whose coming wave of retirements will create a need for first- and second-generation immigrants to help take their place in the workforce.

The numbers already demonstrate that being white is fading as a test of American-ness:

_More U.S. babies are now born to minorities than whites, a milestone reached last year.

_More than 45 percent of students in kindergarten through 12th grade are minorities. The Census Bureau projects that in five years the number of nonwhite children will surpass 50 percent.

_The District of Columbia, Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas have minority populations greater than 50 percent. By 2020, eight more states are projected to join the list: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey and New York. Latinos already outnumber whites in New Mexico; California will tip to a Latino plurality next year.

_By 2039, racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the U.S. working-age population, helping to support a disproportionately elderly white population through Social Security and other payroll taxes. More than 1 in 4 people ages 18-64 will be Latino.

_The white population, now at 197.8 million, is projected to peak at 200 million in 2024, before entering a steady decline in absolute numbers. Currently 63 percent of the U.S. population, the white share is expected to drop below 50 percent by 2043, when racial and ethnic minorities will collectively become a U.S. majority. Hispanics will drive most of the minority growth, due mostly to high birth rates, jumping in share from 17 percent to 26 percent.

The pace of assimilation for today's Latinos and Asian-Americans is often compared with that of the Poles, Irish, Italians and Jews who arrived around the turn of the 20th century and eventually merged into an American white mainstream.

There was a backlash. By the 1930s, an immigrant-weary America had imposed strict quotas and closed its borders. Those newly arrived were pushed to conform and blend in with a white mainstream, benefiting from New Deal economic programs that generally excluded blacks. The immigration quotas also cut off the supply of new workers to ethnic enclaves and reduced social and economic contacts between immigrants and their countries of origin.

"America of the Melting Pot comes to End," read a 1924 opinion headline in The New York Times. The author, a U.S. senator, pledged that strict new immigration quotas would "preserve racial type as it exists here today."

Today, data show that Latinos are embracing U.S. life but also maintaining strong ties to their heritage, aided by a new stream of foreign-born immigrants who arrive each year. Hispanics, officially an ethnic group, strive to learn English and 1 in 4 intermarry, taking a white spouse.

Nowadays, immigrants face less pressure to conform than did their counterparts from a century ago. Latinos are protected as a minority, benefiting from the 1950s civil rights movement pioneered by blacks. Nearly 40 percent of Latinos now resist a white identity on census forms, checking a box indicating "some other race" to establish a Hispanic race identity.

While growing diversity is often a step toward a post-racial U.S., sociologists caution that the politics of racial diversity could just as easily become more magnified.

A first-of-its-kind AP poll conducted in 2011 found that a slight majority of whites expressed racial bias against Hispanics and that their attitudes were similar to or even greater than the bias they held toward blacks. Hispanics also remained somewhat residentially segregated from whites in lower-income neighborhoods, hurt in part by the disappearance of good-paying, midskill manufacturing jobs that helped white ethnics rise into the middle class during most of the 20th century.

The AP survey was conducted with researchers from Stanford University, the University of Michigan and NORC at the University of Chicago.

Harvard economist George Borjas projects that by 2030, the children of today's immigrants will earn on average 10 percent to 15 percent less than nonimmigrant Americans, based on past trends, and that Latinos will particularly struggle because of high rates of poverty, lack of citizenship and lower rates of education. In 1940, the children of early 20th-century white ethnics fared much better on average, earning 21.4 percent more than nonimmigrants.

About 35 percent of Hispanic babies are currently born into poverty, compared with 41 percent of blacks and 20 percent for whites.

"How America responds now to the new challenges of racial and ethnic diversity will determine whether it becomes a more open and inclusive society in the future ' one that provides equal opportunities and justice for all," said Daniel Lichter, a Cornell sociologist and past president of the Population Association of America.

The demographic shift has spurred debate as to whether some civil-rights era programs, such as affirmative action in college admissions, should begin to focus on income level rather than race or ethnicity. The Supreme Court will rule on the issue by late June.

Following a racially lopsided re-election, Obama has spoken broadly about promoting social and economic opportunity. In his State of the Union speech, he said that rebuilding the middle class is "our generation's task." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a rising star of a mostly white Republican party now eager to attract Latino voters, is courting supporters in both English and Spanish in part by pledging programs that would boost "social mobility."

Left unclear is how much of a role government can or should play in lifting the disadvantaged in an era of strapped federal budgets and rising debt.

The Latino immigrants include Irma Guereque, 60, of Las Vegas, who says enjoying a middle-class life is what's most important to her.

Things turned bad for the Mexico native in the recent recession after her work hours as a food server were cut at the Texas Station casino off the Strip. As a result, she couldn't make the mortgage payments on a spacious house she purchased and was forced to move into an apartment with her grandchildren.

While she's getting almost full-time hours now, money is often on her mind. Her finances mean retirement is hardly an option, even though she's got diabetes and is getting older.

Many politicians are "only thinking of the rich, and not the poor, and that's not right," Guereque said in Spanish. "We need opportunities for everyone."

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley in Montfermeil, France, Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro and Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

Also on HuffPost:

• Mexico

  The nation's highest Latino population comprises 31,798,000 immigrants. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the nation's highest number of Mexican immigrants, with 4,569,000, although other large concentrations are found in the Chicago metro area and throughout Texas.

• Puerto Rico

  The second-largest Hispanic group in the country, Puerto Ricans make up a population of 4,624,000. The nation's largest concentration (1,192,000 people) is situated in the New York-northeastern New Jersey area.

• Cuba

  The U.S. is home to approximately 1,786,000 Cuban immigrants. Many are concentrated in Miami (784,000, to be exact) as well as the Fort Lauderdale (84,000) and Tampa-St. Petersburg areas (81,000), although the New York/New Jersey area's population (130,000) is considerable, too.

• El Salvador

  Pockets of the nation's considerable Salvadorian population (1,649,000) exist on both coasts. Los Angeles and Long Beach are home to 414,000 Salvadorians; 240,000 live in Washington, D.C., and 187,000 call the New York metro area home.

• Dominican Republic

  Nearly half of the nation's Dominican population (1,415,000) happen to like New York -- 799,000 call it home. Other sizable pockets include the Boston/New Hampshire region (86,000) and Miami (59,000).

• Guatemala

  The U.S. is home to 1,044,000 Guatemalans, with 249,000 of those residing in the Los Angeles metro area. Meanwhile, 85,000 live in the New York metro area, with another 53,000 residing near Washington, D.C.

• Colombia

  Colombian immigrants account for 909,000 U.S. citizens. Of that, 119,000 live in Miami, and another 65,000 call Fort Lauderdale home.

• Honduras

  Some 633,000 U.S. residents identify as being of Honduran origin. Of that, 66,000 reside in the Houston-Brazoria, Texas, area.

• Ecuador

  A total of 565,000 people in the U.S. are of Ecuadorian origin. According to 2009 statistics, two thirds of the population (or 64 percent) live in the Northeast, with 41 percent living in New York.

• Peru

  Compared to other Hispanic groups, the Peruvian population (533,000) is considerably more geographically dispersed. About 19 percent of the population lives in Florida, while 12 percent resides in New York. Another 16 percent reside either in California or New Jersey.

Tea-Fueled Republican Resistance Compels Obama

As President Obama is discovering, election, or more particularly reelection, can be a waning mandate. Yes, he won his top rate tax increases in January'but less because Republicans accepted the verdict of last November than that they feared the blame in November 2014 if they conspicuously shattered the credit-worthiness and economic stability of the United States. And now we are at a point where Obama himself suggests that the differences are just "too wide" to achieve a "grand bargain" on America's fiscal future. The president says he won't yield if the GOP position is "we can only do revenue if we gut Medicare ... Social Security ... or education."

Read the whole story at The Daily Beast

James Zogby: I Was Wrong: Israeli-Palestinian Peace is on the President's Trip Agenda

A few weeks ago, I assumed that the main emphasis of President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to the Middle East would not be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taking my cues from Secretary of State John Kerry's recently completed trip and the way the White House had been "low-balling" expectations about making any progress in restarting Israeli-Palestinian talks, I thought that the president would focus his visit largely on the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program and the humanitarian and political crises resulting from the ever-worsening conflict in Syria.

However, after an hour-long meeting with the president and his national security staff, followed a few days later by a detailed press briefing on the president's itinerary by a Deputy National Security Advisor, it is clear that I was wrong.

Earlier this week, I was part of a group of Arab American leaders who met with President Obama and his senior advisers to discuss his visits to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. Following our conversation, the White House issued a statement saying, in part, that the president "underscored that the trip is an opportunity for him to demonstrate the United States' commitment to the Palestinian people -- in the West Bank and Gaza -- and to partnering with the Palestinian Authority as it continues building institutions that will be necessary to build a truly independent Palestinian state".

Our discussions with the president were instructive on many levels -- in particular, his interest in hearing our ideas about how to make the visit as productive and meaningful as possible. We offered a range of suggestions including the need to reach out directly to the Palestinian people: the business community struggling to create jobs; young people in need of hope; Christians concerned about their future in the Holy Land; women seeking empowerment; and those who are committed to a non-violent approach to challenging the occupation.

We emphasized that just as he intended, in Israel, to speak directly to the Israeli people, making clear to them his understanding of their history and his commitment to their security, it would be equally important to find opportunities to address remarks directly to ordinary Palestinians. In this context, we found promising the post-meeting statement issued by the White House and the details of the final trip schedule.

As has been made clear on several occasions by Administration officials, the president will not use this visit to offer a plan to immediately restart negotiations. Conditions simply do not exist for a peace-making initiative to bear fruit. The newly constituted Israeli government leans too far to the right. The Palestinian house is also in disarray, with reconciliation talks still stalled.

Given this, the best the president can do, in the short term, is attempt to speak directly to both peoples reasserting his commitment to them and to a peaceful future in an effort to change the discourse in both societies away from the cynicism and hardline views that have made progress toward peace so difficult.

Seen in this light, almost every aspect of the president's visit contains a message to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. He will want to win their confidence, demonstrating that he understands their histories and current realities. He will then note the dangers inherent in the current trajectory of regional developments and pose the challenges and opportunities that making peace will entail.

He will engage the leadership of both communities, but he will also go beyond the leaders to speak directly to young Israelis and Palestinians about their futures.

No doubt, both Iran and the Arab Spring will be topics of conversation in Israel and Jordan. While in Jordan, the president will want to support the changes underway and will encourage the King to continue on the path of reform. He will also focus on the impact of the humanitarian crisis which has seen hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees coming into Jordan, testing that country's resources and political order.

Another aspect of the Syrian war and the Middle East's tumultuous last decade is the increased vulnerability of the region's Christians. In a surprise move the White House added a stopover in Bethlehem between the President's visit to Israel and his trip to Jordan. Going to that city's Church of the Nativity will allow the president to focus attention on the two thousand year presence of Christians not only in the Holy Land, but in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.

It is important to note that while in Bethlehem the president's team will be able to see first-hand the impact of the occupation on Palestinian daily life. First and foremost will be the 30' wall that snakes around the little city cutting Bethlehem off from Jerusalem. And then there is the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. While the Israelis refer to this development as a "neighborhood" of Jerusalem, it is actually built on land seized in large part from Bethlehem. It will be recalled that in the late 1990s then President Bill Clinton strongly objected to Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to build Har Homa on the green hill of Jabal Abul Ghnaim. Netanyahu defied the U.S. Today that green space is gone, replaced by a settlement that is home to 15,000 Israelis (with expansion plans calling for a few thousand more). It, like the wall, separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

This will be the president's first trip of his second term and while he will not table a peace plan, every indication is that he remains committed to an Israeli-Palestinian peace. This trip is designed to be the beginning of a process to engage the Israeli and Palestinian peoples (and American Jews and Arab Americans) in an effort to win new support for peace-making efforts that will follow.

Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D.: Closer Than You Might Think: Where the UK Can Look for Drug Policy Answers

This week, the 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs - the single most important drug policy gathering in the world - met amidst new calls for legalization from some NGOs (no, Colorado and Washington did not send delegates and the US federal government maintained their position favoring demand reduction over legalization). These legalization groups, which represent a minority who want radical change, are riding a recent wave of renewed interest in their ideas from the landed gentry.

In January, for example, the United Kingdom All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform launched a new report on drug policy recommending the decriminalization of all drugs, including crack-cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and cannabis. The Group also called for the legalization of "less harmful drugs" because then "they will not be sold by dealers who sell dangerous substances and they will not be adulterated." The Group went on to indict UK drug policies as harsh and ineffective, praising other countries like Portugal instead. In fact, despite a very mixed record, Portugal has peculiarly become the poster-child for legalization, even though its policy represents nothing of the sort.

The UK, however, is an interesting example worth examining in detail. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has rejected legalization and will soon embark on an international expedition to find out what works. Indeed, the rest of the world has a lot to show Her Majesty's government - for example, the importance of community-based prevention and efforts to move addicts from incarceration to treatment. But while the recent emphasis on health-oriented approaches should be welcomed, the UK doesn't have to look as far as it might think to find real progress in drug policy.

In fact, one could argue that the current UK approach is one of Europe's best-kept secrets.

Slowly and quietly, with much contemplation and little fanfare, the UK has, over the last ten years, embarked on a new, recovery-oriented drug strategy that has produced impressive results.

And it deserves our attention.

Drug use has been falling in the UK while it has been rising in other countries (like the US and Portugal): overall drug use has fallen almost 15% between 2005 and 2011. And fewer people are using or injecting heroin and crack in England. This has translated to fewer people needing treatment. And it is not just drug use where we have good news. The National Treatment Agency is able to report that the average wait time for treatment has fallen from 9 weeks in 2001 to 5 days in 2012. Five days is still five too many, but it is certainly dramatic progress. The number of people living drug-free now has almost tripled. And, finally, their efforts contributed to a dramatic decrease in crime, saving the UK taxpayer almost a billion pounds.

Of course, it is hard to measure how many people stay drug free once their treatment (e.g. methadone) is terminated. We don't really know what happens when they do not return to treatment. There are likely multiple, complex factors that have contributed to these numbers. But Her Majesty's policy approach deserves at least some credit. Emphasis has been placed on prevention and treatment, while also reducing the harms drugs cause. The ultimate goal was to get people off of drugs, not maintain or encourage their addictions. This was done in a health-orientated way: involving hospitals and doctors, vastly expanding treatment, and implementing evidence-based drug prevention. It turns out that this has paid off, even if we have heard little about it amidst calls for reviews and Royal Commissions.

That the UK has experienced some unheralded successes in drug policy does not mean there isn't room for improvement. The "drug treatment court" model, which offers treatment alternatives to prisons has been successful in places like Scotland but desperately needs to be scaled-up and expanded in other regions. Drug prevention must begin to move from school-based interventions to more holistic approaches involving multiple community sectors. Efforts to curb the UK's dangerously high binge drinking rates, which result in car crashes and violence, must be tackled immediately through expanding existing pilot programs centered on random testing and modest sanctions. And the UK might learn something from innovative drug market initiatives shown to reduce street-crime and give low-level drugs dealers an honest second chance at entering the legal economy.

Besides omitting these real successes, the recent drug policy debate has put too many eggs into the legalization basket. Regulation of drugs by the state will do little to ensure street versions of those very same drugs - in higher potency and at a cost that just undercuts the government's offer - will simply go away. These drugs, then, still run the risk of adulteration and misuse. Advocates make the mistake of claiming that since alcohol and tobacco - two highly addictive drugs - are legal, others should be too. These two legal highs, however, point precisely to why we don't want to legalize anything else: they are cheap, easy to obtain, normalized, and ruthlessly promoted by big industries that rely on addiction for profit. As a result they are used more - and are the cause of more illness and crime - than all illegal drugs combined. How, then, do they provide any example for what to do with crack-cocaine or heroin?

And then there is the famous Portugal example, grossly mischaracterized by almost everyone in the drug debate. It is important to remember, first, that Portugal has not legalized or "regulated" drugs by any stretch of the imagination. They have removed criminal penalties for drug possession and they do refer people to panels of social workers that determine what is best for the user. And their record of success is mixed: overall drug (including cocaine) use has risen there and drug-deaths are also slightly increasing, but more people are entering and completing treatment than before. It seems that their policy is more of a work in progress than a case of unequivocal victory. One could argue that the UK policy is still a work in progress, but if we are to be frank about the numbers, the UK is farther along than one might initially think.

We are often faced with a false choice in this debate: either we must incarcerate drug users or we must legalize drugs. This false dichotomy fails to recognize that we can both reduce the consequences of drug use and discourage people from taking up drugs in the first place.

Isn't that, after all, what this is all about?

Follow Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevinsabet

Ex-JPMorgan Executive Points Finger At Others Over 'Whale' Loss

WASHINGTON ' JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon held back showing federal regulators reports in May that revealed the bank had accumulated billions of dollars in trading losses, according to congressional testimony Friday from the firm's former chief financial officer.

Douglas Braunstein, who is now a vice chairman at the bank, told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Dimon did not submit the daily reports for two weeks because he was concerned about "confidentiality."

Dimon ultimately acknowledged later that month that the firm had lost $2 billion on risky trades out of its London office. The losses have since been revised to more than $6 billion.

The Senate hearing was held a day after the subcommittee issued a scathing report that ascribed widespread blame for losses to key executives at the firm. The report said that the executives ignored growing risks and hid losses from investors and federal regulators.

After reading the report and hearing executives testify that they didn't know who was responsible for informing regulators, members of the panel questioned whether the nation's biggest bank had become too large to manage.

The "trading culture at JPMorgan ... piled on risk, hid losses, disregarded risk limits, manipulated risk models, dodged oversight and misinformed the public," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the subcommittee's chairman, said Friday at the hearing.

On Thursday, JPMorgan acknowledged it made mistakes but rejected any assertions that it concealed losses or risks. A spokesman declined to comment directly on the accusation that Dimon knew of the trading loss in April.

Dimon was not a witness at Friday's hearing.

In April, news reports said a trader in JPMorgan's London office known as "the whale" had taken huge risks that were roiling the markets. Dimon immediately dismissed the reports as a "tempest in a teapot" during a conference call with analysts.

But Dimon acknowledged the losses a month later. And he told a separate Senate committee in June that the bank showed "bad judgment," was "stupid" and "took far too much risk." He also had his compensation last year reduced by 50 percent, as did Braunstein.

The hearing featured testimony from Braunstein and Ina Drew, who was the firm's chief investment officer overseeing trading strategy at the time of the losses.

Both were asked about information that bank executives gave to federal examiners in April that significantly understated losses for the first quarter of 2012. The numbers they gave the regulators were well below what was known inside the bank, said Levin.

"The number I reported (to the regulators) was the number that was given to me," Drew testified.

Drew blamed the losses on executives under her watch who failed to control risks out of the London office. She said that undermined her oversight and kept her from preventing the losses.

Braunstein acknowledged that risk models for the trading operation were changed in a way that was improper early last year. The changes made the bank's trading losses appear smaller than they were.

After the trading loss came to light, Drew resigned after 30 years with the firm and voluntarily paid back two years of salary.

She said Friday that while she doesn't believe she bore personal responsibility for the losses, she decided to step down to make it easier for JPMorgan "to move beyond these issues." Her comments were her first public remarks since leaving the firm.

The loss came less than four years after the 2008 financial crisis and hurt the reputation of a bank that had come through the crisis known for taking fewer risks than its competitors. Three employees in the London office were fired ' two senior managers and a trader. It also led to Drew's resignation.

Also on HuffPost:

• London Whale

  The bank's chief investment office gambled on credit derivatives, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/jpmorgan-chase-q02-earnings-2012_n_1670629.html" target="_hplink">losing $5.8 billion</a> (so far), and its trading desk may have tried to hide the losses from the home office. The bank says it is being sued by shareholders over the losses and has gotten subpoenas and requests for information from "Congress, the OCC, Federal Reserve, DOJ, SEC, CFTC, UK Financial Services Authority, the State of Massachusetts and other government agencies, including in Japan, Singapore and Germany."

• Milan Swap Deal

  The bank has faced <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-18/milan-swaps-prosecutor-seeks-ban-on-4-banks-from-government-work.html" target="_hplink">lawsuits and criminal investigations</a> over an interest-rate swap deal it made with the city of Milan, Italy, back in 2005. The bank settled a civil suit, but criminal charges are still pending against the bank and several employees, with hearings in the trial "occurring on a weekly basis since May 2010."

• Enron

  The bank and some of its executives are still being sued over the bank's relationship with the failed, fraud-ridden energy giant, more than a decade after its failure.

• Energy Manipulation

  Speaking of Enron, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-gongloff/jpmorgan-chase-power-market_b_1647131.html" target="_hplink">Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is investigating</a> charges that JPMorgan manipulated power markets in California and the Midwest.

• Credit Card Swipe Fees

  The bank said in the filing that <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-09/jpmorgan-says-credit-card-swipe-case-cost-1-2-billion.html" target="_hplink">it will pay about $1.2 billion</a> to settle charges that it conspired with MasterCard and Visa to rig credit-card swipe fees.

• Libor

  The bank is being investigated by regulators all over the world for its <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/jpmorgan-chase-libor-subpoenas_n_1760015.html" target="_hplink">alleged involvement in manipulating Libor</a>, a short-term interest rate that affects borrowing costs for people, businesses and governments all over the world.

• Madoff Ponzi Scheme

  Several lawsuits have accused the bank of aiding and abetting Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the biggest in history. The Madoff bankruptcy trustee and others have also sued the bank to get back some Madoff clients' money.

• MF Global

  The bank is under investigation by regulators for its <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fhalahtouryalai%2F2012%2F06%2F04%2Fjpmorgans-other-messy-problem-mf-globals-missing-money%2F&ei=Ui0lUNP7Eqe96QHP94CABA&usg=AFQjCNEJVDksnFTh3KP1uS3u73bLgoSfZQ" target="_hplink">relationship with the failed brokerage firm MF Global</a>. It is also being sued for allegedly aiding and abetting MF Global misuse of customer money.

• Mortgage Backed Securities

  The bank is being sued by hordes of investors for its bundling and selling of mortgage-backed securities packed with bad mortgage debt before the financial crisis. "There are currently pending and tolled investor claims involving approximately $130 billion of such securities," the bank says.

• Mortgage Foreclosures

  The bank was part of the big <a href="http://nationalmortgagesettlement.com/" target="_hplink">$25 billion settlement</a> with the government over mortgage-foreclosure abuses. But there are still several lawsuits and regulatory actions pending against the bank over its foreclosure practices.

• Peregrine Financial

  The bank didn't mention this in its regulatory filing, but it is also involved in the failure of the Iowa brokerage firm Peregrine Financial. JPMorgan <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/pfg-customer-account-jpmorgan-chase_n_1668386.html" target="_hplink">holds some customer money for the firm</a>, and recently <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/08/06/jp-morgan-objects-to-terms-proposed-by-peregrine-trustee/" target="_hplink">tussled in court</a> with the PFG bankruptcy trustee.

Rev. Dr. Cindi Love: Republicans, Report Cards & Roll Call

On March 11, 2013, I was privileged to join hundreds of my fellow citizens for Equality Texas Lobby Day in Austin.

I wore several hats that day -- member of the Religion & Faith Council for the Human Rights Campaign, Executive Director of Soulforce, licensed clergy fourth-generation Texan and, I like to believe, a disciple of Jesus.

Our lobby group came from around the state, encouraged to join the effort by Chuck Smith, Executive Director of Equality Texas. Lobby Day has happened before but this one was the largest in attendance ever 550-plus. Chuck and his team did an extraordinary job communicating the issues to all of us and lighting a fire under us as voters and concerned citizens. Thank you, Chuck!

We arrived on the first day of Spring Break. It seemed particularly fitting that the Capitol Rotunda was filled with families with children and teachers because we were there to visit with legislators about inclusive policies that protect all children, end discrimination and strengthen relationships.

In advance of our arrival, I called six legislative offices of Republicans and made an appointment for my team of five colleagues to discuss House Bill 1300 (sponsored by Rep. Lon Burnam in Fort Worth). This bill will repeal language added to the family code in 2003 that prohibits the freedom to marry for same-gender loving couples.

The history of this bill is that in 2003, the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Defense of Marriage Act eliminating the freedom to marry for lesbian, gay, bisexual Texans in same-gender relationships. In 2005, the Texas Constitution was similarly amended.

HB 1300 will also add language to the family code to ensure that the rights and responsibilities of marriage are available to every committed couple. Less than 50 words must change in the current code to release LGBT families from overt discrimination under the law in Texas.

We all took time off work to travel to Austin because we wanted to ensure that our representatives knew this bill was in committee since they have to sort through thousands of bills.

We wanted them to know that the most recent study of baseline registered voters in Texas indicates that 69 percent of Texans believe that there should be some form of legal recognition for same-gender couples.

And we wanted to stand with the bill's sponsor Rep. Burnam and echo his words:

"Texans have long valued personal freedom (and) it is time to apply that value to this issue. And, the nation and the people of Texas have evolved on the issue of marriage since the Constitutional amendment was approved by voters in 2005. Attitudes are changing."

As we made our rounds, we heard a recurring concern about the ability of our representatives to truly represent us.

They talked about report cards or score cards being used to rate them by ultra conservative groups within the Republican party and external funders of the party.

Bottom-line, these groups are holding our representatives "hostage" to voting blocs or covenants that exclude justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Many of our representatives seem more focused on getting an "A" from these groups than on representing us.

Our legislators talked about the "difficult environment" in which they were trying to work. It made me think about a movie i just saw -- Lincoln. He seemed to manage in a tough environment, to keep his commitment to liberty and justice for all citizens at the center of his understanding.

No doubt his report card from his opponents was often failing. I shudder to think where we would be today if his grade from them had been an A.

As we neared the end of our meetings, a siren began to sound in the offices and hallways of the Capitol. It was a loud, unpleasant and persistent reminder that roll call was underway for legislators due on the floor to vet and vote on the bills before them.

It was a shrill reminder that they can't hide from their responsibilities as our elected officials even if our current environment might encourage them to do so. They have to show up. Their job is to ensure that every citizen of Texas has a voice and, I believe, we elect them to face lines of resistance to full equality and try to break through.

In spite of my ideological differences with my Republican representatives, I had a moment of understanding and empathy as the roll call siren continued to blare. There must be moments when they would rather hide under their desks than enter a room full of people set to disagree and disavow equal protection under the law.

They are engaged in a game they cannot win, a gridlock of mindsets and power brokers. If they "break" with the master plan of the most conservative factions in their party, they lose. If they don't vote for true equality and justice for all of their constituents, they lose. They have to decide where they want to stand.

I want to thank each of these representatives for meeting with us and for listening to our stories and our requests. I felt respected and heard.

I hope they will remember us and see our faces and hear our stories when they deliberate about what it means to be equal under the laws of Texas and our nation. I hope each of of them will vote according to his or her conscience and in accordance with the people they represent, not the people they fear.

I plan to pray for each of the six representatives whose offices we visited. If you pray, I hope you will join me. If you set positive intentions and affirmations for the world, I hope you will set them.

If you want to join me in thanking them for hearing us and/or write them your wishes and dreams about justice, their names are:

• Senator Robert F. Deuell. His Legislative Director is Scot Kibbe. scot.kibbe@senate.state.tx.us
• Representative Pat Fallon District 106 His Administrative Assistant is Megan Titford. megan.titford@house.state.tx.us
• Representative Joe Farias District 118. His Legislative Director is Ana Ramon. ana.ramon@house.state.tx.us.
• Representative Larry Phillips District 62. His Legislative Aide is Matt Ashley. matt.ashley@house.state.tx.us
• Representative Van Taylor District 66. His Scheduler is Rachel Pace. rachel.pace@house.state.tx.us
• Representative Craig Eiland. District 23. His Legislative Aide is Anne Drescher. anne.drescher@house.state.tx.us

When the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive. -- Mary Oliver

Follow Rev. Dr. Cindi Love on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SoulforceLove