Recently the rest of the world discovered what those of us who live in the middle of it have known for years: There is a Washington, D.C., that is geographically close to, but by every other indicator at the other side of the world from, the power center that usually makes headlines. In recent months this other Washington has stolen much of the attention, as reports in major newspapers and magazines, and television documentaries with titles such as State of Emergency and Murder Capital USA, offer graphic portrayals of life on the streets of the nation's capital.
In the first days of April, The Washington Post published a front-page series called "At the Roots of the Violence." The second installment outlined the "code of conduct" of the streets' drug dealers, who have been both source and target of most of the violence: "Never back down.... Be willing to kill or die to defend your honor.... Protect your reputation and manhood at all costs...." Those who best follow this code are known in street language as "soldiers." One of them answered a reporter's question about why they are so ready to shoot: "I guess it's greed for that money."
Following the printed code of conduct in the newspaper was this observation: "It is a way of behaving that flies in the face of traditional American values."
But the values observed on the streets bear a remarkable resemblance to the way this nation conducts its foreign policy. And if the rules of the drug dealers' game indeed do not reflect traditional American values, why do these same values assault our children daily from movie screens and television sets? Why is it that everything from television commercials to college courses teach that acquisition of money and possessions is the primary sign of status and success in this country? And why is it that developers who evict the poor from neighborhoods such as mine and make millions on real estate deals are applauded as shrewd capitalists instead of convicted as criminals?
I live in what is, according to one observer, "the most murderous neighborhood in the most murderous city in the most murderous nation in the world." I am tired of hearing the sirens and watching the terrorized faces; of seeing families put out of their homes and watching young friends, unable to resist the overwhelming pull of drugs, wind up broken and lost--or dead. And I am tired of people talking about the "roots of the violence" without talking about unemployment and poverty and substandard education--and the fact that this city and this nation by their policies and priorities have in fact consigned some of the people in my neighborhood to death.
SO FAR THE ANSWERS to this crisis--which is engulfing not only neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., but also other cities across the nation--amount to a "war on drugs," matching force with force: Add more police officers, give them six-day work weeks, and issue them semi-automatic weapons; build more and bigger prisons; and federalize the police or send in the National Guard to patrol the streets.
It is the late-'80s answer to the same cauldron of desperation that caused the streets to erupt in riots 20 years ago. This time illegal drugs have raised the brutality of the violence, catching many innocent bystanders in its ugly tide.
The problem is being cast by many of the people in charge here, particularly the mayor, as a question of "image. " "Image-makers" have been brought in and given the task of assuring tourists and conventioneers that Washington is still a safe and beautiful city. And television personalities and sports stars are being lined up to encourage young people to "just say no. " No one seems to see the irony of these role models with multimillion-dollar contracts telling young black children essentially to settle for a minimum-wage job at McDonald's and resist the temptation to make thousands of dollars a week selling drugs.
Leaders bear some of the responsibility for the problem. The effectiveness of Washington, D.C. 's Mayor Marion Barry is tainted by allegations of his own ties to convicted drug dealers and by his unwillingness to offer straight answers about the crisis. And aside from an import ban on semi-automatic weapons, George Bush has refused to endorse gun control legislation that would begin to curb the influx of some of the most lethal weapons on the streets.
Gun control is indeed a start in bringing a halt to the killing. The "Brady Amendment" requiring a seven-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns has been reintroduced into the House of Representatives, after being defeated by a multimillion-dollar campaign of the National Rifle Association. The Senate is considering legislation that would ban the importation and sale of new semi-automatic assault weapons, the guns of choice for many drug dealers.
Such bills, as well as other measures that would restrict the lethal force on the streets, deserve our full support. They will leave a few less people lying in our hospitals' emergency rooms with wounds that some doctors and paramedics are now comparing to the trauma they saw on the battlefields during the Vietnam War. But these measures only attack symptoms, leaving the disease to run rampant and unchecked.
The Washington Post report ended with the pronouncement of a D.C. Superior Court judge on the fate of one of the "soldiers": "I am persuaded... that he presents a danger to the community unless and until his value system can somehow be put into a civilized mode." The problem in this country is that too many people are putting the values of greed and might into a "civilized mode."
Downtown Washington, D.C., and its inner-city streets are not worlds apart after all. The crisis belongs to all of us. And it will not change until we change.
Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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