Our nearly century-long experiment in banning marijuana has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did... In contrast, legalizing and taxing marijuana would bring in substantial sums that could be used to pay for schools, libraries or early childhood education.
Interpretation
The failed attempt to ban marijuana is likened to Prohibition, suggesting that legalization could provide financial benefits for public services.
In this quote, Kristof highlights the historical failure of marijuana prohibition, comparing it to the failed alcohol Prohibition in the early 20th century. He argues that rather than continuing a policy that has proven ineffective, society should consider the potential benefits of legalizing and taxing marijuana, which could generate significant revenue for vital public services such as education. This perspective prompts a reevaluation of the legal status of marijuana and its implications for society.
In practice
In a debate about drug policy, one might cite this quote to advocate for legalization.
More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century. The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day... life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country than in the west. That should be an international scandal.
The fact that people will pay you to talk to people and travel to interesting places and write about what intrigues you, I am just amazed by that.
Abortion politics have distracted all sides from what is really essential: a major aid campaign to improve midwifery, prenatal care and emergency obstetric services in poor countries.
You will be judged in years to come by how you responded to genocide on your watch.
It’s time for a 21st-century abolitionist movement in the U.S and around the world.
Just a little help, a small security force, a bit of food, can save lives
At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.
I live in my house as I live inside my skin: I know more beautiful, more ample, more sturdy and more picturesque skins: but it would seem to me unnatural to exchange them for mine.
And just as there are no crimes so detestable that they can prevent the gift of grace, so too there can be no works so eminent that they are owed in condign [deserved] judgment that which is given freely. Would it not be a debasement of redemption in Christ’s blood, and would not God’s mercy be made secondary to human works, if justification, which is through grace, were owed in view of preceding merits, so that it were not the gift of a Donor, but the wages of a laborer?
God is always joking. Look at your own life - it is a joke! Look at other people's lives, and you will find jokes and jokes and jokes. Seriousness is illness; seriousness has nothing spiritual about it. Spirituality is laughter, spirituality is joy, spirituality is fun.
The next time someone uses denial of citizenship as a weapon or brandishes the special status conferred upon him by the accident of birth, ask him this: What have you done lately to earn it?
Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.