Moral Progress
by
Matt Giwer (c) 1994 <9/7>

      Often we become depressed over the morality of our public officials. We see graft and corruption in the news and ten times as much commonly known or rumored. We often despair that this can ever be corrected.
      But there is good news. There has been massive progress in the moral standards of public officials over the last sixty to seventy years. When we look back to the time of Prohibition we say judges, prosecutors, the police and politcians at all levels on the take.
      Back then the FBI was active in ferreting out this corruption. It was common knowledge that it was happening. After all, considering all the effort being expended against illegal alcohol it was obvious that, with alcohol being so available, there was no other possible explanation.
      Consider the progress we have made today. Despite the ready availability of drugs no public official today is taking money from anyone involved in drugs. The FBI has not even bothered to search it out as it is clear there is none.
      This is an outstanding example of how moral progess is possible and that people can change. Despite the tens of millions of dollars the drug cartels have to buy protection, and certainly they have offered it, no one has accepted it. Consider no one has taken that money.
      Occasionally you will hear of an official or police officer who has been found using them and even less common dealing them but these are personal failings and do not reflect upon the use of their public office.
      Consider, despite the graft and corruption the comes to like in other areas where there is less money to buy protection, in the area where there is the most money our public officials are prisine.
      And this has been going on for about two decades when major smuggling operations started. First marijuana and then cocaine along with a major increase in that old favorite heroin and for all these years no corruption.
      A cynic may say there is enough money to keep it all quiet but how could that be? We have the FBI and the DEA specifically charged with finding such corruption. The FBI at least is still an incorruptible agency in the mold of J. Edgar Hoover.
      And they uncover no one and find no problems for this last score of years. Thefore we know the cynic must be wrong. The FBI would never be on the take not to find drug corruption.
      As I write I am listening to the new of St. Petersburg with the police department, the sheriff's office and the DEA roaming the city with 400 warrants and having made 30 arrests as of the 2pm news. It was announced they were all for a cocaine and crack ring.
      Do you not admire a coordinated operation to shut down drug distribution in the city that puts it on the radio while it is in progress? Do you not have to respect these law enforcement agencies knowing the dealers mainly sell during the day and do not have radios? This way they can keep the citizens aware of what a great job they are doing fighting drugs and still make all 400 arrests.
      Consider the days of Prohibition where a cop on the take would phone the place to be raided and warn them. That is such blatant and obvious corruption. But announcing the operation to the press and getting minute by minute coverage nothing is compromised and there is no corruption.
      Again the cynic might suggest drug dealers or even buyers might listen to radio but there have been laws passed against boom boxes so they no longer exist. We all know the rock stations do not cover local news so even if they had any kind of radio they would never learn what is happening until they are arrested. But there is no need to single out Tampa, this is the strategy in all cities.
      There is no conclusion other than there has been a great leap in the moral evolution of our public figures since early in this century. This is a remarkable event in that it is perhaps the first time in history where, whithout any increase in threat or penalty, the level of corruption has so markedly and observably decreased and in such a short period of time. And this in the face of perhaps a greater temptation from more sources and even more money available for graft.
      This change is certainly worthy of serious study by socialogists as if why it has happened can be discovered perhaps it can be applied to other areas of human affairs, perhaps even the drug dealers themselves. I am proud to be the first to identify this phenomon and hope it can be used for the betterment of the human race.