May 16th, 2009
I see the Obama administration is talking about ending the “war on drugs” that’s been so popular with our political class over the past 25 years.
Whether anything actually changes in the short term is open for interpretation, but the hypocrisy all of this among people of “My Generation” is absolutely ridiculous.
People of the Baby boom and Gen X generations love to gather in social settings and recall their younger days. They joke that “if you remember the 1960s (or 1970s) you weren’t there,” meaning, of course, that in their social circles, everyone was high on drugs. They generally agree that they had a wonderful time while floating on a chemical Cloud Nine.
Meanwhile, on the streets of 21st century America, cops and federal agents dragoon young, mostly poor, nonwhite people, and throw them behind bars because they use, sell or deal in drugs. Judges sentence them strictly and they fill up the prisons.
There’s a gigantic disconnect at work here. If “My Generation” did not think drugs were a big deal, why do we — the generation that now runs everything — persist with this War on Drugs? on younger generations?
Sooner or later Americans will legalize marijuana, and perhaps other drugs. We tried prohibition of alcoholic beverages once, and it made most Americans criminals, because they continued to drink. Their supply of booze came from a vast criminal enterprise that made untold billions of dollars.
We finally repealed the 18th amendment in 1934 and legalized booze, then taxed it heavily.
Sooner or later, this country will be forced to begin a serious discussion of the legalization of drugs. Not because we want to, but because it will dawn on us that we can’t afford the war. We can’t keep building bigger and bigger prisons to house the teeming millions involved in the many criminal enterprises associated with illegal drug making, drug sales and use.
May 16th, 2009
The news that Strandquist Chrysler has been yanked from the ranks of Chrysler dealers by the rapidly downsizing Chrysler LLC is a body blow to downtown Rockford, particularly the west side part of it. Strandquist, in business since the 1940s, will no longer be able to sell new Chrysler products. The firm says it will soldier on as a used car dealer, parts and maintenance operation.
Strandquist is the last of the new car dealers on the west side of Rockford. Once, most of them were there. I can remember as a child of 6 when my parents and I went down to Nash Illinois to buy a brand-new red and white 1955 Nash Statesman Custom, with the fancy tire kit on the back, dual carb and a stick shift with overdrive, which, as my father constantly reminded me, (I don’t know why) kicked in at precisely 28 mph.
It wasn’t the first Nash we had — our previous Nash was a 1951 bathtub Hydra-Matic Nash so underpowered that the car went from zero to 60 in about 15 days.
The ‘55 Nash was much faster, and it was the first new car in the family since my dad’s parents bought a Willys-Overland just after World War I in 1919. (In World War II, Willys-Overland had the contract to provide the Army with a General Purpose Vehicle, or GP. It was instantly and forever known as the Jeep.)
Nash Illinois became Rockford Rambler, and we bought six more cars from them throughout the 1960s.
Why’d we buy AMC cars? Simple. My dad knew the owner of the dealership and got good deals. Nash Illinois/Rockford Rambler was located on the block now occupied by the bus garage.)
Other west side downtown dealers I remember were: Blackhawk Pontiac (which later became Rockford Honda) and Bill Hembrough Buick, both on West State Street; Williamson Ford and Manning-Bachrodt Chevrolet, both of which were over behind the post office near where the new federal courthouse is going up. Caster Motors was over by the Chestnut Street Bridge, I think they sold Dodges and DeSotos, I’m not quite sure.
On the east side of downtown, Humphrey Cadillac & Olds was on Jefferson Street a block east of Trinity Lutheran. The lone surviving downtown new car dealer is — Fran Kral Lincoln Mercury. That’s on the site of the old Hess Brothers Department Store. I bought a new Mercury Sable there in 1986.
Another dealer I’m sorry to see lose a franchise is Wolf Chevrolet in Belvidere. Bill Wolf was loyal to the Chevy brand throughout the years and did not add other makes; and this is how the family gets rewarded by the new GM (Government Motors.)
Too bad. I hope they pick up a new franchise. Kia is building a plant in Georgia. That’s my suggestion. They’re good cars.
One thing I heard Scott Bryden say on TV makes sense. Dealers don’t cost car companies money, the Ford dealer said from his Durand showroom. Rather, dealers buy cars and parts from the auto companies. The car companies MAKE money from their dealers. Common sense would indicate that the companies would want more dealers, not fewer.
But what do I know? I’ve never owned a car company. But as a taxpayer, I’m closer than you think.
Here’s a sobering statistic: The nearly 1,900 Chrysler and GM dealerships losing their franchises employ 103,000 people.
Car dealers are local companies. They give money to charities, sponsor youth sports teams, and advertise in newspapers. That advertising helps pay my salary.
