Vice Squad

Metaphor - something with a literal and symbolic meaning.

A Screeching Weasel lyric from long ago: "I see rioting; I see bodies in the streets."

Today, while running with Patrick, it occurred to me that I look for signs of vice in street trash: syringes, condoms, coke bags. They stand out like rings on a beach.

Why is this?

I blame the counterproductivity of anti-drug education in the 1980s.

Commercials, Officer Friendly, and in-school programs had me convinced that only bad people did drugs. Drugs were in the inner city, hidden in the ghetto. It didn't help that Officer Friendly, the D.A.R.E. lion (what was his name?), and the people in the commercials were all white. I grew up thinking only bad people did drugs.

Now I know a lot of people who use drugs. And they're not all bad. But they're not all very good.