Date: Thursday, December 09, 2010, 6:19 am
By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com
A needle exchange program assumes that people who are by definition irresponsible are, all of a sudden, going to be responsible. As a rule, I tend to like documentaries. I even like "The Other City," which is currently being aired intermittently on the Showtime cable and satellite premium channel.
"The Other City" is about a depressing topic: The horrendous rate of HIV infection in the nation’s capital, which the film’s producers tell viewers is higher than that in both Port au Prince, Haiti and Dakar, Senegal.
If it weren’t for the silly finger-pointing that goes on in "The Other City" about who’s responsible for Washington, D.C.’s high HIV infection rate, the producers would have one darned fine film. But the usual culprits are dragged out, and they are who you expect them to be.
Fewer than 30 minutes into the film, Washington Post columnist Colbert King was talking about the congressional ban on a needle exchange program for the city’s heroin addicts.
“If it were possible legally, which it’s not,” King said, “you could bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the Congress. You’re talking about actions that the government failed to take, that could have been taken, should have been taken that could have prevented somebody’s death. Yeah, they’re culpable.”
