This is an important step which shows that President Clinton has taken action to prove that he deserves to be called "America's First Black President." As a strong supporter of President Clinton, I was very disappointed in several steps taken by the former President that resulted in serious negative consequences for Black America. As President, Clinton signed the bill that ended welfare. Make no mistake, "I am all for ending welfare." The bill to end welfare did more harm than good for our communities and our country. Since the passing of the bill to end welfare, the number of black women in prison has trippled and the number of black children who have mothers in prison for nonviolent drug offenses has reached an all time high. I feel,there were not sufficient programs in place for counseling, educational training, parenting skills and job training to prepare young black mothers to move from welfare to become productive citizens. Also, incarceration has hindered their chances of moving from welfare to work. Studies show that employers discriminate against individuals with drug offenses. Black women who were once on welfare and are now incarcerated for crack cocaine offenses find that they cannot find jobs. This has been devastating to black women, their children and Black America. I hope President Clinton will join others who support recovery programs, counseling, education, job training, safe drug-free housing and other reentry programs for all individuals sentenced for crack cocaine offenses. To help make a wrong "right," treating the offender population could measurably lower the demand for crack cocaine and other drugs in our society, reduce the crime rate, and create a much fairer "From Welfare to Work Program.

Now that he's out of public office Clinton has an opportunity to address both "errors of commission as well as omission" that occurred during his tenure, unless of course he's worried that could potentially damage his wife's presidential aspirations and any looming battles with the cash-drug nexus and the "drug warriors" when thinking about "rational" drug control policies & budgetary allocations once elected. For a start, why not just feed Clinton the websites for the Drug Policy Alliance and the Harm Reduction Coalition. With over a hundred years of irrational drug policy behind us it didn't seem to hurt former Drug Czars by jumping on board! My guess though is that Clinton will be shrewd enough to avoid doing any of that at least until "after Nov. 2008". RBS