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May 2002
Posted May 12, 2002
Does drug abuse support terrorists? Spring 2002 -
Substance abuse is bad. Whether it's food, tobacco, caffeine, sugar or drugs, the effects are toxic. Moreover, according to President Bush, abusing illicit drugs supports terrorism:
"It's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists, that terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder." - President George W. Bush, President Empowers Communities in Fight Against Illegal Drug Abuse, December 14, 2001
The best cure is prevention. Prevention is most effectively accomplished with love, good role models, a stable home, active community life, communication and honesty. That's what the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign recommends. Unfortunately, following in our president's footsteps, they don't practice what they preach.
"There is an undeniable link between acts of terror and illicit drugs. ... The bottom line is simple: terror and drug groups are linked in a mutually-beneficial relationship by money, tactics, geography and politics."
This is a lie by omission. The omission is that the terrorists aren't supported by drug abuse, but by the black market in drugs created by laws prohibiting their use:
"But what makes the drug trade so profitable? Just one thing: The U.S. war on drugs. How ironic! The war on drugs is now necessitating the war on terrorism. War does indeed beget war." - Sheldon Richman, Terrorism and the Drug War, The Future of Freedom Foundation, November 2001
But isn't it true that terrorists rely on the black market in drugs to finance their operations? Without a doubt:
"Drugs form an important part of the financial infrastructure of terror networks. Twelve of the 28 terror organizations identified by the U.S. Department of State in October 2001 traffic in drugs. Drug income is the primary source of revenue for many of the more powerful international terrorist groups."
The sad truth behind this, however, is that absent the war on drugs, there would be no black market for the terrorist organizations to prey upon:
"Make no mistake about it: it is U.S. policy that creates a harmony of interests between violent guerilla organizations and poor farmers trying to make a living by growing crops needed for the production of drugs." - Sheldon Richman, Terrorism and the Drug War, The Future of Freedom Foundation, November 2001
So in the final analysis, it's not individual drug abusers who support the terrorists, but the ill-advised and ineffective policies of the American government:
"Let's be blunt: every U.S. drug czar has been an unwitting financier for terrorists." - Sheldon Richman, Terrorism and the Drug War, The Future of Freedom Foundation, November 2001
The only way to break this link is not to lie to our children, but to destroy the black market in drugs by ending the prohibition which creates it. Then we can focus our efforts where they really belong: on creating communities and families where drug abuse is discouraged through communication, honesty and love.
- Truth. The Anti-Drug.
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April 2002
Posted April 10, 2002
Kenneth Minogue - Do nothing about bullying? Winter 2002 -
I was a childhood victim of bullies.
Aw, boo hoo! Get over it. Stop being a cry baby.
Yer sweet. But if one night you run into some bullies, I'm one friendly face you'd like to see in that dark alley because now I weigh 220lbs and while I'm no Arnold Schwarzenbigger...well, that's the point, isn't it: Most folks aren't an Arnold, especially not when they're kids and a group of mini-thugs are ganging up on them. But Mr. Minogue, who lives in England where it has been institutionalized by class distinctions, believes bullying is natural:
"Bullying with us, then, is a natural yet a rather alien type of behavior, like oppression, harassment, and threats, and with these things, as with bullying, the current tendency is for the state to move in on it as the all-purpose solver of problems."
Ah, there's the rub: to admit it's a social rather than individual issue is to suggest there's a social solution, and in the public sphere pseudo-conservatives believe that, aside from sex, drugs and thinking, the government should take a hands-off approach to individual problems, like poverty, health care and monopolistic corporations. Hence, programs to end bullying, which produce citizens who don't take kindly to being pushed around, rankle the Right:
"Hence the official response to bullying tends to be that the victim of it should report it to the teacher, who would then take the matter up with disciplinary committees."
Sounds okay to me. But I am by no means objective on the issue. Being a working class Indian kid with Asperger's Disorder in a predominantly upper middle class white community, school yard politics wasn't merely a matter of dealing with one or two rough and tumble classmates, but of being hounded, harassed, stoned and beaten by dozens of little white tyrants-in-training. It was being sexually molested and abused. And it was being ignored by white teachers who, in those days, didn't give a damn.
"In the past, the victim of bullying who ran to the teacher would have been despised as a 'sneak.' The thing called 'telling tales' was much despised. On the other hand, this rather muscular ethic, demanding courage from the victim of bullying, can leave timid children at the mercy of some pretty thuggish fellows at school."
Well, I wasn't what you'd call timid, though like most people with Asperger's I tend to be naïve and oblivious to social cues. But I knew as most do what is fair, and when, after fairly defending myself I saw my giggling white tormenters snicker as I was carted off to the principal's office, I looked askance at Mark Twain's disdainful characterization of Tom Sawyer's cousin Sid as a cowardly snitch.
"The only conclusion one can seriously draw is that there is no real solution to any of the problems that arise from the imperfections of human nature."
Nonsense. A solution can be found in the firm but even-handed enforcement of the rules. That means no favoritism, no tolerance of bullies, and no brushing off reports of bullying as the sniveling of a tattletale.
"Perhaps one problem lies in our very modern assumption that schooldays should be full of pleasure and enjoyment."
That's like dismissing advocates of mass production lines, such as Henry Ford, for assuming that the manufacturing process should be efficient and cost-effective. And I don't buy it. Programs to eliminate bullying won't create idyllic classrooms, but they will help instill respect in our students, something our society has lacked since Dewey's Progressivist policies took over public education in America.
"A century ago, many people found school a miserable experience. That may not have been ideal, but what it meant to many was that the rest of life was, by comparison, a downhill breeze."
That's a good joke. Although our schools may be cracking down on bullying, it's still rampant throughout much of the rest of society: at work, on our highways, and even in health clubs. Recently, the Washington State Human Rights Commission told me that if a person who joins a health club is sensitive to being bullied, then they need to alert the club management of this up front. Otherwise, if you're bullied then you have no recourse. More about that in a later article. But what should young people do when they're being bullied?
"Tell the bully to stop. Tell a teacher. Reach out in friendship." - Stan Davis, Banishing bullying, Portland Press Herald, December 2, 2001
To turn kids away from bullying is a worthy cause, to excuse it as natural is not.
- Independent Women's Forum.
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