>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <04c701bf252d$3673fbb0$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Op-ed submission >Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 04:24:30 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Please forward to the op-ed submission editor. > >Thank you. > >----- > >The Latest Group It's Great to Hate > >The Boston Globe has been the recent battleground over whether the War on >Drugs is "working." Whether it's "working" or not makes no more difference >than whether segregation, anti-Semitism, or suppression of Irish Catholics >"worked." The central truth about the War on Drugs is that it is the worst >American violation of civil and human rights since slavery. > >To wage war on otherwise law-abiding adults who simply choose to use one >intoxicant over another is absurd, hateful, and un-American. It is a >fundamental violation of the "inalienable right" of "life, liberty, and the >pursuit of happiness" on which this country was founded. The Boston Tea >Party, you will recall, was in protest to an unfair tax on a popular drug. >At one time tea and its evil twin coffee were considered the "poisoners of >youth." > >We like to forget our hateful past and the races, religions, nationalities, >and indulgers in minority activities that suffered from popular >demonization. Forgetting may be good for the national psyche, but it allows >us to repeat our harmful folly over and over again. > >The War on Drugs is simply the latest bigotry wolf in sheep's clothing. It >fits neatly into the "traditional American values" that include the Salem >witch hunts, slavery, anti-Semitism, the genocide of Native Americans, >denying women the vote, lynching, segregation, Prohibition, the World War II >imprisonment of Japanese Americans, and McCarthyism. > >To illustrate my point, simply substitute one of our previously >institutionalized prejudices for our current drug-fighting organizations. >There are people in Boston who remember when it was unsafe to be Irish >Catholic. Does the Partnership for a Irish Catholic-Free America sound like >one of the many "civic groups" formed a hundred years ago to deal with the >"Irish Catholic Problem"? In place of the Drug Enforcement Administration, >consider the Negro Enforcement Administration, "to enforce the Negro control >laws and regulations of the United States." Or imagine a former general as >the "Jew Czar," a cabinet-level head of the National Office of Jewish >Control Policy. > >Impossible? Only six decades ago "right-thinking" people would have praised >such an office. In his then-acclaimed book, "The International Jew: The >World's Foremost Problem," Henry Ford (yes, THE Henry Ford) combined his >three favorite passions, anti-Semitism, racism, and alcohol Prohibition: >"The maker of one brand of 'nigger gin' which had spurred certain Negroes on >to the nameless crime [rape of white women], was one Lee Levy...The gin was >cheap, its labels bore lascivious suggestions and were decorated with highly >indecent portraiture of white women...Widely sold brands of cheap, noxious >gins and other liquors, made by and brazenly sold under Jewish names, caused >newspaper and police comments upon the peculiar lawlessness among negroes >[sic]. With reference to the Negro Question, 'nigger gin,' the product of >Jewish poisoned liquor factories, was its most provocative element." > >The list goes on and on. > >While American politicians demand "understanding" and "tolerance" for select >minorities at home and indignantly denounce "human rights violations" and >"political persecution" abroad, more than 400,000 United States citizens rot >in American prisons for exercising their basic right to choose one drug over >another-for having the audacity to believe in the fundamental American >freedom to do with their own bodies as they see fit as long as they do not >physically harm the person or property of another. > >As I face a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence (possibly life) in federal >prison for the hideous crime of using medical marijuana to treat my cancer >and AIDS (http://petertrial.com), I hold this truth to be self-evident: What >our country is doing to drug users (and their children who must grow up >without parents) is wrong-very, very wrong-and we will one day look back on >this repression of individual liberty with profound shame. > >And then we'll pretend it never happened. > >People ask today, "Where were the 'good" Germans during the Holocaust?" I >ask, "Where are the 'good' Americans during the War on Drugs?" > >----------- > >Peter McWilliams is author of "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The >Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country." His web site is >www.mcwilliams.com. > >----------- > >Peter McWilliams >8165 Mannix Drive >Los Angeles, California 90046 >323-650-8488 >peter@mcwilliams.com > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: