Pubdate: Fri, 18 Aug 2000
Date: 08/18/2000
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Author: Floyd Landrath
Authors: Floyd Landrath
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1150/a01.html

I am responding to Salim Jiwa's recent "Border Defended"
story.

Open and trusting societies don't need spy cameras on their mutual
frontiers. Today, it is Big Brother's cameras peeking at you.
Tomorrow, perhaps it will be armed military troops as we now see along
the border with Mexico.

America seems intent upon imprisoning itself - building walls at a
furious pace to keep millions of its own people in - while engaging in
an escalating war to keep "them" and "their" drugs out.

Not only hypocritical in the extreme, it is antithetical to free
markets and, most important, free people.

Healthy relations between people and countries require honest, and
yes, sometimes painful feedback. It is time for both Canada and Mexico
to call for an "intervention", as it is known.

No troops, no guns. Just "tough" loving. And supportive families and
friends who encourage a very strung-out Uncle Sam to sit down and
confront his destructive drug-war habit. That is, before he does any
more harm to himself and those closest and most important to him.

Floyd Landrath
Portland, Ore.