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.