Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 Source: Duncan News Leader (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 Duncan News Leader Contact: http://www.duncannewsleader.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1314 Author: Chris Buors POLICE DOGS HAVE NO PLACE IN THE LOCKERS OF CANADIAN SCHOOLS Dear editor, Letter writer Patty-Anne Lea seems to think it is a good civics lesson to have police dogs randomly search for drugs in school. That lesson would prepare our future citizens to accept any kind of draconian action deemed necessary to win the war on (some) drugs, I suppose. Patty-Anne goes on to tell us that schools ought to teach children the "right" morals that she finds lacking in parents who do not agree with drug prohibition. Aristotle not to mention Jefferson would be startled by the idea that it is the state's duty to protect and educate the children in morals. The parents protect and educate the children in morals, they have since time began and they will until time ends. Time Magazine's man of the Century Albert Einstein answered that he couldn't think of anything that would breed disrespect for the law and the government quicker than the passing of unenforceable laws when he was asked his opinion on prohibition on arrival in America. The history books are full of unjust laws, should they be hidden from children to teach them to respect whatever chicanery moralists pass into law? In "Notes on Virginia" Thomas Jefferson put forth ideas that seem particularly pertinent to drug control: "Were the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as infallible too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the Earth was a sphere. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." Should schools pretend Albert Einstein and Thomas Jefferson never existed in order to teach children to respect the law? The law ought not be a tool to send moralizing messages. The coercive force of the law ought to be used only to protect us from violence and fraud. Those who want to abuse the law for any other purpose are the one's who have no respect for the law. - - Chris Buors Winnipeg - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom