Angels Camp, CA…Letter written to the Editor in the summer of 1985: I would like to comment on President Bush’s latest proposals for escalating the so called “War on Drugs”. One must assume this effort has been very successful to justify such an escalation! As noted in earlier articles, the effort is not a war on drugs, but, rather a war on people; a war of foreign intervention; and a war attacking the fundamental principles of liberty as embodied in the Bill of Rights. War is the lifeblood of the state. War provides for the expansion and concentration of power in a central authority, and a corresponding diminution of the individual’s power or sovereignty over his own being. The war spirit identifies dissent with treason, the pursuit of private happiness with slackerism and sabotage, and on the other side, obedience with discipline, and conformity with patriotism. Thus war removes from the individual any moral ground as well as any lawful ground on which he might resist the execution of the official plan. President Bush’s war is the more repugnant since it targets the very rights that our government was initiated to protect.

The ultimate irony is the fact that one of the targets of this escalation is the casual user. Apparently President Bush feels if we can just catch the individual who is not a problem, who is not addicted, and who commits no crimes; and take from him his job and his driver’s license, we will substantially solve the drug problem. Our President is obviously hallucinating!

The really scary part of this whole scenario is the Democratic response. They feel the President did not go far enough; he has not committed enough billions, and he did not create an international strike force to swoop into foreign countries to nab the bad guys. Poor President Bush has attempted to scale the pinnacles of stupidity only to find the Democrats firmly entrenched there. This entire fiasco represents the underlying principles of the two major parties; The Democrats with their tax and spend and we need more government philosophy versus the Republican mentality of borrow and build more jails and propose 1% less government than the Democrats.

One of the more interesting planks in Bush’s program is the involuntary testing of all prison inmates. If he can’t keep drugs out of the prisons where almost no civil rights are recognized, to what extent must the “war” be escalated to achieve the result that the average citizen will not have the opportunity to ingest an illicit substance. There is truly a thought to ponder!

The most disappointing aspect of the entire 2 hour TV extravaganza was the absolute refusal to have any of the decriminalization or relegalization advocates comment on the President’s program. The only valid alternative was denied expression. Perhaps there is a fear that logic and reason might prevail over propaganda. It is certainly appalling to witness good citizens supporting a President whose major (perhaps only) focus is the waging of a war against his own citizenry by an appointed Czar. It is wonderful to live in the Land of the Free.

Sincerely,
Thomas M. Tryon
Supervisor, District 4

A Law was Enacted
By Richard D. Fuerle

A law was enacted that duly required,
Each man and each woman, and children they’ve sired,
To pay to the State but one dollar in taxes,
A dollar each fortnight the moon wanes and waxes.

Some paid without protest, and bitched not at all,
And some paid and grumbled and bitched to the wall,
But a few chose to stand by their right to be free,
And paid not a cent to the damned Treasury.

So a new law was passed, the old law rebuilt,
Those who refused, were fined to the hilt,
But still some would stand by their right to be free,
And would not give in to this robbery.

If fines are not paid, a new law provided,
Then off to the prisons for those so misguided,
There were but a few who preferred to stay free,
And resist with their guns this new slavery.

The law was revised, made tougher still,
Those who resisted, a cop could now kill.
This is the point that I wish now to make:
If you tax a man’s freedom, his life you must take.