Pubdate: Wed, 19 Dec 2007
Source: Jasper Newsboy, The (TX)
Pubdate: 19 Dec 07
Author: Mack Hall, Mack Hall is a resident of Kirbyville
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

Guest Commentary

One Person's Viewpoint

DRUG-TESTING AT VALLEY FORGE

Last week the most recent drug scandal took everyone's attention away 
from lead-painted Chinese Christmas toys, and no wonder. Who among us 
has not walked across a dark parking lot fearing an attack by a 
spaced-out baseball team leaping out from behind a Yugo? And that 
scary rustle of leaves outside one's bedroom window in the middle of 
the night - that's not Grendel; that's a steroid-zombie outfielder 
hungry for human flesh.

George Mitchell's many pages of he-said / he-said (there seems to be 
no she-said) tittle-tattle and McCarthy-ite lists are interesting 
reading, but one doubts that Mr. Mitchell himself will be required to 
pee into a cup before he gets paid lots and lots of taxpayers' money 
for repeating gossip.

If the drug menace is properly addressed in baseball players, the 
focus should be expanded to practitioners other critical fields of 
endeavor, such as chess players, cooking-show hosts, and dancingwith 
the-stars contestants.

The purity of sport - but no drug-testing for newscasters, writers, 
movie stars, or the weird little man in the bedsheet mumbling what he 
says are prayers at the airplane departure gate.

How drug-free and clear is the mind of someone freezing - since the 
ice has cut the power to his heater - in midwestern blizzards while 
working out in said mind - since the ice has cut the power to his 
computer - a stern letter to capitalist oppressors about global warming?

People who walk around with tin crickets stuck to their ears and 
talking to themselves is definitely in need of testing for something 
- - such as a life.

Have you noticed that drug testing is aimed at the working people in 
America, not at the deadbeats? An argument can be made that a pilot 
or trucker or railway engineer should be tested for drugs, but why 
are lazy, useless layabouts (Congress comes to mind) the pilot or 
trucker or railway engineer must support never tested?

If a young man must pee into a cup before throwing a baseball, should 
not a priest or minister do the same before giving a sermon? After 
all, which event is more important?

If a citizen is accused of a drug-related crime, true justice 
requires that the investigators and attorneys and judges prove 
themselves drug-free first - here's your cup, your honor.

The Constitution gives the people three branches of government - the 
executive, the legislative, and the judicial; no mention is made in 
that venerable document of fourth and fifth branches, the contract 
medical lab and MySpace. Let us have a return to justice for all, not 
suspicion and humiliation for some Americans and class privilege for others.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom