Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 1998
Date: March 5, 1998
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Author: John McClain

Regarding the International Olympic Committee's reinstatement of
snowboarder Ross Rebagliatti's gold medal: Denying the achievements of drug
users to send the right message to our children is foolish, unless we do it
in a consistent manner.

Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Eugene Delacroix all smoked hashish, so we
really should deny the greatness of works like "Les Miserables," "Hunchback
of Notre Dame," "The Three Musketeers" and "Count of Monte Cristo."

The Delacroix painting of Liberty leading the people: Ban it from our
children's textbooks! Get rid of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," too,
and the works of Yeats and Wilde. These writers smoked hashish, and we
should not confuse our children by honoring them.

We should also ban those jazz musician postage stamps that our government
recently issued, since many of those musicians smoked pot or used heroin.
And please stop listening to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

We must do these things. Only then can we protect our children from that
dangerous thing called truth.

John McClain (Via the Internet)