Pubdate: Thu, 07 May 1998
Date: 07/05/1998
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Author: Stephen Young
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/


Why do journalists who usually look at issues with critical and
insightful eyes get blurry vision when the issue of the drug war is
raised?

Editors at the Daily Herald seem to have strapped on blinders while
presenting and commenting on the recent U.N. drug summit.

At the summit, world leaders tried to convince each other that this
war can be won by getting even "tougher" on drugs.

The summit participants then gave new names to the same old failed
strategies.

The real story of the summit, which was not mentioned in the Daily
Herald's article or its editorial, was that hundreds of leaders and
thinkers from around the world signed a letter to the U.N.'s secretary
general explaining why the drug war only makes drug problems worse and
why it's time to try a truly new approach.

Those who signed the letter were not just bleeding hearts. Among the
signatures were former U.S. secretary of state under Ronald Reagan,
George Schultz; Nobel Prize-winning free-market economist Milton
Friedman; and Joseph McNamara, former police chief of Kansas City and
San Jose. From the rest of the world, there were signatures from
former presidents of nations, current law enforcement officials, and
even an Olympic gold medalist.

Many of these true leaders wanted to have more of a presence at the
U.N. summit, but organizers of the summit couldn't tolerate the
slightest challenge to their politically correct doctrine.

While that was predictable, it was truly frustrating to see many
outlets of our supposedly independent American press parroting the
party line.

Stephen Young,
Roselle