Pubdate: Thur, 4 Mar 1999 Source: The Source (OR) Contact: www.sourceweekly.com Author: Ms. Linda Phelps A Garden Gone To Seed Democracy is like a flower garden. If we don't tend to it, it will fall into disrepair. We can't assume that just because our government was running smoothly yesterday, it's ok today. And we can't make decisions based on ideas such as " Whatever drug dealers get they deserve," or " should all be locked up." If we do this, we are letting the weeds overpower the flowers. I personally do not know very many " criminals " and it's hard to imagine problems that are happening right now as I write this. I'm talking about property being seized by police without due process. I'm sure this problem is occuring due to overcrowding caused by overpopulation but that doesn't make it right, and I think we have a responsibility to deal with these problems in a more humane and democratic way. Government officials become bounty hunters when they are given extra authority to deal with the " drug problem "; they use conspiracy tactics arresting people for just associating with known drug dealers ), plant drugs, are rarely made to be accountable for drugs they seize and therefore often have drugs with them. What if you are a writer like me and often associate with many different kinds of people while doing research ? Do I need to check in with my local " Nazi " police everytime I want to do research? Are we going to to let our rights slip away just because we don't want to chop out the weeds ? The government should not be allowed to confiscate private property. Ms. Linda Phelps Bend, Oregon - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck