Editor: Judge Wiederstein and Judge Hayden took a courageous position to seek a drug court. Many parents and community leaders had prayed for years that something would be done to salvage our children from the epidemic of drug abuse. Just like with polio, cerebral palsy or cancer, drug abuse has a dreaded effect on the community and the family. The judges recognized several years ago that the criminal justice system was not working. In fact, the concept of locking drug abusers up only made novice criminals more polished and more desperate. Something different had to be done. [continues 198 words]
Editor: When I was a little boy in Providence, I would go to Patterson's grocery for my mother. Being someone who likes to listen almost as much as I like to talk, I would stop to hear the old men on the porch. Between generous squirts of tobacco juice I had to dodge, I would hear their solution for every problem known to man. When I returned to my home with the groceries, I would have to explain why I was late yet again. My mother had no time for my consorting with a bunch of "old windbags." My father took the time to tell me that these guys who could resolve poverty, settle the race issues and make the schools what they ought to be were just talking to hear themselves talk. He told me that none of them were likely to get the Nobel Prize for their innovative approach to government. [continues 338 words]
As an instructor in the public schools, I have seen extremely talented students come to a stop then completely turn the lights off on their futures. The source of their apathy is the use of "recreational drugs" that led to a serious habit. I have seen parents floundering for want of a solution to the vexing problems of drug abuse. I have seen these young people go from court to court, crime to crime and institution to institution. Their parents are law-abiding taxpayers who are broken by the sorry condition of their offspring, riddled by self-doubt and doomed often to raise their grandchildren in their "golden age." [continues 351 words]
