MEN MURDERED

To the editor:

As I fight back tears, words cannot explain the sorrow in my heart for Mr.
Crosslin and Mr. Rohm, but also for our nation. Are we so vengeful, corrupt
and cruel, that we allow government agents to murder men for a fraudulent,
unholy crusade in which so few believe? What have we become?

History will not look kindly on what we've allowed to happen in this deadly
war against our own people. People whose belief in freedom is so deeply
rooted that they attempt to face down the drug-war machine.

We applaud the Chinese for standing before tanks in Tianamen Square, yet we
ignore our own citizens exercising their inalienable right to live as free
people. I have little doubt that if the founders of this once free country
walked the earth today, they too would be causalities of this hysteria that
drives the Drug War.

As a veteran, I'm ashamed to have served for such a heartless, gutless,
corrupt land. It shocks my senses that we stand idly by while, by all
descriptions, kind, gentle Americans are blasted to eternity by government
agents. The agents that slaughtered Mr. Crosslin and Mr. Rohm were no
heroes and only the most depraved mind believes otherwise. If this was a
heroic deed with a consensus of support, why must our government spirit the
killers away, cloaked in secrecy? Shouldn't they be on a pedestal, thanked
for such noble deeds? I think every American with a shred of conscience
knows the answer.

John Ashcroft and John Engler: These slayings took place on your watch,
with your blessings. Pray that as you approach the Pearly Gates, the God I
believe in doesn't sit in judgment. I have no doubt he'll condemn you for
allowing his children to die at the hands of your underlings merely for
using a plant that God placed on this earth for his children to use as
food, fiber, and medicine. Agents who murdered Mr. Crosslin and Mr. Rohm
will be seated on your right hand. Local officials who so craved Mr.
Crosslin's possessions that they set this disaster in motion will be seated
to your left. Elected officials who created and perpetuate the false
doctrine allowing these catastrophes to occur have, I believe, a special
punishment incomprehensible to the mortal mind awaiting them. You all
deserve what you've earned.

What have you wrought?

MIKE PLYLAR Kremmling, Colo.