STATE NO LONGER SERVANT, NOW OUR MORAL MASTER

Letter writer Bill Taylor (Readers Views, Monday) would likely support
the army doing a house-by-house search for drugs given that is the
equivalent of locking down a school for a drug search. Worse, implying
that kids who experiment with pleasure drugs are somehow dirty is
repulsive to say the least.

Teen smoking has been going on for a couple of hundred years and no
one unleashed the dogs on school children over that deadly habit. But
that was when the state was our servant and not our moral master like
it is today.

Canadians could unleash a total state in the war on drugs. Or we could
repeal drug prohibition. Those who put their trust in a total state
have been disappointed many times in the past. I would sooner put my
faith in liberty and truth than a total state bent on moral
cleanliness. The Christian Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition and Nazi
Germany were all scapegoat persecutions that enjoyed the powers of a
total state in accomplishing their goals. The drug war will belong to
the same category; a vast drama of scapegoat persecution that enjoyed
strong public support in the name of moral righteousness.

Bill Taylor gives us an insight into why scapegoat persecutions of the
past raged on. One can never be too secure from whatever perceived
threats. Yes the vice of drug taking will go on, but, in a free
country, you have to be prepared to live with the vices of others lest
your own vices don't become criminalized too. Those who seek to abuse
the law as a shortcut to the 1,000 year sin-free existence that is
said will bring about the Second Coming have not rested for 2,000
years and are unlikely to ever rest. It is for that reason that Thomas
Jefferson told us that the price we must pay for liberty is eternal
vigilance against such pious moralizations.

We are supposed to have a separation of church and state in Canada.
Sending the police in to do the work of the clergy was a mistake in
the first place. Drug taking is a personal responsibility that is none
of the neighbours' business, just like it is none of your business if
the neighbour has a drink when he pleases.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg