MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF TULIA IS NOT HOW IT REALLY IS

TULIA - To ordinary folk like us, Hollywood portrays a life of glamour,
fame, fortune and controversy.

Most rational thinking Americans understand that nearly everything you see
in the movies is not real. It is made up events to "sell" the story.

What about the news we read? Is it always taken as the truth? Should it be?

I suspect it would be difficult to find anyone in the Texas Panhandle who
has not heard of the drug controversy in Tulia. From what the newspapers
have reported, it is difficult to understand what has been going on in our
fine town.

People outside our town only knew what the few people who had been
interviewed wanted them to know. A few of my neighbors had written to
various newspapers trying to show another side to the happenings in our
town. Some of those letters were in defense of what has been done, some
were against.

Not very long ago, we received word that the television show "20/20" was
going to do a bit on our situation here. Most of us welcomed the ABC
network's effort with open arms and hopeful hearts. Finally someone would
show how well the law-enforcement officials did their job in ridding our
town of a few drug users who messed up and sold to the wrong man.

When it aired, the show shocked the people in our town and around the
world. The only thing missing from the view portrayed by the show was a
hangman's noose in the middle of town!

Where was the footage from the two and a half hours of interviews conducted
with the jurors we saw on TV? Where was the interview with the man who was
very close to the young men arrested?

The people who gave up their time to tell the truth were railroaded by the
Hollywood magic. "20/20" took a man, the self-described gadfly of Swisher
County, and portrayed him as "the lone white farmer defending the blacks."
He is seen around here as the man looking for anything to keep his name in
a conversation.

This man who sat high on a shiny new tractor driving down a road was made
out to be the hero. He is a man who has done nothing but cost our town
money. He set out to challenge the schools on the drug-testing policy.

This is the man who said, "Tulia does not have a drug problem."

It was said that only athletes should be tested. I went to school in Tulia
not many years ago. Had there been drug testing then, more than just
athletes would have been caught.

Along with most of the men and women caught in the drug sting, others would
have been, too - people who now are teachers, doctors, engineers, mothers
and fathers, as well as sons and daughters of teachers, law-enforcement
officers, preachers and others.

Tulia would not have had a football team, basketball, track, baseball or
academic UIL champions.

Most all of us who graduated from Tulia High School have used drugs on at
least one occasion while in school. So for someone to say there is no drug
problem in Tulia is simply not the truth.

I ask readers to not be fooled by the magic. Remember, these are the people
who actually wanted you to believe that Al Gore had a shot at winning.

They expect you to believe them when they say our town is divided on this
issue.

Yes, they are the same people who made Keanu Reeves stop bullets. They only
showed you what they wanted you to believe, what sells.

Crime, corruption and controversy are what give these people their money.
The truth only gives them the truth!

Jeremy Earl is a resident of Tulia.