A CHANGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Thank you for printing "U.S. should help stop Colombian madness." Molly
Ivins is right: Once again we're "sleepwalking" into disaster, while few
pay attention.

What do our leaders today really know about Colombia?

In the mid-'60s, with the Foreign Service, I lived in Colombia. Medellin
then was not the "murder capital of the world," but a beautiful and
peaceful city. My younger son was born there. I wonder how many of my
friends there have died in the horror since.

What fuels it, as Ivins notes, is American consumption of drugs. Our two
countries are gigantic insects locked in a ghastly embrace, clawing each
other's guts out. Meanwhile, fashionable Americans - far too many of them -
think using cocaine is harmless.

We urgently need a change of consciousness.

Martin Luschei, San Luis Obispo