TAKING ISSUE WITH DARE

Give kids a big serving of brainwashing, garnished with lies and
pizza and you have the DARE "reeducation" program in a nutshell (The
Graduates, WHT, May 14). Never mind that this program was developed
for L.A. big city kids and spread like a virus throughout the country
has been dropped in most communities on the mainland because of its
failure to stop children from taking drugs.

Let's disregard the facts. Simply believe it's going to work. Leave
it to the cops, as they are trained educators. Then we parents don't
need to say or do anything or for that matter know where our kids are
because the cops got it covered.

Of course, the police are straight up in telling the kids that some
drugs are worse than others. They are truthful in saying smoke
marijuana once and you're hooked. Let's not forget the famous gateway
"truth" either. Not only kids believe it but parents (no doubt DARE
graduates) believe, too.

Guess what folks? The DARE program is a propaganda machine pushed by
police to keep the apparatus in place. It has nothing to do with
keeping kids' drug-free. Rather it is a cleverly disguised mechanism
to socially engineer behavior.

On a personal note when my child took the DARE program, a group of
parents, the principal and the teacher sat in. What a program,
replete with graphic videos of people going nuts on PCP (real scary
stuff for a 5th grader) and loaded with half-truths, complete lies
and oversimplifications. The teacher, parents and principal all
agreed this program was not worth taking time from core subjects. The
program ended.

DARE should be replaced with something taught by real educators who
tell the truth to kids about the harmful effects of drugs and why
they shouldn't take them.

Andrea Tischler

Hilo