PITTS, NAACP ON TARGET

Leonard Pitts Jr. deserves a round of applause for his excellent piece
last Sunday on the NAACP's resolution, calling for an end to the war
on drugs.

The NAACP's recent coming out on an issue that may not be widely
popular among its mostly middle class base is indeed an act of courage
and conversely may create an opportunity for the organization to
reconnect with a constituency that may have viewed the NAACP as out of
touch and irrelevant.

Let's hope the NAACP's courage would motivate its traditional base to
advocate for effective drug policy reform at the local and federal
levels. More importantly, let's pray that religious leaders within the
rank and file membership of the NAACP will use their moral authority
to help push the envelope even further.

The NAACP is moving in a new direction, which hopefully will inspire
our other leaders to seek new solutions to end 40 years of failure.

Yolande A. Cadore

New York