QUESTIONS FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS

For some time now, I have read letters from people who are
preoccupied with the notion of those who sell drugs might actually
end up in jail. To borrow a page from David Letterman, here is my Top
10 (not so rhetorical) questions I would ask the Concerned Citizens
for Appropriate Justice.

1. Does the fact that someone is smart enough to avoid being caught
and charged (and therefore has no record) somehow supposed to make
him or her a more sympathetic figure to me?

2. Should I naively accept the proposition that the earth, the moon
and the stars just happened to line up the day some of these
individuals decided to sell drugs in Great Barrington and it was to
an undercover officer?

3. Does it matter to you that, whether or not a school is actually in
session, I might actually want to bring my young children to the
school property to play on the swing sets and other playground
equipment and not run the risk of being near a drug deal?

4. Can you convince me as to why it is so "extreme" to actually want
a 1,000-foot zone of safety, i.e. no drug dealing, around - of all
places - a school?

5. Why are you not as "concerned" with the citizens whose lives are
either lost or ruined because drug dealers gave them the means to
destroy their lives (and worse yet profited from it)?

6. Why do you think it is "appropriate" to spend thousands of dollars
in intelligence-insulting, half-page ads to try and persuade citizens
that drug dealers deserve lenience? (Please send this answer to the
various charities in the area as well as the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.)

7. Why do you never list a reliable source for the figures on
expenses and monies spent in the prosecution of drug dealers?

8. If you can spend thousands on ads to keep the dealers on the
streets, shouldn't my government spend thousands to keep them off?

9. Is your idea of justice trying to ensure that potential jurors are
infected with your view of either the case or what is right or wrong?

10. Since the DA does not share your views and you have run a
letter-writing and ad campaign against him, should I fear you will do
the same to me?

From one concerned citizen to another, we are not so different - you
and I. It is just that I am more concerned for the safety and well
being of those not selling illegal narcotics than I am for those who do.

Kelly Mickle

Pittsfield