READER SAYS GOGUEN WRONG TO BLAME BYGONE TEENS FOR AREA DRUG PROBLEM

To the editor: I am a native of Fitchburg, and I sat and laughed at the
comments made by Rep. Emile Goguen in a March 23 news story. Let's blame
the current drug problem in Fitchburg on a bunch of long-haired kids in the
early '70s. Yeah, right. And the Moon was in the 7th House, while Jupiter
aligned with Mars, too. To blame a single generation -- and a small
subgroup of that crowd -- for today's problems is ridiculous. Might as well
blame the Royal Cafe for alcoholism, too. While we're at it, lets mention
Fitchburg Paper turning the Nashua River into a multicolored swamp for 40
years.

Fitchburg was once a city where a guy could literally walk in off the
street and find a job -- maybe even later that day on the 3-11 shift.
There were jobs and a working-class mentality ruled the day; families were
raised, bills were paid, schools were well kept and funded.

All that's gone. The government allowed a bunch of corporate bookkeepers to
sell out the foundation of our mill towns -- the mill towns are now in
Central America and Asia.

Today there are no jobs, absentee landlords desperate for rent take anyone
with a handful of cash, the police budget is cut to bare essentials, the
city's major tax base is long gone, and the city is slowly becoming a
ghetto. Like Holyoke, Haverhill, Lawrence, Springfield, Athol.

But don't blame my generation, Emile. Look behind the scenes at who
really supplied and profited from all the drugs that flooded the country in
the '60s and '70s -- certainly wasn't a bunch of stoned 15-year-olds at the
Upper Commons. Just remember, Emile, we're all in our 40s and 50s now, and
we vote.

William Bowes

Boston