JOHN CANZANO'S COLUMN ON RICKY WILLIAMS

To the Sports Editor:

John Canzano's column on Ricky Williams aptly stated that it is
shortsighted to call Ricky "unlucky". However, it is even more shortsighted
to say that William's actions simply represent poor judgement and
immaturity. In reality, William's experience exposes several huge flaws in
our "War on Drugs", and hopefully we can all learn from this situation.

Stating that "marijuana is illegal, which makes it unlawful. Period." is a
circular position that carries no actual weight. Speeding is illegal as
well, and for much better reasons, but you don't see the NFL suspending
players for traffic violations.

I agree that Williams is lucky. But to say that he threw it all away? His
life, his choices, and if you have a problem with that, maybe you need to look
at the system, not the players.

William G. Hildebrandt,

Lafayette