WHAT DOES COMPASSION LOOK LIKE?

Alan and Eleanor Randell, in a recent letter to the editor, wrote that
legalizing drugs would protect students from the illicit drug trade.

You have to feel for the Randells whose 19-year-old son died after
taking heroin that he acquired on the street.

No one is prepared for the loss of a child, no matter what the warning
signs are.

Compassion, however, doesn't look like capitulation.

Legalizing drugs just because there is a market for them is completely
unprincipled and potentially deadly.

I prefer the suggestion made by Andrew Hanon in a January 19/03 column
in the Edmonton Sun. He wrote, "Why not continue to make drug use an
offence, but instead of sending offenders to jail, sentence them to
treatment -- the dangerous ones can still go to jail, but the vast
majority, who are really just sick and desperate, could be offered
true hope and healing. That sounds more like compassion to me."

To some, compassion looks like freedom from boundaries.

We've already tried this approach.

The sexual revolution of the 60s, which removed inhibitions as well as
prohibitions, did not lead to safer sex.

Making condoms available in schools and providing sex education, by
any other name, has no positive impact on the moral character of
students. Mark it down. Legalizing drugs in order to prevent criminals
from profiting from them will not make the street a safer place.

The nature of addiction is that it drives users to want more. More
available crack at lower prices -- that's what I want for my
community. Don't you?

Moreover, purer drugs may not make them less harmful. For example,
we're told that the marijuana available today has much more THC than
the stuff that was for sale when we were kids.

Compassion doesn't look like blame.

The Randells assert that police involvement in educating kids about
the dangers of drugs is useless.

They declare also that drugs were made illegal because of racism
against non-white minorities. "in order to protect virtuous, white,
Christian women from being seduced by these minorities."

With respect, I don't think that deserves a response.

Compassion looks like hard work and sometimes it is thankless. Ask the
police.

Compassion is the velvet glove worn by the truth. Without a hand, a
glove is limp and useless.

When God sent his Son into the world for people like me who didn't
care about Him, He did so because He knew I needed Him.

The Bible says, in the words of the Apostle Paul, that compassion
looks like this: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die
for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare
to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The loss of a son or daughter.who can understand that except someone
who's been there?