WHAT ARE APPROPRIATE MESSAGES?

To the Editor:

If the trustees of Northern Gateway Schools believe decriminalization of
small amounts of marijuana sends a "most inappropriate" message to Canada's
youth (25 June), what are the appropriate messages the trustees wish to
send?

* That cruelty and harshness are the best ways for government officials,
educators, police and prosecutors to treat children who break a
foot-shooting trivial law passed in a frenzy of anti-Chinese hysteria
whipped up by "Janey Canuck," Emily Murphy's racist attack-dog pseudonym?

* That an 18-year-old caught with a marijuana cigarette should never be
allowed to visit, study or work in the United States for the rest of his or
her life?

* That a teenager caught with a marijuana cigarette should bear the lifelong
stigma of a criminal record, and forfeit his or her chances to become a
doctor, lawyer or teacher, or serve his country in Canada's military?

* That "good" children should learn the most important lesson from their
elders in positions of authority: To be vicious and unforgiving to the next
generation of children, and infect the entire nation of Canada with a
culture of vengeance against its own young people?

I would have more sympathy with the pathetic bumper sticker "We don't want
to send the wrong message to our children" if its self-righteous preachers
would tell us what the "right" messages are. If the "right" messages are
just savage, in violent conflict with Jesus' teachings, and brain-dead,
Northern Gateway Schools needs smarter, more decent trustees who are free of
the lashing-out instinct to destroy the children in their care.

Robert Merkin

Northampton,

Massachusetts USA