SEPARATE SOLICITATIONS FROM NEWS REPORTS

On the front page of TGI (1-10-03) Mayor Bryan Baptiste is quoted as saying,
"The drug problem is our biggest problem" The front page editor picked up
the mayor's theme and placed the following words in a red-lined box: "Drugs:
Kauai's No. 1 Problem."

The mayor made his statement at a meeting of more than 60 representatives
from various Kauai agencies dealing with illegal drug use.

However, a glaring contradiction is found within the front page story.

The contradiction is exhibited in the following statements: "The Drug
Prevention Group agreed their overall goal was to have all kids and adults
choose not to use drugs. Of the dozens of programs available around the
island, most of them were labeled as 'successful'."

Now if most Drug Abuse Prevention Programs are "successful," why is the
mayor insisting that the drug problem is Kauai's biggest problem? Successful
programs solve problems; they do not result in problem growth. The reporter
failed to ask her source to explain the spoon-fed contradiction she was
given.

Perhaps "successful" is what occurs when the unemployable and underemployed
latch on to taxpayer money. The folks running these mothering, anti-drug
agencies have failed to reduce the level of crime done by dopers. Big nanny
government is no substitute for a much needed law-and-order judge that goes
by the name of, shall we say, Judge Maximum Time. The continued
effeminization in the application of state law does not work.

Criminal diversions, probation's, early releases, and paroles are all
obsolete concepts. These approaches allow recycled dopers and their new
recruits to do more crime.

One can't separate "users" from "pushers." "Users" become "pushers" and
"pushers" "users." The certainty of prison terms for addicts convicted of
crime should be a fact. Prison terms benefit society by disrupting dope
distribution channels. Prison terms disrupt new recruitment of non-addicted
persons by addicts. Prison terms protect families from violent dopers.

Society must simply enforce its laws and not be too concerned with what
motivates criminal behavior. Infinite regress is a dead end.

Mayor Baptiste got it all wrong. The mayor just took an oath of office to
"support" and "defend" the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution requires a
republican form of government, that is, representative government. The mayor
was elected to represent the citizens and solve problems. The mayor was not
elected to tell those who elected him that they should get out of their
"separate kingdom" and "work together" presumably to end dope dealing.
That's his job, if he wants to make it his job.

The activity of self-serving agencies, set up to curb drug abuse, is
resulting in more crime done by dopers. The mayor should be calling for an
end to the waste of taxpayer money given to these useless quasi-government
entities. Drug crime is proportional to the number of agencies sheltering
dopers.

The front page story, "Mayor: Drug Abuse Is Kauai's Biggest Problem" is
solicitation badly disguised as news. There is nothing new in it. Crime done
by dopers has been Kauai's biggest problem for years. Even the bit about
drug treatment facilities located on Kauai is old claptrap. It dates back to
1998 and was first proposed by a silly group calling itself "Club Sober
INC."

The front page solicitation story reminded me of what American writer and
critic Albert Jay Nock once wrote: "The essence of culture is never to be
satisfied with a conventional account of anything, no matter what, but
always instinctively to cut through it and get as close as you can to the
reality of the thing, and see it as it actually is." Separating
solicitations from news stories would be a small step toward reality for
both readers and journalists.

Douglas E. Rapozo,

Kapaa