'SLATHERING VENOM' SEEN IN EDITORIAL

To the editor:

It is no rare occasion to see the slathering venom of bigotry make its way
into editorials/opinions of any newspaper on any given day of the week.

However, when such venom comes from the staff of a newspaper ("So long
overdue," May 29, 2002) in the guise of an editorial, that is another matter.

Not only does this "newspaper" take shots at "big city high schools" by
equating them to "drug-infested havens" -- a disproportionate exaggeration
at best, and a blatant fabrication otherwise -- but the editorial goes on,
in a rather self-absorbed manner, to belittle anyone that might not share
the rag's sentiment as "those living in Never-Never land." How ignorant!

You'll get no argument from me regarding the purpose school serves,
although I was under the impression that school was compulsory until the
student reached 16, or extenuating circumstances entailed. No matter.

The coup de grace, however, has to be "arrests couldn't be made. Too bad."
That is an all-time low, especially when one considers how asinine it is to
include cannabis in the CDSA, or the fact the regulation of cannabis could
very well keep it from falling into the hands of minors.

While "the people who run our schools are not dumb" may be open, for some,
to conjecture, it's "too bad" the same can't be said for the person at
Peterborough This Week who allowed that scurrilous attempt at journalism to
go to print.

Wayne Phillips,

Hamilton, Ontario