HEARD IT ALL BEFORE

Take a look at the state of our neighborhoods. I sincerely hope President
Bush's "War on Terrorism" is more successful than his father's "War on Drugs."

A decade ago, the president took a vial from his Oval Office drawer, showed
it to America and said "this is crack." He appointed a czar to set the
national agenda, and stiffened the criminal penalties for sellers, users,
growers, etc. Yet the staggering number of crack babies, swollen prisons
and corner dealers persists.

Now with the Sept. 11 video from New York City, Bush says "this is
terrorism," describes the role of a new terrorism czar, and how he'll
similarly use resources to stop an attack from reoccurring. In short, the
military we deployed to stem the flow of illegal drugs is now commanded to
stop terrorism. Will it work this time? Has enough thought been put into
this plan, or did Washington just use the same speech and replace drugs
with terrorism?

By the way, what exactly has our drug czar done lately?

Pedro Rodriguez, Englewood