WHERE DO THE GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFULS STAND ON DRUG WAR?

The drug war puts more drugs everywhere, increases drug use and addiction,
corrupts kids and cops, necessitates ever more prisons, spreads AIDS
through dirty needles, enables gangs, causes addict and turf war crime.

It puts guns in the hands of children, erodes civil liberties, engages a
perverted drug-war revenue-sharing normalcy, ignores policy failure, funds
terrorism, wastes money, diverts limited public funds from worthy programs,
argues with immutable economic laws - and Republicans and Democrats
bipartisanly support it.

Equally ironic, both the "good guys" and the "bad guys" favor drug
prohibition. To the drug dealer, drug prohibition is the cornerstone of the
business. Al Capone and Pablo Escobar, for example, supported the
prohibition of their wares. To the pol, support for the drug war means
votes from misled, well-intending constituents.

Drug war is a lose-lose proposition: For a high price, drug war serves up
all the defeat you can eat.

So, what are Illinois' gubernatorial candidates saying about the drug war
drain on the quality of life in 101 Illinois counties? Not much.

Blagoyovich (his last campaign taught us how to say his name, this one, how
to spell it) wants to ban assault weapons (at least one kind). Vallas, like
Bakalis, is for better schools without tax adjustment. Schmidt is for
attorney general. Lane went lame.

Conservatively speaking, O'Malley is for a little free press but the free
press isn't for O'Malley, so it seems like he's not speaking at all.

Ryan has a good ballot name, if the governor didn't spoil it. Ryan also
hopes the Cruz missile never lands.

Burris is trying to finish his tombstone auto-eulogy. Corinne Wood or Woods
is for airports and breast exams, and she is lieutenant governor already.

Daley and Devine both ducked. Poshard wants to be vice governor, but
doesn't have enough money to run for village trustee, and House Speaker
Michael J. Madigan isn't going to give him any in reverence of Poshard's
self-imposed campaign principles last round.

That about completes the field of what the press calls, the "major"
candidates for governor. Minor candidates may run, but they are deaf and
dumb. Dumb for running, and deaf because no one will be able to hear what
they say.

Personally, I miss Jim "MSI" Edgar and am going to write in a vote for him
and be done with it.

Oh, and the drug war thing: it'll keep.

James E. Gierach, Oak Lawn