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Show ; Dear Sain, I, too, am concerned with - the drug problem and similar Z problems we are faced with I in our community today. ; 7 These problems, howlever, do j; not happen to tie uniquely ours alone. Communities, j - large and small all over the ' I " world are experiencing them. ,' ' I What I'm most coneernied : ; about is the lack of mutual ' ; understanding by both sides. j - I happened to pick up a ". newsletter from the Capital .- : today and I'd like to quote ; ; from it as I fel it has great : - significance if . we will only 1 - "hear" what wle read. "My message today is to : urge you, to beg of you not to take -part in any exercise or - event or ,speak in a way which : - will foster more division and '. distrust among us. All of us need to remind ourselves of the virtues of tolerance, compassion, com-passion, and understanding. All of us need to take the good advice given by President Presi-dent Nixon and1 lower our voides so we can listen to each other." '. This was a speech given by Sen. Moss at Vesper Services, Provo High School. : All of us talk too much and too loudly. We are so busy ! planning what we are going to say when its our turn, we ! fail to listen to what is being - said. There are two sides to ! every issue and every story. ; ; Try to listen with an open mind and open heart. Try to use your hard earned' wis-dom, wis-dom, tempered with tolor-!' tolor-!' anco and meet the younger generation at least halfway. Communication is a two-way I street. I think another quotation is worth repeating froml the same author. "No institution can endure If thfc right to question is interpreted in-terpreted as the right to physical physi-cal violence or obstruction of the rights of others." Sincerely, Donna Loveridge Editor Sir: At the present time, there Seems to be a great deal of public opinion about the drug scene here in Moab. Thera are vigilante committees, some of them who seem to want to take the law into their own hands by a few lynchings, beatings or trips south in the river There seem to be others who would lean on the County Attorney, police and the bench to be sure that justice was dispensed dispen-sed to their own satisfaction, rather than see the due process pro-cess of law were practiced to the letter. I would' wager every Ming I have in this world that were one of their children involved in a drug arrest they would not be so hasty to want to see "all of the damned deppers hung on the closest lightpost" as an example to the rest. This brings me to another point, about being hung. "Why is Gary Hopkins being hung every day???" I believe be-lieve that when a person is committed to the County Jail, the term whether pronounced pro-nounced by the judge is to be "at hard labor." When Hopkins, by court order was sent forth from his cell to labor for th'e city, together with two other prisoners, why wasn't the fact that there were other prisoners released releas-ed for labor mentioned by the authority that screamed so loud about Gary Hopkins. It seems to me that Hopkins as well as doing his time in jail, is being made a whipping whip-ping boy for a politician or two and is certainly being made a community football for all of the gossip that one cares to listen to. Why aren't all of the prisoners' working? work-ing? Our jails are supposed to be the first door to rehabilitation. rehabili-tation. The word of our judges are supposed to be the final word. Our establishment establish-ment is supposed to be the basis for law, order and justice. jus-tice. It appears to me that in the Hopkins case, the Black Hole of India would be beter than the local jail. That the judge has the ability abil-ity to pass one sentence, then change it after jail sentence commences. The establishment establish-ment want crime to be prosecuted pro-secuted only to its own pleasure, plea-sure, rather than uniform justice jus-tice passed out from the bench. If there is on person that has a legitimate beef about Gary Hopkins I believe that it :is this writer. I am the person responsible for his arrest. ar-rest. While I was doing something some-thing about the drug problem prob-lem in Moab, th'e "Politico" as well as many fine people here either refused to admit the problem was here or preferred pre-ferred to ignore it. Now we have a bunch of committees, vigilantes, politicians and political po-litical aspirants getting into the scene as experts, all within with-in a period of sixty days; and, if the truth were admitted, admit-ted, there aren't six experts in town that would know the difference between "getting a fix and being ripped." I have no axe to grind with anyone, however when someone some-one talks of crimes of violence vio-lence and anarchy to see that justice is done I can not see where they would be any better than the person committing com-mitting the crime. Dean Lincoln Dear Mr. Taylor In June, I was privileged to attend the J.E.S.S.I conference confer-ence at Colorado State University Uni-versity at Fort Collins. It was two of the most informative informa-tive and interesting weeks in my life. I will always remember remem-ber it. I would Kike to take this opportunity op-portunity to publicly thank all of those who made it possible pos-sible for that two weeks. I would particularly like to thank T.G.S. and1 the Elks Club. Thanks again ... I really appreciate ap-preciate your support. Sincerely, Steven Lee Walston Dear Editor: There are many problems in today's society. One of the most demanding problems of today is drugs. Drugs cover a vast field, 'there is probably no human beling living who has not taken a drug. When the word "drug"' is mentioned', mention-ed', people think: hippie, marijuana, mari-juana, LSD, etc. It gctes further fur-ther than this. The closed imind fails to recognize tobacco, to-bacco, aspirin, diet pills, tranquilizers, tran-quilizers, and above all, liquor. li-quor. The world is full of hypocrites, hypo-crites, people who say without with-out thinking, "Drugs are wrong, people who ur them are weak," then go take a sleeping pill with their coffee cof-fee and smoke a cigarette before be-fore going to sleep. Criticism should begin with yourself. The highest form of hypocraey is two people sitting sit-ting in a bar discussing drugs, over a drink. These are the worst addicts, addicted to the inost harmful drug. These problbms should bo solved, many people are working on them. Some know what they are doing, some don't. The drug problem has been here since the beginning of time. Drugs were used in religious ceremonies before Christ, and continue to be used. Concern for the drug problem is misused. First problems first. Liquor kills million of people on highways high-ways every year. It is responsible respon-sible for many diseases, dr-rosis dr-rosis of thte liver, throat cancer, can-cer, brain damage, ulcers, and man more, and is involved in-volved in many oases of broken bro-ken homes, child beatings, robberies, and murders. So far, marijuana- has been proven to be harmless. Po-isessian, Po-isessian, of marijuana and liquor li-quor are misdemeanors. How-many How-many people do you know in prison who have been there for years because of liquor, or county jails for six months to a year? Don't you think (justice should be equalled out; more serious problems should have all this concern such as alcohol, air pollution, over population, mental illness, ill-ness, and cancer. Why are drugs used? For pleasure, escape from ugly realities, re-alities, to stimulate or depress, de-press, as medicine. The same drags that cause problems work miracles. They ease pain, make operations possible, possi-ble, curb asthma, cure men-ifal men-ifal illnessness, alcohoism, and insomnia, as well as provide for a reduction or addition of weight.. Who has the right to condemn, con-demn, who is without fault? We're all human beings with the same problems, without the right to place each other in categories and criticize. Start with ycurself, and when you feel you are doing right, then try to help scmeorie who reeds it. Do it perosnally, not with words no one hears, and with phony meetings. iMaybe if we all help each other v.jr. can solve some of these problems for ourselves and our children. But before be-fore you' condemn anyone, make sure it's not over a drink or a cigarette or coffee, or after you take a nerve pill! Lee Loveridge Dear Sam: Each year I look forward to spending my summer vacation va-cation in Moab. Besides the fact that it is my home town, it is a retreat from the hubbub, hub-bub, crowds, and other problems prob-lems we face daily in the larger cities. However, I was very distraught when I arrived ar-rived this year to find Moab Mo-ab is embrolied in the drug problem. Your editorial was excellent, excel-lent, Sam, and I was glad to see that the citizcns of Moab have taken progressive and positive action to try to remedy his situation. The letter to the editor last week certainly was provocative. provoc-ative. If children raised in a heme where alcohol caused so much unhappiness, really wanted something belter, the answer would not be marijuana mari-juana or any other drug. The only thing this1 will do is insure in-sure that their children will haive much more unhappiness than they themselves had. Although the usle of alcohol and drugs are both serious problems (anidi we would be better off without either), there are some important differences: dif-ferences: Drinking is legal, use or possession or selling of drugs is not; the drinker does not hang around the schools, parks, etc., and push alcohol like the drug users and peddlers push drags; alcohol al-cohol is not dropped on candy and 'gum 'given to young people and small children. child-ren. A drug pusher will stoop to any devious means to get mere people involved and the chain reaction set up by one trip on a drug can last for "God knows how long." The pusher sits back and counts hig money, caring nothing no-thing about the suffering of others. I have just completed an extensive study on the effects ef-fects of drug use, including films and case histories of people on drugs. This study revealed that some of the results are drastic personality personal-ity changes, vacant expressions, expres-sions, loss of morals and individuals in-dividuals conlmitted to mental men-tal wards. I am sure these people did not tint the tranquility, tran-quility, sense of security, feeling of closeness nor brotherly bro-therly love that some profess. pro-fess. It is astonishing that the youth continue to believe the lies -hat drugs are okay and con nue to buy this junk wh"e the pushers profit from th't"? inability to determine wv.3 their real friends are. Tie dedicated people who a.-e working to stop this are tuly interested in the welfare wel-fare of th'e youth, hoping they will wake up and stop blowing their minds before it is too late. Making false accusations and innuendoes and blaming blam-ing your problems on every-thig every-thig and everybody, even on dedicated 'and hard-working taxpayers and public servants, serv-ants, is asinine. If there is any substance or truth in the stialfcrnent hat a prommen businessman gave the young mountain boy from Colorado his first reefer, why didn't the girl who wrote last week's letter do something about it then? If you have positive evidence which could lead to the arrest and conviction of a pusher, if you know a pot party 'is planned or in progress, pro-gress, or if someone in your home is using an unlawful drug, and you continue to cover for them, ignore the facts and do nothing, then you are aiding and abetting the pusher and the drug problem. Truly, 'Someone failed in this situation, but it was not the law or other officials. Anyone who really knows the heartbreak that drugs can cause and is sincere, should face facts and work with not against those who are trying to alleviate the problem. A good thing to remember re-member is, it is never too late to make a change for the better for "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." I wish the citizens of this town much luck in correcting correct-ing the drug problem and hope it has been solved when I return next year. ''Concerned" Ammarillo, Texas Name withheld by request re-quest of writer. |