Pubdate: Fri, 03 May 2002 Source: News-Sun, The (IN) Copyright: 2002 Kendallville Publishing Co Contact: http://kpcnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1487 Author: Jon Blackman Voice Of The People SOUDER IS IGNORANT OF IMPORTANT FACTS To the editor: I read with interest the letters sent by citizens supporting Rep. Mark Souder. I have to comment on some things said about him and his supposed "representation." I have seen Mr. Souder make comments that make me embarrassed to be from Indiana. My most vivid memory was years ago in the federal investigations regarding Waco, Texas, and the Branch Davidian cult. Mr. Souder actually said, on national TV, that if we went in to stop David Koresh because of the allegations of child abuse and incest, shouldn't we also go after places like Kentucky and Georgia where these things happen all the time? This prompted an angry response from the representatives of those states and made me cringe to think we had such an ignorant man to represent Indiana. More recently, I read an article in the paper by Mr. Souder regarding terrorism and its similarities to the war on drugs; specifically, where he mentioned new strains of potent marijuana from Canada which he said were "as dangerous as cocaine." No one familiar with the pharmacology of these drugs would make such an uninformed remark. To compare the two, with the exception of their legal status, as anything similar is simply wrong. To suggest that marijuana, at any potency, could be anywhere near as dangerous as cocaine only serves to foster the misinformation spread by a failed drug war. In another instance, Mr. Souder was speaking at Saint Francis College and was asked by the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) group to explain his authoring of laws which deny federal aid to students convicted of drug offenses. To do this unfairly targets poor students and minorities, and denies what troubled students need most - their education. Does it really make sense to deny a higher education to a student convicted for smoking marijuana and not someone who broke into a house and held people at gunpoint? Mark Souder defended his bill, saying that he agrees that people trying to turn their lives around need an education and the Clinton administration interpreted his bill to include all students who have ever been convicted of a drug offense (instead of only students who are convicted during the loan period, his original intent). Seems that his bill should have been written less ambiguously or even better, not at all. In recent letters it has been suggested that Paul Helmke did nothing good for Fort Wayne, turning a blind eye and letting sexually-orientated businesses come into the area. Make no mistake, these businesses exploit only one group of people: men and their wallets. There is nothing wrong with these businesses, there is just a lot of controversy caused by conservatives pushing their version of morality and dealing with fears about their own sexuality. Besides, sexually-oriented businesses are nothing new to Fort Wayne. Mark Souder is using the politics of convenience and the language of doublespeak to hide his own ignorance of important facts. I'm voting for Paul Helmke, less because he has all the answers but more than that, he isn't Mark Souder. Jon Blackman Kendallville - --- MAP posted-by: Josh