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
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