(FWD) OREGON'S BLOODY THURSDAY

Graeme Bacque (gbacque@arcos.org)
Tue, 26 May 1998 09:05:54 -0400 

(Posted to alt.society.mental-health)
---------forwarded message---------
Subject:
            OREGON'S BLOODY THURSDAY
       Date:
            Mon, 25 May 1998 23:39:41 -0700
       From:
            Anti-Prohibition Lg <aal@inetarena.com>



      ***               ***         ***           The AMERICAN
ANTIPROHIBITION
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  ***********       ***********     ***          OREGON DRUGS CONTROL
AMENDMENT
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http://ns2.calyx.net/~odca
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"Drug War, or :              3125 SE BELMONT STREET PORTLAND OREGON
97214
 Drug Peace?" :
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      Release Date :Monday, May 25, 1998   ***   For Public Distribution

                           OREGON'S BLOODY THURSDAY
           Springfield, Oregon: 15 year old goes on shooting rampage
           4 dead, 22 injured, a state of anguish and anger prevails
                Nationwide pattern obvious: kids, guns, & "wars"

      Portland, Oregon -- A drawn and distraught Governor John Kitzhaber

    pondered aloud, "We must ask ourselves what this implies for our
    future?"  A question that now strikes fear into the hearts of every
    parent with a kid in public school.

      Gov. Kitzhaber went on to say: "This society owes it to itself, to

    its children, and to its future to make a commitment to prevention
that
    is equally as serious as the commitment we have made to punishment."

      These are fine, but empty words.  The same election year rhetoric
we
    heard from Kitzhaber in 1994.  Meanwhile the business of punishment
is
    booming.  Kitzhaber is not building classrooms, he's too busy
building
    and filling prison cells.  Let's not forgot we are a state and a
    country at "war" with itself.  Prevention efforts are doomed in this

    "general level of atmospheric toxicity" as William Raspberry so
    eloquently put it, of adults waging multiple "wars" of double
standards
    and double messages.  The kids remind us we can't have it both ways.

      "Cognitive dissonance is the order of the day.  Many kids are
    confused, scared and depressed because our government, its
    institutions, the press and media are sending them the worse
possible
    messages: war is normal, violence acceptable, a fascist police state

    inevitable," noted League director Floyd Landrath.

      "Feed that kind of crap along with 500 mg. of prozac to an already

    depressed, neglected, abused and/or desensitized kid ... and we've
got
    a walking time-bomb like Kip Kinkel," Landrath said.  "Given recent
    events around the country it almost seems deliberate, like a secret
    government experiment or a conspiracy designed to de-stabilize and
    terrorize society," he added.

      While it's more often than not impossible to predict or control
    individual acts of violence, we can and must control our government
and
    the "messages" it sends to kids.  Government's drug war - regardless

    its proverbial 'good intentions' - is rooted in violence and too
often
    these days the children are poisoned by its forbidden, yet
nonetheless
    abundant and easy to get fruits of guns and drugs.

      How we respond at this juncture is crucial and we adults would be
    wise to remember the old saying: 'War is not healthy for children
and
    other living things.'
                                      ***