‘Bennett the Drug Czar’

Your editorial (“Bennett the Drug Czar,” March 4) regarding the appointment of William Bennett to the position of drug czar misses the point rather badly.

I’m certainly no fan of the Reagan agenda, which placed so many right-wing zealots, including Bennett, in senior positions. On the other hand, Bennett, for all his “diplomatic” shortcomings, did shake up the educational establishment, and pointed out very glaring deficiencies in the system.

I’m far more concerned with the toll the drug world exacts on this society than I am over the niceties of constitutional rights or a comparison of whether we’re in a serious war or a so-so war. If it takes the suspension of habeas corpus and the involvement of the military to get this filth out of America, then so be it.

We are, or should be, at war. Ask the parent of a child innocently shot in a drug dealer’s fight. Ask the mother whose husband has gone down the tubes and out of her life, with his arms scarred from needles. Question the loved ones of those with AIDS, contracted through dirty needles. The aimless stupidity of youngsters wandering around with a pocket full of drug-related money, and an empty head--dropouts, losers, and ultimately burdens to society.

The list goes on and on. If this isn’t war, what the hell is?

So come on, Bennett. Sock it to ‘em wherever and however you can. To do less would be to approach this war as we did the one in Vietnam, and we all know where that got us.

D. I. COULSON

Orange