William Weld
Sen. Jesse Helms has always impressed me as being the perfect candidate for having his picture in the dictionary next to the word “hypocrite.” His expressed reasons for blocking the nomination of Massachusetts Gov. William Weld to be our ambassador to Mexico only reinforce my view of the senator from North Carolina (July 29).
Weld’s enlightened attitude toward the medical use of marijuana and needle exchange for addicts at risk of contracting HIV are troubling to Helms. He feels that Weld should not be ambassador to a country that serves as a pipeline for exporting illegal drugs into the U.S.
Of the two men, it is Helms who has the killer drug policy--a policy that is increasingly out of favor with the majority of Americans. At every opportunity Helms champions his state’s export of nicotine-laced drug products that kill hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.
WILLIAM R. CRANHAM, Los Angeles
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Kudos to Weld for setting the example for officeholders seeking a higher office: stepping down. If only our own governor had as much class in trying for president in 1996.
BRETT SPIVEY, West Hollywood
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