So Walter Cronkite died Friday. While I'm not quite old enough to remember his newscasts and not quite politically aware enough to have more than a passing knowledge of his career, I did, along with 100,000 or so other Americans, receive a letter from him fairly recently. It was a simple letter urging us to end the pointless, destructive war on drugs.
I think a fitting tribute, and the only tribute I can personally present, to this exceptional man would be to pass on this message. So here goes:
Cronkite's letter was elegant and passionate, and over the years he's brought a lot of credibility to a movement that's often characterized as full of drugged-out hippies and losers. It was gratifying to see someone so many people of all walks of life see as a father figure talk about ending a policy that, until very recently, most Americans felt was a pretty good idea, a fact evidenced by the almost complete lack of political movement on the issue, even after, like, the coolest, hippest president EVAR is now, like, totally president and stuff.
I won't transcribe Cronkite's letter here, but I will present my own letter to America. It'll be short, inelegant and perhaps a little crass. It won't be well-researched or really even present a logical argument, but if you think about it and you're honest with yourself, I think you'll see its merit. Here goes:
Dear America,
Let's stop this stupid war on drugs. I think we all pretty much know by now that drugs can be destructive, but not nearly as destructive, discriminatory, and evil as the stupid policy that encourages our government to lie to us, shoot at us, and put us in jail for doing nothing more than putting something that can't otherwise hurt anyone into our own damn bodies. It doesn't help anyone but fear-mongering politicians (pretty much all of them) who are all, along with those of us who voted for them (guilty!), complicit in the loss of life, liberty, and happiness that this policy has caused. According to any sane person's sense of justice, anyone who supports jailing folks for making, selling, possessing, or taking a particular drug and has made, sold, possessed, or taken that drug before without being punished should be immediately placed in jail. If this policy were enacted, I'm pretty sure our last three presidents would have to spend some time in jail. Dumb, right? Let's just stop it.
Jonathan
See? Completely crass, undocumented, and poorly written. I invite you to disagree with me. I dare you to disagree with Cronkite.
