Demonizing helpless kids

Six months ago, they were unknown. Today, they threaten the heart of democracy itself, these kids with the wide pants and repetitive music.

Or so self-serving politicians like Larry Jegley would have you believe.

We pumped billions of dollars [into] creating an army to battle drugs and all we succeeded in doing was increasing the appeal of drugs. The most important part of an army is an enemy.

Lacking any visible enemy, desperate officials seeking headlines demonize a bunch of helpless kids.

People like Jegley come and go, quickly forgotten by society. Like a fishwife, he spouts fearful tales of drug use at raves. These are either the hysterics of an ignorant person who should know better or worse. The drug use at a rave is exactly the same as the drug use in [the] culture at large.

He claimed there are two prices for water, one with drugs, one without. That is so absurd and so far removed from truth as to boggle the mind of any rational person.

This is cultural war, plain and simple. With 3.1 percent of the entire population in prison, one has to wonder what percentage the government is aiming for. At 100 percent, they can declare themselves king.

MICHAEL RICHMOND

North Little Rock

Skipping on-line issue

I knew it could not last forever. I used to enjoy reading the on-line newspaper during lunch, since I no longer live in the Little Rock area. [I] was informed today that I would now have to pay for being able to read it [if I don’t subscribe to the newspaper].

Funny, I can check out Chicago or New York, but not Little Rock.

The print is smaller, and now you pay for Internet news? Are things that tough for the paper? Oh well, I will just forget Little Rock and read about Monroe or Memphis. Sorry, things are tough all over, and [I] won’t pay for information I thought was for all.

COLLETTE WETH

El Dorado