Correspondence

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 5, 1999

Drug Czar's Office Responds to Recent Insight Column

The article "Narco-Politics: Absolutely Fab!'" [March 15] is rife with misinformation. Drug use by the nation's children has declined, not increased, since 1996. Director Barry McCaffrey is not headed to the Red Cross. Mexico's commitment to and cooperation in antidrug efforts has improved over the past four years, not worsened. Rather than becoming a narco-state, Mexico's political and civil institutions are more democratic than ever.

The Mexican government acknowledges and is facing up to the serious threat posed by widespread corruption. McCaffrey's overriding purpose in dealing with officials from Mexico or other drug-transit or source countries is to promote and protect U.S. interests. In McCaffrey's view, cooperation with committed allies, not finger-pointing, is the best way to confront the drug threat.

Robert S. Weiner
Chief of Press Relations
White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy

Reader Blames God for Monica and Jane Doe No. 5

Regarding Jane Doe No. 5, I don't know if the president is guilty of rape or not, but I found the issue troubling. I also know that what King David did was worse. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then ordered his general to put Bathsheba's husband in a battle where he was sure to be killed. "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle," David ordered, "and retreat from him there that he may be struck down and die." His orders were followed and Uriah died in that battle.

So King David committed murder, but God still forgave him, even though David did not confess until after God's prophet confronted him -- caught him! "You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon" Nathan the prophet said to David.

For some reason God gave Clinton a pass on Jane Doe No. 5 and Monica Lewinsky. I don't know why. No one really knows why except God, and I trust He or She has a good reason for doing that. So let us quit trying to second-guess God's unknowable wisdom and move on with our lives as individuals and move on with our life as a nation.

Scott Oppenheim

St. Louis

Attorney General Reno Takes Orders From the White House

Let us cut out all of this claptrap and gobbledygook of reconciliation from our phone-sex president. The conduct by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Department of Justice is being orchestrated by the White House. If the president were sincere, he would stop such action with a simple phone call. Let's get real.

Berrnan E. Deffenbaugh, Jr.

San Antonio

Conservative Groups Are Doing Great Work on Campus

The Picture Profile of me and the Leadership Institute ["A New Offensive in the Campus Culture War," Feb. 1] includes text which might be read incorrectly to imply that I believe that other conservative organizations working on college campuses are not effective.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Groups like Young America's Foundation, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Eagle Forum Collegians, Federalist Society, Accuracy in Academia and others do fantastic work in their respective areas. However, the combined resources of the Leadership Institute and every other conservative organization working on college campuses still are not dimes to the left's dollars on campuses.

I want the readers of Insight to know that even though these groups and others are doing great work, much more needs to be done to counter the monopoly enjoyed currently by the left in America's colleges and universities.

Morton C. Blackwell

President The Leadership Institute Arlington, Va.

Write: Insight, Correspondence Editor, 3600 New York Ave. N.E., Washington, DC 20002. E-mail Insight@wt.infi.net. Fax: (202) 529-2484. Please include an address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for space.