Hi Bob, as you were just saying about Re: Censorship....
BR>  RT> I think that we need to punish the abusers of information, not the
BR>  RT> producers of it.  If a book tells how to build a bomb and someone 
does
BR>  RT> it, killing other people, the guilty party is the one who abused the
BR>  RT> information by building the bomb and using it in an illegal manner.
BR> 
BR>        All of life involves choices that get made, some good and some not 
so 
BR> good.  I elected to take the first drink - nobody put a gun 
BR> to my head.  Later 
BR> on, when it became a problem, I elected to modify my behavior and
BR> to stop.   Nobody can make a person do something he doesn't want to
BR> do - he can present  at best a series of choices, and the person
BR> chooses what the person perceives  to be best.  Sometimes the
BR> choices are bad.
Bingo!!!
 
BR>        I have a child who chose to try heroin.  Bad choice.  She's in 
BR> detox/rehab right now.  
May the force be with her.  (I am not religious, so I don't ask for a
dod's help.)  I realize that the force must be within her, but I am
sure that if your and your SO have instilled the proper values, they
will surface.  Maybe not yet, but sooner or later they will.
BR> One of her contemporaries at the
BR> institution was due  for release, and it was suggested that he enter
BR> a halfway house and not go  home.  His family, having endured enough
BR> said that going home was not an  option at that time, that a halfway
BR> house was really better for them (the  family has to survive even if
BR> the addict does not - a principle that I now  understand, which
BR> doesn't make it easier) than for him to  come home to the old 
BR> surroundings, friends, and sources.  
The "Hard Love" portion of the recovery attempt.
BR> He became irate, and said
BR> before he'd go  to a halfway house he'd go onto the street, hoping
BR> to shame them or lay a  guilt trip on them to get what he wanted. 
BR> Going on the  street is a choice - a  bad choice, but a choice - and
BR> the other choice, a halfway house, would be  better for all
BR> concerned.  he is, however, above the age of  majority, so he'll 
BR> likely get his expressed wish.
Unfortunately, I agree, but it is his choice as long as he is a
majority.
BR>        The point being that life is full of choices and some folks do 
them 
BR> better than others.  With luck, you can teach your kids to make
BR> good choices,  and they'll be tough enough to avoid the pressure of
BR> peers.  If you're less  lucky, you'll join me with one in detox,
BR> cursing the existance of various  substances and the opportunity to
BR> acquire them - and knowing full well that  trying to remove the
BR> substances won't help the choice- making mechanism and may  actually
BR> harm it bu removing the need to make hard choices.
Yep, which is one reason why I am in favor of education and assistance
and not imprisonment for drug abuse.  I wish that those substances did
not exist either, but they do and that is a fact that we have to live
(or die) with.
BR>        When I was in college, I was presented with a hard 
BR> choice (actually, it 
BR> was after they threw my ass out...) - I was draft bait, no longer
BR> entitled to  deferment, and wondering what to do.  My CHOICE was
BR> four years in the Air  Force, and a chance at getting something that
BR> I could use  when it was done, as  opposed to 18 months face-down in
BR> the mud and another 56 months of weekend  warrior.  The four years
BR> made better sense to me even though I knew I'd be  away from home
BR> much longer, and that was what I did.  
My choice was to join the service....*any* branch of the service by
the weekend and my record (which was local) would be expunged.  I chose
the Air Force and left on Wednesday.  :^)
BR> One of the more  unfortunate
BR> aspects of our life today is that this particular hard choice is  no
BR> longer available - leaving our young men with no really hard
BR> choices to  make - and no opportunity to learn how to make them.
Agreed.
BR>        [soapbox mode off]
Soapbox mode understood and enjoyed.
RD 
sandman@azstarnet.com - A newspaper ISP - Arizona Daily Star
sandman@brassroots.org - A no compromise gun rights organization.
http://www.azstarnet.com/~sandman
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 X KWQ/2 1.2i X Think........you may surprise yourself.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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