Thursday, February 8, 2007 7:49 PM CST
Column: If spying on law-abiding citizens is price to stop meth, then it’s too high
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial Page Editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
Over the years, “On the Square” has been ripped by conservatives, liberals, little old ladies, the NRA, CIA, FBI, NYPD, preachers, one serial killer, and -- particularly -- legions of crusaders.
Our View editorials, on the other hand, are dispassionate products of our JG/T-C Editorial Board, an august body headed by our beloved Publisher Carl “pass the fries” Walworth and populated by Managing Editor Bill Lair, Editorial Page Editor Harry Reynolds (me), Features Editor Beth Heldebrandt; and News Editor Penny Weaver.
We run three editorials a week (Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday). What we run is determined each Wednesday during a meeting of the editorial board. No weapons are permitted in the conference room, which means we must rely on lung power to vent our views on what we should write about.
In any case, the Our View editorial of Saturday, Feb. 3 (“Meth database should be limited to protect privacy”), sparked a vigorous exchange of comments on www.jg-tc.com.
Online comments are “Letters to the Editors” on steroids: beefier, meaner and far less restrained.
It only takes one comment to trigger an argument that continues long after the column or editorial in question has been buried in our vast archives, or the columnist or editorialist is dead.
On the day the editorial appeared, “Bet Harry was loud on this,” wrote:
“Harry Reynolds has always been anti law enforcement when it comes to anything dealing with alcohol or drugs. I well remember the hissy fit he threw when the county boys cracked down on a under-aged drinking party in the country.
“I also remember him not wanting to cover an event when the local MADD chapter was making a Donation of video cameras to local law enforcement. I remember Harry telling me he thought is was no big deal, but he changed his mind when he found out TV crews were going to be there.
“In fact, upon hearing that a TV crew was going to be there, he even showed up at the airport for the ceremony. I guess he was hoping to be in the picture.
“One thing we can always count on, and that is Harry being negative about any cracking down on drugs, and especially alcohol. Looks like Harry’s influence might have been involved in this editorial too, because it sure seems to have his fingerprints all over it.”
Thereafter came a series of online comments supporting and opposing the meth database. An example:
From Allergy Sufferer, who wrote on February 03, 2007 2:21 PM:
“Every ten days I buy a ten day supply of a name brand allergy medicine and sign the logs because the ones I don’t have to sign for don’t work worth a crap.
“While I have dealt with the issue of having to sign the logs if law enforcement is going to start a database that will in essence give the police the right to break down my doors I think I’ll choose to suffer.
“The amount I buy is well within the limits of the law but I refuse to risk my privacy because some overzealous policeman decides that I must be making meth because I buy this every ten days. Who knew fascism would come in the form of an allergy pill?”
And Medic wrote on Feb. 6:
“I do not trust that they will not screw up with this list. It will take one wrong move by some high paid state expert to step all over someone’s rights. Can you imagine the ramifications if this was misused? You could lose your kids, your home, your job simply because of a mistake on their part. You go right ahead and believe that this is a good thing, our rights (and life) are at stake!!!”
As for my own position on databases, separate from the JG/T-C Editorial Board, it can only be described as a great wariness, even distrust. These days, it seems everybody wants to know what everybody else is doing.
If spying on law-abiding citizens is the price we have to pay to combat meth use, then the price is too high. I don’t use meth; I’ve never used illegal drugs of any kind and I don’t intend to.
I don’t smoke, except for having a cigarette on “The Great American Smokeout” day, and occasionally partaking of a cigar.
I like beer, but I don’t keep hard liquor in the house. When I’m out, I’ll have a rum and Coke, but my wife drives if I have more than that.
As for underage drinking, it doesn’t make sense to deny an 18-year-old -- who is old enough to vote and go to war -- a drink. That’s just plain nuts.
I must admit to not being a great admirer of MADD -- at least, not as it is today. It’s one thing to push for laws to keep drunks off the road, but MADD goes far beyond that admirable calling.
Man and his brew have shambled through thousands of years. There is a theory that the reason man turned from being hunter to gatherer came to fruition when he discovered how to fermet grain.
In a perfect society (as I envision it), the individual would be in charge of himself, as free of state interference as possible without, of course, reducing society to chaos.
But, it’s not perfect, and we need police officers, laws, judges, politicians, etc. The trick is to find a way to have government that is productive and progressive whilst at the same time restricting its tendency to invade our privacy.
We should question the need for every database.
Harry Reynolds is editorial page editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Reynolds at hreynolds@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
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