We have met the enemy and he is us

The war on drugs will never be won. There is evidence a-plenty to support that premise. No war or battle can be won when your soldiers refuse to fight or rebel and devise devious plans to act like they are fighting when in reality they are hoping and assuring that you fail.

A significantly large percentage of the American population does not want the war or drugs to succeed. There are too many people making too much money to end it -- much like college sports and the NCAA. The government has spent billions of dollars in other countries to interrupt the drug trade. It has spent billions more in America within the law enforcement community chasing, arresting, housing and dealing with the results of the drug traffic.

The truth is Americans are paying the money through taxes to end the war but many, many Americans don't want it to end. Much like public education: Many people pay for it through taxes but they don't care if they get it or not. These are the only two instances where this philosophy is acceptable.

There is an axiom that says "When the going gets tough the tough get going." Not anymore. Too many Americans have a new motto: "When the going gets tough they smoke it, snort it, inhale it, inject it, drink it." In so doing they escape reality and responsibility because it feels better than getting tough and it is easier.

They are physically and mentally soft, weak, lacking resolve and grit to face life as it presents itself. They retreat to the swamp of drug life and pretend that normal life does not exist.

Remember prohibition? Americans gathered an army and fought against it. They wanted to continue the practice of imbibing in alcohol to feel good. They had forgotten what normal felt like and they demanded that they have the liquid elixir that at least momentarily erased all cares and worries as drinkers slipped off to the misty land of denial the land of the self-medicate]d.

The drug culture of today has also forgotten what normal feels like. They cannot exist in normality. They must have foreign substances in their bodies to make it through the day. I don't understand why. I have never understood why.

I used to read the comic strip Pogo in the daily paper. The comic drawn by Walt Kelly ended in 1975. Pogo was an opossum who lived in the Okefenokee Swamp with his friends Albert the alligator, Porky Pine, Tamannany Tiger and a plethora of others too numerous to mention. The characters made pithy observations of certitude about people in general, politicians, government, the economy, the rich and famous and what was going on in the country. One powerful strip years ago has Pogo standing at the edge of his swamp home that is befouled with litter and trash and he opines, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

In the war on drugs we have met the enemy and he is us.

Larry grew up north of Calvertville on a farm and graduated from Worthington High School and Indiana State University. He can be reached at Goosecrick@aol.com or 317-839-7656. He has published six books.