Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Sage Views

By Smokey Briggs

Foreign policy

by Hollywood

Susan Sarandon does not approve of President Bush's foreign policy. Neither does Alec Baldwin although his credibility with me has been severely damaged since he has reneged on his promise to leave the U.S. if Bush was elected.

Oh, wait a minute. He never had any credibility with me.

Why?

Because he is a stupid actor. (I yelled that, by the way so feel free to add the appropriate volume).

I do not get it.

How does being a well-known actor make your opinion about things political worthwhile?

Here's how.

It does not. (I yelled that too).

Alec Baldwin's opinion on foreign policy, domestic policy, social policy or even garbage policy, is worthless. Poor Susan is in the same boat.

They may be quite good at what they do, but what they do is play make-believe in front of a camera.

Which, I suppose explains most of the opinions held by most actors and reported by most media. Only in a make-believe world could you come up with most of that drivel.

But, even when I agree with a given actor's political statement, it is still worthless. The guy still makes his living memorizing words, dressing up in costumes, putting on makeup, and playing pretend.

Amazingly enough, none of these activities ranks in the top ten in the "Reasons to Listen to a Guy's Opinion," list.

So why does our national media insist on reporting to us what Jane the Casting Couch Potatoe most recently uttered between plastic surgery and the divorce hearing?

I fear that the reason lies in readership and viewership. We seem to care what these overpaid talking heads say and do in the off-screen lives.

Or at least that is the perception in the smoke-filled-rooms where high-dollar decisions on news coverage are made.

So, today, I am calling on you, my fellow Americans, to show the smoke-filled room crowd that their perception is clouded by cigar smoke and maybe the image of Sarandon prancing about in her undies in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

From now on, the moment a reporter starts telling you what Hollywood Joe or Judy thinks, just change the tv channel, dial in a new radio station or change your newspaper subscription.

That should blow a little smoke out the window in the smoke-filled rooms. We will prove that we as a people are not so silly as to actually care what a goofy actor thinks and that we are insulted when a major news outlet wastes our valuable time telling us what TV-Land thinks.

By the way, about that changing your newspaper subscription idea…, rest assured that the Pecos Enterprise would never stoop so low as to reproduce Hollywood mush as news, and if we do, be further assured that this is the one exception that proves the rule and do not worry with that change-your-subscription thing.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears on Tuesdays. He can be e-mailed at: smokey@pecos.net

Our View

Should pot be easier to buy than beer?

Pot is now easier to score than cigarettes or beer.

In a recent article the Associated Press reported that kids under the age of 18 say that it is far easier for them to buy a joint than it is for them to buy a cigarette or a can of beer.

As a practical matter, if marijuana really is more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, then this is a bad thing, and sends a terrible message to our young people.

It is the natural result of our social policies of the past few decades.

Our military encountered the same trend when the drinking age in most states was raised back to 21 under federal pressure and enlisted clubs on military bases were pressured into following the state laws.

Military leaders more suited to lives in politics rather than leading warriors were amazed that young men subjected to the hardships of military life sought an alternative mind altering drug during the brief periods of rest and relaxation when they found the enlisted man's club closed to them.

Undoubtedly there is an element in our society that will be similarly amazed that drug use escalates among the under-21 crowd in direct relation to prohibition of beer and tobacco. Those that are surprised are probably also surprised by such phenomena as the rising sun at dawn.

The farthest reaching effect of such conflicting policies is the very clear message to our youth _ that the policies shaped by the adults in our society are at best silly, and at worse deluded.

Like the boy who cried wolf one too many times, our adult policy makers have and will find their cries of danger falling on ears already deafened by years of conflicting messages.

Our policies dealing with drugs, tobacco and alcohol need to be squared with a little common sense if they are to have any beneficial effect in the future.

Your View

Industry deal in people's lives for financial gain

Dear Editor:
"Every year cigarettes kill more Americans than were killed in  WWI, the Korean War and Vietnam combined…The cigarette industry  is peddling a deadly weapon. It is dealing in people's lives for  financial gain."—U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 1967.

So why is it that a government—(supposedly) "of the people, by the people, and for the people," cannot shut off the flow of the largest selling drug in America?

Some time ago an insane asylum tested it's inmates for possible release by placing them in a large room where water flowed onto the floor from a faucet. The inmate was given a mop and told to mop the floor. If he first turned off the faucet, then mopped up, he was considered sane enough for release.

How amazing (and sickening) that no such simple sanity exists today against the tobacco-murderers/pushers by our governments, State and Federal. Tobacco pours out it's vile, hell-begotten fifth day after strangling day upon our youth and children, even from birth, and the "tobacco-faucet" flows on and on without let-up.

Some fool will say "it's a lawful business!" But is it? The law is good only if it is used lawfully (I Tim 1:8)! Drug dealing will never be lawful. The pushers know this but they say, "we don't understand you, you'll have to speak through our bank accounts." Same old conniving devil. Thank God "he hath but a short time," (Rev. 12:12).

With All Due Respect,

W.M. KENNEDY

Return to top

Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
We support Newspapers in Education
Copyright 2002 by Pecos Enterprise