“Say Yes To A War”

WED., SEPT. 6, 1989, 6:24 AM
FARM, STUDY

Last evening the President of your Republic told a nationwide TV audience about his strategy for waging war against those who would sell and use illegal drugs. He encouraged listeners to be as concerned as he is and to work together for victory over this drug scourge. Before you went to be bed you knew I would have something to say about this current happening. You were right. I am here with you, o son.

This circumstance is an example of a relatively small portion of your population developing behaviors that provoke a “war” against them. In one sense the “enemy” is all illicit drug users, even those who smoke a little pot or who buy a little coke or crack with legitimately earned money. These are part of the “problem,” for they encourage the “industry” to continue… though their support is minor. It is like unto the light drinker who tacitly supports the large alcoholic beverage industry, but whose very occasional purchases are of no consequence to the “health” of the industry.

The “problem” is that small portion of your total population (but a large potion of certain areas and neighborhoods) who use regularly or who are truly addicted and who commit crimes for the money to continue their misuse. This includes the crime of selling illegal substances to others so that they become regular users and must also commit crimes to continue the “habit”. These are disproportionately black and Hispanic young people from urban areas, which makes “solutions” socially difficult.

This is pretty much social comment that you could have made. I am the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, responsible, in a final sense, for both the perpetrators of this violent drug scene and for the victims. The drug of focus is from a tree that is surely one of My creations. Is this merely another example of multiplied sin… the result of Adam’s fall, accompanied by Eve, of course? Is violence the strategy to use in fighting this “war” against violence?

This is obviously an instance of a part of My good creation being “recreated” as a powerful substance that can make people feel very good for a short time… or violent. It is sin, certainly, because it is injurious to self and to others, some innocently involved. It is misuse of an earth product, for profit which is used to maintain the misuse. Never deny that it is sin, but, sadly, so is the response.

Your culture is not willing… and probably not able… to do what is necessary to prevent the “problem.” The unwillingness shows forth in the proposed use of money for violent suppression, and angry incarceration. The inability shows forth in a lack of teachers and youth workers who can teach these vulnerable young, of counselors who can help the addicted and those who have become criminals. There is a frustration in not knowing how to change, permanently, this part of your culture which must be violent in order to continue drug use.

I am sympathetic to the desire to “solve the problem,” but the solution “looks strangely like the problem.” A war is, by definition, violent… violence against violence. Perhaps “good violence” can win over “bad violence.” I see it all, as you well know, as opportunities for spiritual growth. Some spirits erode or never develop. Others blossom and flourish. As I see it, this, too, shall pass as a “time of war.” The reason for its demise may be worse then the original circumstance… or life may be improved. I see all kinds of results from human efforts to change situations.