legalize drugs?

This morning began more leisurely than usual. Classes were canceled due to heavy rains last night. After a quick, pointless trip to the school I returned to my apartment where I enjoyed several cups of Honduran coffee and a fresh baked pastry.

By about the second cup of coffee I had finished checking e-mail, facebook, yahoo, and myspace and had moved on to the news.

"Honduran president calls for legalizing drug use" was the headline that caught my eye.

"Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says drug consumption should be legalized to stop violence related to trafficking," writes the Associated Press. "Zelaya says that 'instead of pursuing drug traffickers, societies should invest resources in educating drug addicts and curbing their demand.' He proposes establishing mechanisms for legalizing drug use." (full article)

"What the hell?"

This is the only response I can come up with even after reading the article several times. Can someone please tell me how LEGALIZING DRUGS will stop violence?? It doesn't make sense. However, what does make sense is why Mel Zelaya would want drugs to be legal: everyone says he is funded by drug lords.

How is Honduras ever going to prosper with such crappy leadership? It makes me mad to think how much this leader is willing to risk for his own selfish ambition. Does he care at all for his country?

Aggnes Repplier, the American essayist, couldn't be more accurate when she wrote, "Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements."

But I'm tired of it. I'm tired of seeing how one person's selfishness can ruin an entire country. It's not just Zelaya and Honduras, it's Ugand's Museveni, Zimbabwe's Mugabe, Mexico's Calderon ... etc.

Will bad governance never end?

Thomas Jefferson said, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

Sounds simple, so why do so many leaders have difficulty putting this into practice?

Franklin D. Roosevelt suggests this: "The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."

I don't pretend to have the answers to the world's age-old problem of bad governance, but the last part of Roosevelt's statement further convinces me of the value of education and good journalism. Hondurans may not have any control over the government now, but with education and journalists holding powers accountable that can change.

The day we stop believing things can change is the day we surrender hope.