Red Ribbons

I have always viewed the various ribbon campaigns with a bit of suspicion. All you have to do to help cure breast cancer, AIDS, drinking and driving or *insert good cause here* is wear a pretty, colorful ribbon to show your support. I have always wondered if wearing a ribbon does anything more than assuage the guilt of healthy people.

Now we have a brand new ribbon campaign. So far this is an American campaign sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Administration and aimed at teenagers. With any luck this foolishness will not come here. But with our Canadian habits of capitulating to misguided American trends, I am not feeling optimistic. Look forward to high school students hawking Red Ribbon merchandise. You read it here first.

Red Ribbon week takes place from Oct. 21 - 29. It includes typical overpriced Red Ribbon merchandise, misinformation falsely called education and a prayer campaign. We all know that a completely "drug-free" lifestyle is both possible and ideal! And what campaign to support an unworthy cause would be complete without a racial minority poster boy? I am speaking about none other than Enrique "Kiki" Camerena. See? There are good Mexicans and here he is. You must wear a Red Ribbon to show that he didn't die for nothing!

What the world really needs is a Green ribbon campaign to raise awareness of the casualties of the war on drugs. We could sell all kinds of green gear and we could have our own poster-boys and girls to end drug prohibition. How about a picture of a pregnant drug-addicted woman giving birth in a dirty jail cell? Or maybe we could collect pictures of all the innocent people killed in late night no-knock raids? The pictures would be mostly minorities. The Red Ribbon campaign has showed me that its good to showcase members of minority groups to support a good cause.

Maybe I am on to something here.