I just read an interesting article by Martha Zoller at Human Events. She starts her article by addressing a question posed to Barack Obama at Manchester Central High School last week:

Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stopped by a study hall at Manchester Central High School last week and answered students’ questions about the war in Iraq and his education plan. But when an adult asked about his time as a student, Obama launched into his “youthful indiscretions” regarding his drug and alcohol use and “goofing off” at school. That poor adult asking the questions was probably just looking for a nice fluffy answer about applying yourself at school and got a national controversy.

Ms. Zoller then goes on to question the prudence of sometimes enforcing the laws. For example, she notes that Obama said his drug use was “youthful indiscretions,” yet you have children (and adults) in poorer neighborhoods who are put in jail for such “indiscretions.” She notes that one of the greatest needs our society has is drug rehabilitation for convicts in detention centers. I would have to agree that this is part of the problem. Not only do we need adequate drug rehab, but we need adequate “self” rehab. Having people realize that they can be a productive and valuable member of society will go a long way.

The whole article is well worth reading!