Pleonastic Ephemera

3.13.2004 posted by William 16:38 link

The Times really drops the ball with this article. Here's an excerpt of the law in question: A student who has been convicted of any offense under any Federal or State law involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be eligible to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance... (full text here -- find subsection r) The stuff Souter says about the law being 'misapplied' is pretty hard to swallow when the text is so lacking in ambiguity. He claims that the law was badly written, but offers no explanation how that came to be -- why did whomever wrote the bill write it as they did? How was Rep. Souter not aware of the text of his own bill? The article fails to question any of this. Everything Souter says is taken at face value, even his shifting of blame for the consequences of the bill to the Executive branch. The article offers no evidence to support his claims. But whatever the truth may be about what Souter's intentions were with the HEA amendments, the fact remains that from 1998, when the bill passed, to 2002, not only did Souter not make any move to alter the bill, he never made any comment that he was concerned about the way the bill was being applied. It took five years of fierce effort to force him and others in power to make any recognition of the deep flaws of this law. So where's the record of that fierce effort in the article? It notes that some representatives have seemingly taken it upon themselves to push for rewriting the law, which is a little disingenuous for not indicating who brought the issue to the attention of those reps. Glosses of arguments against the bill are attributed to unnamed "critics" and "detractors." There are quotes from three people who were personally affected but none from anyone indicated to be part of an organized effort to repeal or reform the bill. The article does not give any indication that such an effort exists. But it does exist, has grown specifically because of the 1998 HEA Amendments, and is primarily responsible for the debate and furor over them. The reporter, Greg Winter, did not choose to include any reference to, let alone direct quotes from, any members of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy or the Drug Policy Alliance or the other groups that have participated in raising awareness of 1998 HEA. Thousands of people support these groups and they expended tremendous effort to get this issue recognized. I feel their absence from this article is at best sloppy reporting and at worst a deliberate attempt to shape the news.