SPIRIT OF SLAIN DEA AGENT LIVES DURING RED RIBBON WEEK

Slain Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena
continues to live in spirit despite his untimely murder at the hands of
cowardly drug dealers in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Last week's 20th anniversary of Red Ribbon Week honors Camarena's
memory by inspiring schoolchildren nationwide to commit themselves to
drug-free lives.

Nationally, approximately 80 million people participate in Red Ribbon
events each year, according to the DEA's Web site. Those statistics
are attributed to The National Red Ribbon Campaign, described as the
nation's largest drug-prevention effort. This information appears on
the Internet at http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr102605.html.

Red Ribbon Week began after drug traffickers in Mexico tortured and
brutally murdered Camarena in March 1985.

Another article on the DEA Web site mentions Camarena's son, Enrique
Camarena Jr., an assistant prosecutor for the San Diego County
District Attorney's office. This article quotes the son as having said
in a speech, "When (Enrique Sr.) joined the DEA, he didn't sign up to
be a hero. The application didn't have a box you could check for that.
My dad joined law enforcement because he had lost friends to drug
addictions and he wanted to be part of the solution."

That brings back memories about trying to be part of the
solution.

In the early '80s, while working as a newspaper reporter in Athens,
Texas, I had an opportunity to investigate illegal drug dealings in
Henderson County and inform readers how to prevent their children from
getting addicted.

I burrowed into the underbelly of the community, met people who
introduced me to others, networked from contact to contact. I did a
lot of investigating on my own time, evenings and weekends.

Part of my approach was to gather a group of people willing to do
something to fight illegal drugs. Among the people I approached were
the county sheriff, the city police chief, a wealthy oilman, a
pharmacist, a former Hell's Angel who became a youth minister, a
lawyer who led my Bible study class, teachers from local schools,
parents whose kids had experimented with drugs, teenagers who had been
addicts at one time, and a Families in Action group leader from a
neighboring county.

Oh, last but not least, I contacted Ross Perot, whose billion-dollar
company, Electronic Data Systems, had a Texans War on Drugs Committee
composed of employee volunteers. Perot's group shipped me boxes of
handout brochures and information to be distributed at a rally I was
planning to organize.

My plan was to write a series of stories about illegal drug dealings
and the impact on local children, youths and adults. The series would
climax with a rally at a local hotel with that group I had gathered to
serve as guest speakers.

During my probe, I uncovered who the drug kingpin was in the county. I
riled up school teachers who threatened to picket the newspaper.

The series culminated in a rally that had a tremendous turnout. The
police chief had tears in his eyes. The teachers who had threatened to
picket the newspaper were present distributing Perot's brochures (I
had patched things up with them by meeting with about 20 of them in a
classroom, on their own turf, to address their concerns face to face).

The Families in Action leader was the final speaker. She asked the
standing-room only audience at the hotel's banquet room if anyone
would volunteer to form a Families in Action group in Henderson County.

A housewife and mother - Joy Lawrence - raised her hand. I'll
never forget her. She formed and led the Henderson County Families in
Action, which impacted the lives of hundreds of children.

And that's when I learned how people can be inspired to indeed become
"part of the solution" to take back their communities and protect
their children from criminals who would harm them for illicit profit.