The list of dignitaries on stage at Los Gatos High School last week was impressive, to say the least. They included a U.S. senator and the national drug czar. They came to warn voters against Proposition 215, the state ballot initiative to approve the medical use of marijuana. What the speakers said was that passage of the initiative would send the wrong message to young people.
They may very well be right. But what we're worried about is the message the event itself may have given young people.
From the start, the event, billed as a community rally in opposition to Proposition 215, had "photo opportunity" written all over it.
We don't question LGPD Chief Larry Todd's right to speak for himself and his department in opposing any ballot measure. But Todd was out of line when he said: "We're gathered to express our community's opposition to Proposition 215."
The young people in the audience must have wondered just who the speakers were addressing; Most of the students are too young to vote.
But since virtually every speaker addressed the TV cameras, and not the audience, some of the students may have begun to suspect that they were simply props.
There was much to suggest that was the case. When drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey finished his presentation, he repeated it in Spanish for the video camera.
The "No on 215" signs that were distributed to those in the audience might have been another clue that the students were there not there so much to be informed, but to look unified in their opposition.
In fact, a high school auditorium full of students during school hours is a captive audience. When we see photographs and TV images of people gathered for a rally in support of any issue, we assume that the people are passionate about a cause and are at the rally of their own free will.
To suggest, as the speakers did, and as it played on TV later that day, that every person in the audience had joined in the rally because they personally opposed the proposition was simply a lie.
Certainly, the football players lined up in their jerseys to provide the backdrop for every photograph and video image must have felt at least a tiny bit exploited.
Yes, team members are subject to drug testing, but to make them out as heroes "stepping forward for voluntary testing and showing leadership," as Todd suggested, is a spin on what really happened.
McCaffrey's advance press materials somehow avoided mentioning that the school board was unenthusiastic about testing and only gave lukewarm approval by telling the football coach he was within his rights if he wanted to do voluntary testing.
The school board did not "institute a program of drug testing for students involved in school athletics," as McCaffrey's press material states.
We're not sure what the cheerleaders were doing there, except, of course, they created the right look for a high school rally.
When the event was over, the young people at the high school might have been inclined to vote against Proposition 215--if they were old enough to vote.
But they also had a good idea why so many people have become disenchanted with politics.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 6, 1996.
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