THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220222
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ronald L. Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Calling last week's massive drug raid in Dare County ``Operation Season's Greetings'' seemed out of place at first.
The salutation usually is passed on to friends or neighbors or loved ones. You see the words on Christmas cards and yard signs and in businesses.
It's a way of wishing all well during the holiday, of spreading the message of good will and hope and love.
So it appeared rather odd to use ``Season's Greetings'' as the code words for an operation in which armed officers rousted alleged drug dealers out of bed before dawn in communities up and down the Outer Banks.
But it makes sense when you think of what a drug-free neighborhood would mean to the innocent people who have to live in communities dominated by drug dealers and drug users.
There could be no better Christmas present than the ouster of the scum who make life a living hell for law-abiding residents trying to provide their families a safe and fun-filled life.
And the arrest of more than 35 people on drug charges was designed to give the good people in Dare County a happier holiday.
``We hope that for a few days at least the people who have to live in those areas can go out at night and feel safe, and not be bothered by people doing drugs,'' said Roland Dale, the head of Alcohol Law Enforcement who coordinated the raid.
Those of us who are not plagued by druggies probably can't appreciate what that means to people who are.
We don't have our streets filled with idlers. Our porches aren't used as a marketplace for drugs. Our kids aren't harassed by peers who don't go to school.
Our sleep isn't disturbed by gunshots or shouting matches or fights just outside our doors.
And many of us didn't even realize that drugs - the bane of our society - have found their way into small towns across America.
We know now, though.
It's a frightening realization. No place, not even tiny towns like Salvo and Manteo and Wanchese and Avon and Nags Head are immune from the disease that is taking the joy out of the lives of millions of people.
People of all kinds, as the raid last week showed. Black people were nabbed and so were lots of white people. Women were arrested. Teenagers were arrested, and so were folks with grandkids.
And it isn't just drug sellers and drug users who are caught in an ever-widening web. Crimes committed under the influence of drugs, and crimes committed to get money to feed a crack or cocaine or marijuana habit, pull us all into the web. It is our houses that are burgled, our purses that are snatched in daylight, our sons killed on the highway, our daughters attacked by crazed rapists.
It's doubtful, widespread as it was, that ``Operation Seasons Greetings'' will have a long-range impact on the drug problem on the Outer Banks.
Experts say that ambitious underlings will be on the streets immediately to replace dealers who don't come back, and buyers will soon be swarming the neighborhoods.
But maybe, just for a few days, the 63-year-old woman who is afraid to leave her Manteo home at night because of the drug traffic will feel comfortable walking to a neighbor's house.
And maybe this raid will produce a commitment to get involved by all of us who at Christmas say ``love thy neighbor as thyself.''
If we are ever to rid our communities of drugs and the fear and violence and theft and degradation that they produce, we are going to have to acknowledge that there but for the grace of God go all of us.
And to have a hope of winning the war against drugs, we cannot leave the fighting up to cops and undercover agents.
Seasons greetings. by CNB