A Father and Child Discuss the News

A Father and Child discussing the news over breakfast...

C: "Daddy, what's crack?"

F: "Crack is a kind of cocaine."

C: "Daddy, what's cocaine?"

F: "Cocaine is an illegal drug that some grownups use because it makes them feel good."

C: "Does illegal mean that it's against the law, and if you use it you will go to jail?"

F: "Well...yes. But only if you get caught and the police decide that it's the right thing to do to send you to jail. Like if you do it a lot, or if you were doing something else bad when you were caught."

C: "Was our Mayor caught using crack?"

F: "Well...sort of. There's a movie that the police found where it looks like he might be using crack. And the Mayor said that the movie does show him using crack. So yes, I guess he was caught."

C: "So he should go to jail, right?"

F: "Well...no. You see, the Mayor says he was very, very drunk when he used the crack. In fact, he was in a drunken stupor."

C: "What's a 'drunk and stupid'?"

F: (Mussing his child's hair and chuckling with paternal affection) "I said 'drunken stupor' not 'drunk and stupid'. A drunken stupor is when a grownup gets very, very drunk and does stupid things."

C: "Like using crack?"

F: "Exactly."

C: "And what is drunk?"

F: "Drunk is when a grownup has too much alcohol and loses control and responsibility."

C: "So it's okay that the Mayor was caught using crack because he was in a drunken stupor?"

F: "Yes."

C: "And that's why he's not going to jail?"

F: "Yes. Well...sort of. He's not going to jail because it was all a mistake."

C: "He was drunk and stupid by mistake and then used crack and even though he was caught, it's okay?"

F: "Well it's not okay, but the Mayor is a very important man who does lots of good things for the city and he didn't really hurt anyone and he says he will never ever do it again so it's kind of okay."

C: "But I thought he said some mean things about people when he was in a drunken stupor using crack. And you told me that sometimes words can hurt people a lot."

F: "That's true."

C: (Long pause) "So the Mayor should go to jail, right?"

F: "No, because the Mayor said that it was a mistake and that he is very, very sorry."

C: "And that makes it okay?"

F: "Yes."

C: "How do we know he's sorry?"

F: "Because the Mayor said he's sorry, and Mayors don't lie."

C: "But I thought that before he said he did use crack, he said that he never used crack. Isn't that a lie? Or did the Mayor say he was sorry for lying too, so it's okay?"

F: "The lying was part of the mistake so I guess he sort of said sorry for that too."

C: "And he wasn't lying when he said sorry."

F: "Right."

C: (Longer pause) "Daddy, have you ever used crack when you were in a drunken stupor and then said mean things about people and then lied about it by mistake?"

F: "No, because I would never do something bad like that."

C: "But the Mayor did, and that's okay."

F: "Yes."

C: "Oh."