Letter: John Walker’s destructive path began in Marin

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

In Marin County, a place where nothing is intolerable except intolerance, pious practitioners of this new-age, self-infatuated, nonjudgmentalism religion created possibly the most liberal, tolerant place in America for someone like Jihad Johnny Walker to grow and prosper.

Unfortunately, Jihad Johnny craved something more.

In a place where there were no absolutes, no fixed truths, no mandatory manners, no thou-shalt-nots, Jihad Johnny craved what self-absorbed Mom and Dad did not have time to provide: limits, expectations, standards and discipline.

It is no more perplexing that Jihad Johnny sought out the Taliban, than it is that thousands of teenage children turn to self-destructive behavior every year because their parents do not love them enough to give them what they need most: limitations and discipline.

Jihad Johnny's path to treason did not begin when he joined the Taliban.

Johnny's journey towards self-destruction began in Marin County, with parents who did not love him enough to give him some vitamin N (for No) once in a while.

MARK WARD

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