November 2010

When do we finally legalize marijuana? I think soon. It used to be legal in this country from whenever it first started being used, probably the early 17th century, until the early 19th century. By the 1930’s it was completely illegal. Almost 80 years later it’s returning to being legal, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

It’s a plant! The idea that the government can tell us what plants to grow strikes me as outside the purview of government. Maybe I can get some Republicans to agree with me on this on the basis of limiting big government. In any event, governments are beginning to pass laws recognize the rights of plants and animals, and I think it’s high time, as it were, that we do the same. Plants and powders are not the same thing. Let’s let people and plants coexist!

But the main reason to legalize pot is that keeping it illegal is feeding a horrible war with the mafia that we are losing every day and will continue to lose. So many innocent people are being killed, and terrorism is beginning to flourish on our borders. I know people had their reasons to oppose Prop 19, but this is a real sick thing that is happening, and the war is just going to get closer and closer until we’re in it. We have to own up to our own natures, and certainly not criminalize acting on needs that, even at their worst, amount to sadness, lack of love or loneliness. Prohibition does not work. Transparency and compassion do.

Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?

Please! Yes, I know there is quite a bit on his plate, and he’s clearly not afraid to bite into everything. But something is missing, and it’s come to the point that everybody kinda knows. What’s missing is an overarching expression of what all these bites add up to. Ironically, he came into office promising radical change, but we’re less clear from him than almost anybody of: What does a world that works look like so we can all do our part? We crave, and need to hear, from his perspective, what’s broken and how it might get fixed. Without an articulated vision of where we are all going, the sum of these parts will remain elusive.

Jerry Brown Wins for governor of California!

Tonight he said: "I see a California once again leading in renewable energy, and public education, and an openness to every kind of person, whatever their color is. I mean, we’re all gods children. And, while I’m really into this politics thing, I still carry with me my sense of kind of that missionary zeal to transform the world. And that’s always been a part of what I do. So I understand the political part, but I also understand what it’s all about: the vision. And I’m hoping, and I’m praying, that this breakdown, that’s gone on for so many years in the state capital, and we’re watching it in Washington, that the breakdown paves the way for a breakthrough. And that’s the spirit that I wanna take back to Sacramento 28 years later."

Jerry Brown rocks. Let’s get behind him and help transform California into the world leader it rightfully is.