THOUGHT OF THE MOMENT:
Freedom, Prosperity and Peace...
FOREVER.
Season's Greetings
by Bob Newland, 11/11/05
As Christmas draws near, it reminds me
that I am annually afflicted by a desire to say something to a number of people with
whom I have some degree of connection. It could be simply that self-
And it could be that, periodically, I have
a desire to re-
We (I and others)
are presently consumed with a drive to petition voters to put the issue of safe access
to medical cannabis to South Dakota voters in November, 2006. I constantly marvel
at the mere fact that we must do this. We actually have to spend a huge (for us,
at least) amount of money and time to possibly enact a law that would provide a fighting
chance for some very sick or disabled people to avoid prosecution for trying to improve
their medical conditions. Why do we have to do this? Why?
What kind of person favors
denying medicine to people who need it? I can no longer accept that an opponent has
no knowledge of the therapeutic benefits of cannabis.
Unless that opponent willfully
avoids absorbing such knowledge. And that syndrome is worse than stupidity; it is
malicious or insane, or both. Stupid, malicious, or crazy: if you oppose allowing
sick people access to medicine that works for them, there are no other choices among
words to describe you.
In the season during which we celebrate the birth of God's
only begotten son, we also must endure the seemingly endless duplicities of our nation's
president, who falsely professes to be a devotee of that Son. Christians do not keep
medicine from sick people. Christians do not imprison people for nothing. Christians
do not lie to their congregations. Christians do not advocate torture.
And for those
of you who adhere to that man, 'W', because he favors outlawing abortion; he and
his political party have no intention overturning Roe v Wade. To do so would remove
the last reason many have to worship at their altar. (Really, if you do support George
W. Bush, and if you took away that one issue, could you still support him?) For the
record, I dont think Al Gore or John Kerry would have been much, if any, better.
So, we endure the petty pillaging both of other nations' riches and those of our
own by 'W' and his friends for another year. We endure the maimings and deaths of
our sons and daughters incurred during their use by the political class in securing
those riches. We endure the imprisonment of sick, disabled and dying people (and,
sometimes, their doctors) for the crime of attempting to alleviate their own pain
and nausea or that of others. We endure (unknowingly, for the most part, due to the
sycophancy and laziness of most of the press) the fact that US airplanes and helicopters
are, as I write and as you read, raining down toxic chemicals on the farms and bodies
of peaceful working people in every country south of Texas in this hemisphere, in
the name of the 'War on (Some) Drugs'.
I'm often impelled to think about what it
means to love one's country. Mostly this comes about as a reaction to someone's "Love
it or leave it" rhetoric.
In general, I think forces under the control of leaders
of the United States are doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons in many places
in the world. Our actions in Iraq were and are but one example. Not the least of
these wrongs are being committed to the disadvantage of the very people who chose
them as leaders.
Am I bordering on being treasonous for expressions of such thought?
Or am I exhibiting my love for the principles on which this country was founded?
If I say, "Support the troops by bringing them home," am I in actuality giving comfort
to an "enemy".
I'm afraid I don't have much patience for those who maintain that
I am less than loyal to my country for suggesting that our leaders have their heads
up their asses.