DonJones said:
...If we all keep hiding like the criminal that the LEOs portray us as, then that is the only picture that the citizens will ever have of smokers and growers. Do you really have ANY IDEA who large and strong of as block we would be IF we came out and united? Do you have any idea how much financial clout we have if we just unite? Do you know that as far back as 1990 MJ was estimated to be the largest cash crop in the nation? How much influence do the corn farmers have? Do you think it is because they united or do they run around one at a time and hide their problems?...
Hola Peeps,
DJ, if I may - as we have PM'd a bit regarding this issue you and I - I'd like to elucidate a bit on this, drawing from our personal conversations.
Correct me if I'm wrong DJ, but I think we were talking about the stark contrast between the civilly disobedient/MMJ grower and the criminal element that creep and crawl around the seedy underworld of illicit drug trafficking, and the importance of starting to do what we can to distinguish ourselves from the latter. (Even if some of us have
been the latter
)
I think that Don's right, we are starting to develop some legal momentum what with several pieces of key legislation being passed at both the state and federal levels. It'd be a shame to lose that momentum by failing to capitalize on it. We can accomplish zip if we keep hiding in our holes like, well... like good little criminals.
We also discussed striking a balance between being stupid and being paranoid. I think that our "coming out" will need to be metered to the political climate, but that eventually it will be required in order to affect real, positive change.
I don't know how many of you have checked out my post of Ginsberg's 1966 Marijuana Manifesto, but what struck me, and the reason I posted it, is the author's unapologetic tone. He refused to stay crammed into the mold that the establishment insists defines us. I think that this is what Don was getting at; that a fundamental shift in how we view ouselves as a community and subculture will be necessary if we hope to be taken seriously and our cause seen as legitimate.
How am I doin' Don? So far so good?
In this light I believe that Don was pointing out that realistically, many of us (me included) tend to fall too easily into that role of the paranoid criminal who still subscribes to the notion that the LEOs are lurking behind every door, ready to leap on the first unwary mook who unintentionally lets drop a name or a general location. I think that 4U made the point that there are six of him in the greater Seattle area alone.
So, again, I believe that DJ's message was that if we don't change the way that we see ourselves, then nobody else will either.
I am reminded of the movie Despereaux, wherein a young mouse bucked the status quo by refusing to be the proper little mouse, appropriately afraid of his own shadow. The story was an allegory of the sometimes rocky road travelled by those who march to a different beat, but that ultimately the rewards reaped are well worth it and that fortune favors the bold.
So, let's not be stupid, and let's try not to be paranoid. I am certainly not going to march into the cop-shot while huffin' a blunt, but I won't stay forever hidden in my hidey-hole either. Whether we like it or not, we are in the vanguard in this struggle and therefore assume more risk than the non-combatants who stay home. It just goes with the territory, yeah?
Thanx for letting me prattle on...
Now Then! Where's them Pix Mr.D? Let's see this haul of yours!
~Snax