voicebox

Why drive people to drink or use prescription drugs when there  is a safe alternative?

by Joe Uehlein

We know that Marijuana has been used for both medicinal and recreational purposes for 5,000 years. It's only been illegal for 73 years. We know that it's far safer than alcohol. We know that it's far less damaging to society than alcohol. We know that it has many medicinal applications. And we know that legalization will boost the economy. We also know that one in ten of us are inclined toward addiction, and any substance can be abused. This is serious and we need better programs to deal with this hidden disease. The answer lies in legalization.

So why is it illegal? Fear-mongering and the politics of hate. First in the 1930's directed at African Americans, jazz musicians and Latin American immigrants, and then later the same politics of hate directed at the cultural revolution taking place in the 1960's. The right wing attack on the 60's counter culture led to the ill-conceived and failed war on drugs, and was so pervasive that it created a cultural stigma that made it difficult to talk about marijuana, and the counter culture for many years. Yet the power of "peace, love, and understanding" at the core of that counter culture endured. 

Democrats continue to bumble

by Gordon Clark

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."

It's close to a hundred years since legendary American humorist Will Rogers uttered his famous remark, but it has never been more true.

The shining pinnacle of the Democrats' disorganization was the loss, last month, of the late, great Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts.  In terms of competence, losing a filibuster proof majority in the Senate in less than one year, and doing it in Massachusetts, one of the most liberal and consistently Democratic states in the union, is the political equivalent of not being able to hit the broad side of a barn with a basketball.

True to form, the Democratic leadership didn't even see this one coming until a few weeks before the election, since their candidate at one point held a 30 point lead in the polls. How do you lose a 30 point lead? In Massachusetts??
Well, adding to the bitter irony was the fact that the loss was to a large degree the result of the Democratic party's handling of health care, the issue nearest and dearest to Sen. Kennedy's heart. Republican Scott Brown campaigned vigorously as the "the 41st vote" needed to successfully filibuster ( i.e.  - kill) any health care bill in the Senate.

Excessive corporate influence in politics threatens both our democracy and our economy

by Jamie Raskin



Ten years ago, in Bush v. Gore, the Rehnquist Court, in a bitterly divided 5-4 decision, intervened to hand the presidential election to the political party favored by major corporations like Haliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Blackwater and Enron. The result was two wars paid for by three tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and eight years of growing inequality, decaying infrastructure, soaring deficits, stock market collapse, and accelerating environmental peril.

In 2010, in Citizens United v. FEC, the Roberts Court, in a bitterly divided 5-4 decision, gave big corporations the keys to the whole democracy, sweeping aside four Supreme Court decisions and decades of campaign regulation to elevate business corporations to the level of citizens armed with political rights.

The recent Latino gang brawl in Ward 2 of the City should serve as a wake-up call for the entire Takoma community that all is not well on the public safety front.  According to a police department crime alert email:

"On January 22, 2010, at approximately 2:53 p.m., Takoma Park Police were dispatched to the 6900 block of New Hampshire Avenue for reports of a large fight involving knives and bats.  When units arrived on the scene, they observed approximately 10-20 subjects involved in multiple altercations in the parking lot in the 6900 block of New Hampshire Avenue adjacent to the residential property in the 600 block of East-West Highway.  A group of seven to eight subjects continued to struggle in the area while three subjects broke away and fled towards the rear of 630 East West Highway running towards Auburn Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland.  Two individuals were rendered aid who were determined to be victims of the fight .... Multiple knives were obtained on the scene and from various subjects who were involved in the incident."

Nelson Marans' letter, "Debate the Issues, not the people" was good to read.   It struck a receptive chord that Health Reform debaters should shun personal attacks.

Citizens should demand that all Tea Party, Democrats, and Republicans treat their opponents with respect.

I talked with many Tea Party demonstrators who arrived in Washington, DC last summer.  They were average citizens, like myself, open and candid. To a person, they told me the Republican Party had organized their Tea Party group.  Some volunteered that GOP officials handed out pre-printed signs that said, "Bury Obama Care with Kennedy."  Demonstrators were given materials, and suggested slogans for home-made signs. Slogans called the President either a Nazi, or a Communist--they could take their pick.
Worst of all, they were encouraged to yell, "We don't trust you!" at elected officials at Town Hall Meetings. This practice continues.  This organized disrespect for honest people who serve with same nobility of motivation that Tea Party candidates possess, do not deserve this.

For myself, I cannot trust people, even average citizens, who choose to be uncivil and disrespectful to their opponents.
Rejection of their issues, and their candidacies will teach a lesson.
 

Hello Maryland. Can we talk about guns for a minute?

There, I said it. I feel almost like I need to apologize before I've written anything.

Why do I have the opinion that Maryland's anti-gun sentiment is so strong? I've lived in Europe, the Far East the Middle East and many of the United States, so it's significant to me that I have this opinion of Maryland. But there it is. I feel like someone from my East Silver Spring neighborhood is watching and taking notes as I enter Atlantic Guns on Bonifant St. Do they picture me skulking towards the back of the shop, entering a booth, closing the curtain and depositing a quarter to view the latest handgun?

Seven Resolutions for the New Decade

by Sue Katz Miller

The end of a decade provides a crucial opportunity to "stop and think," in the immortal words of one school anti-bullying program. Every year at this time, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Jerry Weast asks for half of the county budget for our schools. This year, huge shortfalls are predicted in the wake of the recession, and Weast has, as he does each year, threatened painful cuts designed to stimulate parent demands for full funding of his proposed schools budget.

But some of us have lost patience with what appears to be emotional manipulation in order to fund a budget heavy on central office expenses. In addition to the new decade, we have substantive reasons to step back now and take a look at where our schools are heading. First of all, Weast plans to retire in 2011, and the opportunity to choose a new direction inspires reflection. Worrisome recent indicators (our high schools have dropped off a prestigious "best" list, and the achievement gap is stubbornly persistent) cast doubt on the greatness of MCPS. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is overdue to begin scrutinizing No Child Left Behind, and presumably listening to parents who decry the pernicious side effects of federally-mandated high-stakes testing.