Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jul 2003
Source: Ventura County Reporter (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Southland Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.vcreporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2952
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/paraphernalia

UP IN SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Last week, Tommy Chong (one half of the grass-fed comedy duo Cheech and
Chong) got a year's probationary sentence for selling marijuana
paraphernalia over the Internet. The high-profile case, like so many others,
was an instance of shameless political grandstanding--on both sides: the
just-say-no team cheered while the just-say-yes team ranted about freedoms
and rules. In short, the war on drugs continues apace, constantly keeping us
whipped up about something that should be left to personal choice. The same
goes for abortion, another emotionally charged issue that would benefit from
relegation to the completely private realm.

When will we realize that the war on drugs has nothing to do with reality,
that it is simply a political dog and pony show, one that we implicitly
participate in the moment we buy a ticket by engaging on the topic, either
in print or around the dinner table? We are being entertained--or is that
distracted?

The real question that isn't being asked today is--or should be--what do
marijuana or abortion have to do with the governance of our country, or our
state? Maybe it's time to just say "No!" to emotionally-charged political
"events" staged to make us vote with our emotions.

But our politicians won't leave these issues alone. In fact, it's their
constant harping on these very subjects that keeps the public from probing
too deeply into the issues that really matter in politics. "I want to know
exactly how they're spending our money, and why!" we overheard a private
citizen say recently. "That's what I want to know." Indeed.

How important is it that real issues be discussed, as opposed to the fluffy,
emotionally-charged window dressing that makes up party platforms? We may
soon bring a governor to the political guillotine because of public moneys
ill spent and our failure to discuss that issue during the last election.

We are still wandering in the media-propelled fog of subterfuge created by
the war on drugs, the struggle over abortion rights, stem cell research,
prayer in the schools and other red herrings. Meanwhile, whatever graft is
going on behind closed doors stays shrouded in a mist of tears over
interrupted embryos and troubled teens. We get lost in a labyrinth of moral
conundrums while the powers that be are busy shaping reality to their
liking. We are like Dorothy et al., asleep in the poppy field just outside
the Emerald City, where the wizard and his minions keep everyone drugged
with complacency and material glee.

It's pretty obvious that we can't keep going the way that we are
going--slipping further and further into the pit of apathy while our
system's foundations and ideals are obliterated by financial backgammon, ego
parades and juvenile pissing contests. The mainstream media is already too
tangled in the propaganda web to inject any clear-eyed vision into the
examination of our political machine. Dead babies and crack whores sell,
after all. Prurience is one of the more abhorrent side effects of our
apathetic torpor.

But as a citizen and consumer, you have the right to consider the
alternatives. Instead of caving in to the emotional warfare designed to
distract our attention from truly important political issues, start to look
beyond the black magic of spin. The view might urge you to engage in an
honest and direct way with a system that was built for the express purpose
of allowing its myriad constituents to participate in as thoughtful and
effective a fashion as they choose.
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk