Pubdate: Tue, 04 Mar 2003
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Jay Bergstrom

THE BONG SHOW

Re "Drug gear seized; 55 charged," Feb. 25: Once again, under cover of a 
heightened terror alert, our authoritarian Drug Enforcement Agency moves 
out to defend liberty and freedom. Last time it was Ed Rosenthal (the big 
fish) whom they captured while terrorizing the medical cannabis community 
of Oakland. Again they hit the hated minority, those cannabis consumers, 
with totalitarian force right where they live this time -- their precious 
artwork as expressed in glass.

These acts appear to be those of a police state executing a cultural 
persecution. Bongs don't kick your door down in the middle of the night; 
bongs don't shackle helpless patients to their beds. I see a pogrom, and I 
wonder if either of the superpowers really survived the Cold War.

It would pay us enormous dividends to invest in a few of Thomas Jefferson's 
words on oppression and resistance: "The majority, oppressing an 
individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the 
law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society." And it follows, 
"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, 
resistance becomes morality." Wise up, America -- legalize!

- - Jay Bergstrom, Sacramento
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom