Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2016 Source: Trentonian, The (NJ) Copyright: 2016 The Trentonian Contact: http://www.trentonian.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006 Author: Ed Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian Column: NJ Weedman's Passing the Joint MR. CHRISTIE, 4/20 IS HERE AGAIN Dear Gov. Christie my old pal - we will be puffing outside your office on 4/20 at 4:20 p.m. Take this as a personal invitation from me: NJWeedman. April 20 - The Stoner Holiday is next week and once again here in New Jersey there is a planned civil disobedience demonstration on the steps of the state capitol as a direct challenge to you Gov. Christie and your prohibitionist policies. http://tinyurl.com/CapitolSmokeout - - I personally plan on firing one up in your honor celebrating your demise at the Presidential level, don't stand to my left unless you want to see what you've erroneously and naively railed about. Try it i think youll like it. To the people of Trenton - This civil disobedience event is being coordinated by the East Coast Cannabis Coalition. The East Coast Cannabis Coalition is a growing network of grassroots organizers working together across the East Coast and beyond to legalize cannabis. Do you support an end to the drug war? If so, are you going to join in this protest here in in front of Christie's office? Potheads, Ganja smokers and Cannabis Consumers, medical & recreational as well as spiritual users will be attending - will you? You don't have to ingest marijuana to attend - non-420 smokers also believe no one should be arrested for cannabis. This is a gathering of cannabis legalization supporters, activists, and artists. They will gather at City Hall at 2PM and march to the NJ Statehouse and hold a rally and concert in support of cannabis legalization in New Jersey. #legalizeNJ This is the 3rd year that such a civil disobedience act was held on April 20th. The other two Easter Sunday 2014 and Monday April 20th 2015 went off with out a hitch, no arrests and great statewide media coverage. This year it's on Wednesday and Gov. Christie and the state legislature are presumed will be inside the state capital as hundreds, including me openly defy the state 2:c-35 marijuana laws at 4:20pm. Warning: Stand to my left and I'll pass you the Dutchie! Philadelphia decriminalized small amounts of marijuana last year and its arrests went from 21,000 to 700. Why can't Trenton and New Jersey do this, simple - Gov. Christie obstructs legalization more so than the George Washington Bridge? States across the country are changing their MJlaws and discontinuing arresting people for marijuana, arrest went up in New Jersey. Last year 25,000 New Jersians were arrested, ruined and prosecuted under New Jerseys "racist marijuana laws" with the blessing of THE GOV., state legislators, Police agencies and the vile lawyer associations. In states like Colorado, Washington, Oregon and the district of Columbia marijuana has been legalized and the world has not ended as Chicken Big Christie has claimed would happen. Its time to get up stand up for our rights! As a follower and admirer of the 1960's civil rights movement that invoked "civil-disobedience", sit-ins and boycotts to end segregation. I've always been a big supporter of Civil Disobedience in regards to ending cannabis prohibition and have encouraged it as a useful tool. My favorite quote is: "F-the law, smoke it anyway!" Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole. Civil disobedience is sometimes, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. Beginning this spring and lasting thru the Nov 2016 Election I predict massive and numerous Civil Disobedience demonstrations through the country for a VARITY of different social causes including marijuana legalization. Two weeks ago hundreds of marijuana users (including me) openly smoked in front of the whitehouse. Last week in Washington, D.C.-Over 400 people were arrested including Kyle Moore a NJ Congressional Candidate from the 1st district, as they participated in Democracy Spring at the U.S. Capitol Building in but, unsurprisingly, corporate mainstream media completely failed to report accurate coverage of the event Nationally. I predict that wont be possible as these events continue and ramp up in number's and issues. Democracy Spring describes itself as a movement to "take back our democracy" use "mass nonviolent action," a week of sit-ins, on an "historic" scale not seen in this country since the Vietnam War Protests. Last monday's arrest of 400 people - including journalists - - certainly were historic, TV and cable news outlets' essentially ignored what happened. I predict as events like the 3rd Annual Smoke-out on our NJ State House steps will get media attention. Maybe even Gov. Christie will attend, I've invited him. I predict the legalization of marijuana will become a "cause celeb" issue this election cycle and say proudly "its 420 and its time has come." As the internet media outlet The Intercept noted, CNN completely skipped coverage of both the sit-in and the arrests. "MSNBC mentioned the protests for approximately 12 seconds, while Fox News mentioned the arrests and discussed the protests for about 17 seconds." Even worse, the two outlets narrowly skewed their reports, describing the massive movement's targeted concern as "voting rights issues." Though the massive protest movement's goal to conduct a "bold intervention to turn the tinder of passive public frustration into a fire that transforms the political climate in America, that sparks a popular movement that can't be stopped" certainly includes voting rights, cable news' misrepresentation trivializes Democracy Spring's rather significant intentions. A few mainstream outlets - NPR, Al Jazeera, and CSPAN - did devote attention to the Washington DC event, but on the internet millions of ordinary citizens shared the DC images & stories via Twitter and Facebook puff, puff I think America is about to have its own Arab Spring. Expect to see plenty of Civil Disobedience this year; I hope the City folk here in Trenton come out on 4/20 at 4/20pm. You and your brown/black children are being disproportionately arrested and ruined by white state officials and law enforcement who don't think your lives matter. You are just chattel for the new age concrete plantation system. You are the victims of President Nixon's Black Plan and Gov Christie's refusal to legalize marijuana is no different than Alabama Gov. Wallace's refusal to end segregation. In New Jersey selling marijuana is a whites only business (Factually all five operating Alternative Treatment Center's are white owned). These white ATC owners can sell marijuana legally while brown/black peoples are arrested for marijuana at three times the rate of whites in this state. The all white NJ State Supreme Court this year refused to even look at the issue of New Jerseys 2c:35 marijuana laws as being racist or DEJURE/DEFACTO discriminatory. We must take up the successful tactics of the civil rights movement to end the racist marijuana laws! Are you coming NAACP? - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom