Make Obama the president he wants to be

Some words of wisdom from Franklin Roosevelt, as told by Hillary Clinton to Rabbi Michael Lerner:

If there had been more space in the Politico.com I would have told the story that Hillary Clinton told me when I met with her in the White House: that when FDR met with labor leaders in 1934, after four hours of meeting, he said the following: “You’ve convinced me that you are right. Now, go out there and FORCE ME TO DO IT.” What he meant, Hillary explained to me, was that the pressures on a President to stay with the status quo and the forces of the economic and political elites of the country are enormous, so that even when a President wishes to move in a different direction, he needs to be able to point to forces from the progressive world that are equally vociferous and pushing him in the direction he wished to go.

So, those who say, “Don’t criticize Obama, because he is such a decent person, so smart, and obviously wants the right things” are missing the point: OBAMA NEEDS TO BE PUSHED FROM THE PROGRESSIVE WORLD IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO BE WHO HE WANTS TO BE. He needs our support in this way.

An object in motion tends to stay in motion; an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  What is true for elementary physics is true in politics.  It has to be more politically harmful to oppose legalization of marijuana than to support it before most politicians will be on our side.  It is not enough for us to be right; we must be LOUD.

This is more than just calling President Obama at 202-456-1111 and demanding that he commute the sentence of Eddy Lepp (but by all means, call!)

• It’s calling your two federal senators and federal representative.
• It’s calling your governor, state senator, state representative, mayor, and city council.
• It’s standing proud and loud as an out cannabis consumer and encouraging others to do so.
• It’s finding which companies drug test and boycotting them and letting their HR departments know about it.
• It’s boycotting companies like Kellogg’s when they give in to reefer madness.
• It’s attending the trials of our brothers and sisters being imprisoned for what we do as well.
• It’s marching in the Global Marijuana March and picketing whomever and whenever there is a cannabis related tragedy.
• It’s donating money to our organizations and the politicians who are brave enough to support us.
• It’s writing letters to the editor of your local paper (the most read section of the news, by the way).
• It’s supporting third parties, like the Greens and Libertarians, who support our agenda, or pushing pro-cannabis platforms for the Democrats and Republicans from within the party apparatus.
• It’s correcting obvious reefer madness spouted by your friends or coworkers.
• It’s promoting tolerance and forgiveness as preached by your religion to the members of your faith concerning cannabis.
• It’s kicking your habit to pop an acetaminophen or aspirin for every little ache and pain.
• It’s protesting TV shows that portray us negatively (like that FOX new show , “Glee”, that had an ex-teacher lying to get medical marijuana, dealing it to non cardholders, another teacher being high on it during school, and the protagonist using it to extort a star jock to join the glee club.)
• And, if you can afford it, it’s non-violent civil disobedience, like announcing that you and one hundred others will be on the capitol steps at noon in possession of .05g of marijuana each and forcing them to arrest you while the news cameras are running, or passing out thousands of fake joints at a public event along with a flier that reads “Congratulations!  You just received one of 10,000 fake joints, absolutely free of marijuana.  Or maybe you received the one real marijuana joint we added to the sack of 10,000 fake ones.  If so, you could spend a year in prison and pay a $5,000 fine.”