Stash for Fri, Jul 4, 2008 (belated post)
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm | By: Radical Russ
{{Well, look what was sitting in my draft folder. I posted the July 4 podcast to the feed, but forgot to post the on the blog. Hey, it was a holiday and I was working, so cut me some slack, Jack… 
“R”R }}
Happy Independence Day! Remember, the patriots who signed their name to a death sentence on July 4, 1776, faced the most insurmountable odds you can imagine. (Picture Puerto Rico declaring independence from the US if we really didn’t want them to.) Britain was the greatest global empire on the planet and had the best military and navy. But dedicated freedom fighters who stuck to their principles of equality and freedom overcame the odds and established the first nation created for a purpose, not born of race, geography, religion, ethnicity, or station.
They were hemp farmers and cannabis users and they were flawed men of their times, considering the slavery, genocide, and second-class treatment of women and minorities that they accommodated, but they instituted a framework in the Declaration that aspires to a greater ideal – that we are endowed with the rights of Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness, that all men (in the “human” sense) are created equal, and that just governments rule by the consent of the governed.
We’re striving for that “more perfect Union” referred to in the Constitution. We overcame slavery, we’re repairing Jim Crow, we’ve recognized most women’s and minorities’ rights and we’re working on recognizing them all. We’re far more diverse and tolerant than most anyplace on Earth even though we still have our pockets of bigotry, ignorance, and hatred. Enlightenment is not achieved overnight or even over two centuries because it is a continuous process. We’re better every generation. And this generation will be the one to finally restore America to her hemp roots and reassert our natural right of sovereignty of mind and consciousness.
Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-07-04
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We’ve got Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com with us with the marijuana entertainment connection, and I give you my take on the Declaration of Independence, the Drug War Revision.
