Domestic Crusades
In the one hand, I'm all in favor of national identity cards. But the other hand belongs to someone else, and it is behind my back. Not holding a gun, or at least not pointing at me; but They could. They are ready to dip into my pocket and look in my wallet, listen to my telephone conversations, check out my email and voice mail and garbage. I hope They and those who would supervise Them have the sense to distinguish between people who are dangerous to the laws and principles of the United States, and simply people they disagree with on social and political issues.
I don't have a lot of faith, and mostly 'cause They're lead by some pretty shifty characters. I'm not talking conservative versus liberal, but people who believe themselves to be plugged in more than the rest of us, and They think their morality is higher and should be the law of the land. It is particularly disconcerting that John Ashcroft is in charge of the Justice Department. Not content to focus on ending terrorism in this country, Ashcroft is on a domestic crusade against pot clubs in California and doctor-assisted suicides in Oregon.
The thing is that pot has considerable medicinal value, as a major British study just reported with gosh-darn glowing results for what many people fondly call dope. In addition to making people mellow rather than confrontational, it also helps crippled people to walk again, some to get out of bed for the first time in years.
Even prime time television is getting sense about the subject. On "The West Wing" the other night, the President was chastising the Vice (sic) President for his views, noting that guns kill 30,000 Americans every year, alcohol kills the same, and tobacco kills 400,000. Marijuana, noted President Sheen, killed none. But that doesn't matter to the zealots. Someone should slip these higher-ups some Alice B. Toklas brownies.
And speaking of compassion, what in god's name or God's name is wrong with helping to terminate a life of inescapable pain? How ironic that Ashcroft and his ilk are ready to prolong the misery of sentient beings who should be allowed to make a reasoned choice. And it's not like they are setting up a chain of Vonnegut's Ethicial Suicide Parlors. Thank goodness a federal judge in Oregon had the sense to at least temporarily enjoin Ashcroft in his grossly unfeeling intervention.
I don't think Congress put a lot of thought into -- fill in the blank -- the permission slip it wrote for the Executive Branch in the frenzied flurry of heat-sans-light legislation post-attack. Reminds one of the drug laws of the Eighties which had to be repealed or modified because they put such a strain on the Constitution.
If there is a hope, it is that perhaps the FBI's Robert Mueller will restrain the AG from too great excess. Otherwise, it is likely Ashcroft's nature to hack-'n-hew his opposition -- and even those who would merely question his purpose and plan -- with a righteous vigor that would make stomachs turn and blood turn cold.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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