| September 24, 1997 #013 | ||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||
DRUG WARRIORS CAMPAIGN FOR DRUG WAR WITH FEDERAL FUNDS Is this legal or appropriate? | ||||
by Mark Greer | ||||
It's bad enough that political "leaders" steadfastly refuse to
acknowledge the massive array of evidence that indicates obvious and
destructive flaws in the decades-old "war on drugs." When those whom we
entrust with power take the even more unconscionable step of using taxpayer
funds to campaign against citizen initiatives it borders on being both
contemptible and illegal. | ||||
There are numerous accomplices in this type of activity ranging from Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, Attorney General Dan Lungren, and Orange County Sheriff
Brad Gates all of whom campaigned against the medical marijuana bill
Proposition 215 in California last year and using public funds and time
to do so despite laws precluding such activity. The Arizona state
legislature and governor (who has since been convicted of numerous
felonies and is now out of office) also collaborated to derail Proposition
200 another extremely popular reform bill that Arizona voters
overwhelmingly passed in November of 1996. | ||||
The latest culprit is Lt. Gov. Brad Owen of Washington. He is not only
campaigning against Proposition I-685, a state initiative to allow
medicinal use of marijuana, and release non-violent prisoners convicted of
lesser drug charges, but he has done it using federal funds from a grant
specifically earmarked to help reduce teen drug use. | ||||
Many of those who so steadfastly jump on the anti-drug bandwagon under the
guise of being tough on crime have little or no regard for laws which
preclude them from engaging in political action with tax payer dollars. The
double standard and hypocrisy simply boggle the mind. | ||||
Owen has really crossed the line when he beats his chest about "protecting our kids" while simultaneously diverting funds from prevention programs to promote his own political goals including generating a largely inaccurate handbook designed to counter arguments on the proven safety and effectiveness of medical marijuana. | ||||
The science is incontrovertible. Over 90 scientific studies and reports
many of which are peer-reviewed or conducted under federal research
protocols demonstrate marijuana's effectiveness as a medicine. In a 1974
report the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated in Marijuana and Health
that cannabis "produced sleep, enhanced appetite and did not cause
addiction." These are ideal effects for those suffering from both the AIDS
wasting syndrome and the side effects of cancer treatment. There are
scores of similar modern reports as well as 5,000 years of human history to
attest to the value of marijuana as medicine. | ||||
Why do prohibitionist political officials distort the scientific evidence? | ||||
Perhaps they are unwilling to reduce or eliminate the power structure that has developed after decades of prohibition. It is painfully obvious that the stated objectives of "saving our children" and "eliminating the scourge of drug use" are goals that cannot be achieved by prohibition | ||||
Maybe they think that the drug war is still politically popular and this is
a way for them to advance their careers. | ||||
Our job is to change that balance. We can make spending taxpayer dollars on
drug war campaigning a political anchor that slows careers rather than
builds them. Please respond to the Seattle Times article "State
Anti-Marijuana Campaign Coincides With I-685 Push" at | ||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||
Drugs And Our Youth | ||||
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The little boy was curious about the big wooden box with 10 tiny doors. | ||||
Behind one door, he discovered a compartment with two plastic bugs. Behind another, there was a doll's bottle. The boy, 4 1/2, smiled each time he found something new -- a ball of clay, a snow globe, a music box. | ||||
With all its tricky locks and secret compartments, the box at the Albert
Einstein Medical Center here was certainly a magical toy. But this was not
ordinary child's play; it was designed to show a child's problem-solving
skills and ability to stay focused. It is part of a research project
seeking to determine if cocaine damages the brains of babies whose mothers
use the drug during pregnancy. | ||||
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The District of Columbia's curfew law aims at one of the city's most
pressing problems -- its disturbingly high juvenile crime rates. Between
1987 and 1995, juvenile arrests for aggravated assault increased by nearly
90 percent, for murder by 157 percent, and for carrying a dangerous weapon
by 282.7 percent. | ||||
Enacted in September 1995, the law allowed the arrest of anyone under the
age of 17 who was on the streets without adult supervision during the
restricted hours. A federal judge ruled the law unconstitutional in October
1996; last Monday, three appellate judges heard the District's appeal. That
same day, the D.C. City Council moved to make the curfew law (which
otherwise would have expired this month) permanent, to allow the legal
battle to continue. | ||||
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The manufacturer of a white-powdered candy sold in test tubes says he will stop making the candy after being inundated with calls from irate consumers. | ||||
"Yeah, I think we'll stop making the white stuff," said Steve Corri,
co-owner of Eat Me Now foods in Los Angeles, whose phones have been ringing
non-stop with calls from consumers and the media. "If it's affecting the
world that much, we'll just stop making the stuff." | ||||
But the San Jose grandmother who started the crusade, saying the candy looks like vials of cocaine and could encourage drug use among children, said she doesn't believe the company will follow through. | ||||
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GAITHERSBURG, Md. - A raspberry-flavored lollipop loaded with narcotic painkiller for treatment of cancer patients was recommended for federal approval Wednesday, despite concerns about accidental poisoning of children. | ||||
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously that the
benefit to cancer patients from the painkilling candy far outweighed the
risk of young children being harmed. | ||||
Heroin | ||||
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Depending on your point of view, he is also an activist, a trouble maker or
even a drug dealer. | ||||
From the unlikely headquarters of a 19th century Rotterdam church, the
54-year-old cleric pushes the legal boundaries to their limit in his work
with drug users and society's outcasts. | ||||
His latest scheme -- selling cut-price heroin to addicts -- goes too far,
according to his critics. | ||||
"We try not to provoke the public prosecutor," Visser told Reuters. "My aim
is to decriminalise the hard drugs scene. | ||||
His office in the Pauluskerk, or St Paul's Church, is dominated by a board
displaying the programme's rules. | ||||
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Rushing by a blur of tourists waiting for cable cars,
Tara, a grungy-looking 22-year-old heroin junkie, desperately searches for
her pusher. | ||||
Her joints ache from withdrawal; she feels nauseated. The cigarettes she's chain-smoked since waking a half-hour ago can't compose her. Today, she can't reach her regular dealer, who usually hand-delivers her ``brown sugar'' -- what she calls the Mexican heroin that soothes her. So she buys off the streets -- no problem in a city where heroin abounds. | ||||
"It's everywhere, as easy as cigarettes," says Tara, who wouldn't give her
last name. She scores from a pusher near a stylish hotel off Union Square.
"But I like to know who I'm dealing with." | ||||
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Plano Police Chief Bruce Glasscock realizes his northern Dallas suburb has a drug problem. After watching heroin kill seven young Plano residents over the last year, he has assembled a group of professional drug fighters. | ||||
The group consists of representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Collin County district attorney, two U.S. attorney offices, the Dallas Police Department and the Texas Public Safety Department. The presence of federal and state law enforcement officials will help local communities like Plano. They often lack sufficient resources to battle drug abuse themselves. | ||||
According to Mr. Glasscock, the task force will try to attack the street
supply of heroin. For good reason: Chief Glasscock says heroin use has
increased 48 percent in Plano over the last year. | ||||
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SEATTLE (AP) - Police arrested 146 people and seized cash, cocaine and
heroin in what they touted as the largest undercover drug sweep in the
city's history. | ||||
The sting began Wednesday. By early Saturday morning, officers made 146
arrests and seized 88 grams of rock cocaine, 5 1/2 grams of black tar
heroin, more than $3,000 cash, a vehicle, a cellular phone, a pager and a
set of body armor, police spokeswoman Carmen Best said. | ||||
Most were arrested on suspicion of selling drugs, but several people were
picked up on outstanding felony warrants. | ||||
The operation included 10 law enforcement agencies, including Seattle
police, the FBI, the Secret Service and the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration. | ||||
The operation led to so many arrests in its first few days that authorities
converted the public safety building's gymnasium into a temporary
processing center. | ||||
Medical Marijuana | ||||
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If she's lucky -- or so she says -- Lynn Harichy will be arrested today,
becoming the second Londoner to launch a legal challenge to Canada's
marijuana laws. | ||||
Shortly after 10 a.m, she plans to smoke a joint in front of the police
station on Dundas Street. Her goal, she said, is to be charged with
possession. Her quest is to continue the local fight to legalize marijuana
started by Chris Clay, the former owner of Hemp Nation. | ||||
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[color photo caption:] Robin Cardell of Oshkosh carried Jacki Rickert to
the grave of Dr. William E. Wright this morning at Oak Park Cemetery in
Mondovi. Wright was influential in getting marijuana federally approved for
Rickert's use before his death in 1993. Rickert, of Mondovi, and about a
dozen others started a journey this morning to Madison in an effort to get
the use of medicinal marijuana approved in Wisconsin. | ||||
[boxed sidebar:] "The people who have shared stories and given me support
have been unbelievable." - Jacki Rickert, seeking legalization of medicinal
marijuana... | ||||
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LONDON, Ont. (Special) -- A mother of four with multiple sclerosis has
launched a protest against Canada's marijuana laws by lighting up a joint
in front of this city's police headquarters. | ||||
Lynn Harichy dared police to arrest her -- and they did -- after telling a
small crowd of onlookers marijuana should be legalized for health reasons
because it helps control her pain. | ||||
Harichy, 36, says she knows many people who use marijuana to alleviate
chronic pain caused by diseases like AIDS and cancer, but says many of them
do not want to come forward. | ||||
The police knew ahead of time what was going to happen and said through a spokesperson that they planned to enforce the existing law. Harichy was detained briefly before being released with a note to appear in court on Oct. 14 on a charge of possession of a banned substance. | ||||
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I commend The Times for your editorial, "Medical pot gets boos from federal experts" (Aug. 13), which calls on the research community to "respond quickly" to the recommendation made by a panel of medical experts of the National Institutes of Health: that further scientific research be conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of marijuana. | ||||
What your readers may be interested in knowing is that Sen. Bob McCaslin
(R-Spokane) and I introduced SB 6744 during the 1996 legislative session
which resulted in a $60,000 appropriation directed to the state's Board of
Pharmacy for administrating clinical research under the | ||||
In fact, the research, to determine the effects of medicinal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) with patients under a physician's care, is in the final stages of design and planning. It will be conducted at the University of Washington under the supervision of Dr. Allan Ellsworth. Dr. Ellsworth and the Board of Pharmacy are working to get approval from the Federal Drug Administration for the use of marijuana plants in the study. | ||||
Militarization | ||||
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MEXICO CITY - As a scandalous drug trial against a top general nears an
end, some lawmakers question whether the Mexican army should take a lead
role in the counternarcotics effort. | ||||
Ordering soldiers to fight drug traffickers "is like inviting a criminal into a casino. He'll rob it," Sen.-elect Francisco Molina Ruiz said. | ||||
"I'm not saying the army is full of delinquents." But soldiers earn only a
few hundred dollars a month and so they're vulnerable to drug bribes, Mr.
Molina said. | ||||
Lawmakers are expected to tackle the issue of the military's involvement in
the drug fight this month . The debate comes at a time when many Mexicans
are more wary of the military's increasingly visible role not only in
counternarcotics, but fighting crime. | ||||
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MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- In a report this week before the U.S. Senate, drug
policy adviser Gen. Barry McCaffrey praised Mexico for the progress it has
made in its war on illegal drug trafficking. | ||||
"We are seeing an end to impunity, and the best opportunity yet for the destruction of major drug trafficking organizations," McCaffrey said. | ||||
McCaffrey's praise has pleased the Mexican government, which has smarted
from American criticism in the past that it has not been vigorous enough in
attacking a problem of sizable proportions. | ||||
Mexico's foreign minister said this week that both sides continue to
improve their technical cooperation and intelligence sharing, but he also
reaffirmed Mexico's long-standing policy of not allowing U.S. drug agents
to carry weapons in Mexico. | ||||
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MESA, AZ -- A planned program to enhance the performance of the MD 600N helicopter, the newest rotorcraft from The Boeing Company, is proceeding at top speed. The aircraft enhancements are scheduled for completion this year. | ||||
Chief among them is an increase in the relationship between the
helicopter's maximum gross weight and the altitude at which it will safely
land and take off. The aircraft was certificated by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) earlier this year for takeoffs and landings from sea
level to 1,700 feet (518 meters) at a maximum weight of 4,100 pounds (1860
kilograms). The company is nearing completion of testing that will allow
the relationship to grow to 7,000 feet (2134 meters) in altitude at 3,800
pounds (1724 kilograms), or greater. | ||||
Other recent enhancements allow operators to fly the helicopter with its
doors off at up to 115 knots, operate at temperatures up to 52 C (126 F)
and lift up to 2,134 pounds (969 kilograms) on its external cargo hook. The
aircraft also has been certified for slope landings up to 10 degrees in any
direction. | ||||
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EL PASO - While releasing new details in the death of a high school student shot by U.S. Marines last spring, a lawyer representing the man's family has called on President Clinton to speak out on the incident. | ||||
"This is the first killing of an American citizen on U.S. soil by U.S.
soldiers since Kent State," Pecos lawyer Bill Weinacht said, referring to
the deaths of four Vietnam War protesters shot by Ohio National Guardsmen
at Kent State University in 1970. | ||||
"We're asking the president to try to give some answers to the grieving
family and the nation." | ||||
Sentencing | ||||
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Thankfully, contempt citations against jurors are quite rare. I've been
told mine is the first like it in over 300 years. In Februrary, I was
convicted of contempt of court, in part, for failing to volunteer my
knowledge about the doctrine of jury nullification to the court during jury
selection, even though I wasn't asked any questions about it. I was fined
$1,200, though I could have received six months in jail. My conviction is
under appeal. | ||||
My prosecution arose after I served on a jury in a drug possession case in
Gilpin County in May 1996. I was the lone juror who refused to convict the
defendant. I was cited for contempt based on evidence of "improper"
arguments I made in the jury room about jury nullification and the harsh
sentence the defendant could receive. | ||||
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Last week our organization reported that half the young African American
men in the District of Columbia are under criminal justice supervision --
in prison or jail, on probation or parole, or out on bond or a warrant. We
issued this finding with some trepidation, but fortunately, people are
interpreting it the way we'd hoped: as a call to action and impetus to find
solutions. | ||||
The District is not exceptional by national standards. Nationwide, one in
three young black men is under justice supervision. The rate of young black
justice involvement in urban areas is often on the order of 50 percent. A
1992 study in Los Angeles found one in three young black men spent time in
the L.A. jail during the preceding year. | ||||
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When Congress passed its latest slew of mandatory minimum sentencing laws
in the 1980s, the notion was to get tough on crime, especially drug-related
crimes. The plan was to unclog the court system, jail drug kingpins who
were preying on our nation's young people, and prevent "liberal" judges
from letting criminals off too easily. The "war on drugs," "get tough on
crime," "three strikes, you're out" slogans that politicians used so well
on the campaign trail have been sadly crafted into laws with little
consideration for their human consequences. | ||||
The War On Drugs | ||||
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PARIS, Sept 17 (Reuter) - France's Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, in an admission sure to cause an outcry among conservatives, has said she smoked marijuana and thinks cannabis should be legalised. | ||||
"Yes," Voynet told the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo when an interviewer asked whether she had smoked joints. When asked if she still smoked them, she replied with the French expletive "merde" to brush off further questions. | ||||
In the interview published on Wednesday, Voynet said that as a politician
and a trained medical doctor, she favoured legalising cannabis. While
heroin addiction often affects people predisposed to drug addiction, "the
occasional consumption of cannabis has no effect on health and social
relations," she said. "I am more worried by the number of French people who
need sleeping pills than by the number of people who confess to having
smoked a joint," she said. | ||||
The head of the French Greens, Voynet reluctantly joined the Socialist-led
cabinet after a "pink-red-green" coalition ousted the conservatives from
power in June's parliamentary elections. The previous cabinet campaigned
strongly against drugs, often accusing the Netherlands of failing to crack
down on the illicit trade in cannabis and becoming a major source of supply
for French users. | ||||
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The war goes on. | ||||
Thirty years down this sad stretch of road and the same people are still
peddling the same brand of snake oil, still hawking that elusive light at
the tunnel's end. | ||||
There's nothing wrong with the war on drugs that can't be perfected,
they'll tell you. Nothing that can't succeed with just a little fine-tuning
and a little more money. More cops and more prisons and some new laws and
we'll really start to get at the sources of supply, or attack the demand,
or maybe do both at once. Democrats, Republicans, it doesn't matter who's
running for office -- they all promise to get things back under control, to
spend the money on a bigger, better campaign. They say it because they know
these are the words that most of us want to hear. | ||||
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THE good news is great: AIDS deaths declined by 26 percent from 1995 to 1996, thanks to new drug therapies that are keeping HIV-infected people healthier longer, and making them less infectious. There is real hope that AIDS could become a manageable disease, like diabetes, not a death sentence. | ||||
The bad news is dismal: AIDS cases are rising rapidly in women, especially young, poor women who've had sex with men who've shared needles. | ||||
The new realities of AIDS require new strategies. Two approaches are widely supported. The third is controversial, but gaining ground. | ||||
Needle exchanges reduce the spread of infection, addressing the primary
risk to women and babies. They do not increase drug use. The scientific
evidence is overwhelming. | ||||
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The recent alleged New York City police torturing of a handcuffed Haitian
immigrant in a police station bathroom was not an aberration, according to
a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. | ||||
Rather, former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara argues that the
incident exemplifies the warlike mentality prevalent in modern American
police departments. | ||||
This summer, McNamara discussed his views on the New York incident on the Today Show and BBC Radio and in Time magazine, among other publications. | ||||
An outspoken critic of current approaches to law enforcement and of the war
on drugs, the Hoover fellow contributes regularly to newspapers, magazines
and television shows. | ||||
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Dawn Day, Ph.D. is the director of the Dogwood Center in Princeton, New
Jersey. Dr. Day is a sociologist and activist scholar who writes on issues
of social justice and AIDS. Kendra Wright of Falls Church, Virginia, is the
manager of the Families, Women and Children project of Common Sense for
Drug Policy. | ||||
Today we are joining with several thousand other women and men who have
traveled to Washington, DC, from across the nation to carry an important
message to Congress and the Clinton Administration. Heed the scientific
findings, we will urge. Follow the advice of our public health experts, we
will plead. Fund clean needle programs and slow the spread of HIV/AIDS, we
will cry. | ||||
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Enjoying the hot sun of summer's last Saturday afternoon, a youthful crowd of about 40,000 people gathered on Boston Common yesterday to rally for legalization of marijuana, take in a free concert - and smoke a lot of pot. | ||||
As of early evening, about 150 people had been arrested on drug-possession
charges at the eighth annual Freedom Rally sponsored by MassCann, the
state's marijuana-legalization lobby, according to Boston police spokesman
Jerry Vanderwood. | ||||
But visual and olfactory evidence indicated that those arrested were only a
tiny fraction of those who, despite a phalanx of uniformed and undercover
officers and park rangers, were brazenly smoking pipes and joints all over
the Public Garden side of the park. | ||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||
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The Center for Forfeiture Law is a private law firm the focus of which is legal counsel and litigation related to issues raised by forfeiture laws. For more information please visit: http://www.shadow.net/~mbsibley/home.htm | ||||
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The results of the Swiss heroin experiment can be read at the Zorgstad Amsterdam site at http://www.zorgstad.amsterdam.nl/drugs/schweiz/hero-uk.htm | ||||
Through http://www.zorgstad.amsterdam.nl/drugs/drugs-uk.htm you can find the most recent figures on the heroin situation in Amsterdam. | ||||
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DRUGSENSE TIP OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||
Kim Greenwood gives us insight into the in's and out's of volunteer
signature gathering at the Puyallup fair. | ||||
The Un-Initiative at the Un-Fair | ||||
This time of year, for twelve years now, I've been exhorted to "Do the
Puyallup." I finally made it out there on Sunday to gather signatures for
197--the "other" or "comprehensive" petition; the one none of the media
like to mention, or mention by number. | ||||
I paid my $5.00 parking fee and $7.50 for my ticket and there I was. I put
on my signboards and started wandering. The pace was slow but
steady--nothing like the onslaught of Bumbershooters just two weeks before
where I gathered 420 signatures in four hours. | ||||
I kept wandering looking for el dorado, the ever-elusive golden spot. I
finally found the axis I was looking for, good flow of people and yet space
enough where I and my message could be seen (three years of doing this and
you get a feel for these things--or so you're always trying to convince
yourself). To make matters even more interesting it was within sight of the
DARE booth, and the Police car exhibit... | ||||
I was signing up a fellow when I noticed a Pierce County police officer
coming up to me. He stood by me patiently while the guy filled in his
allotted line of the petition. I was about to turn to him and ask him if
he'd like to sign (something about the police always brings out the rebel
in me), when two other people came up and wanted to sign. I started handing
them the boards but this proved too much for the officer. Patience had run
out. | ||||
"Sir," he shouted, "We have to talk." | ||||
I turned to him all ears. | ||||
"There is a petition-gathering area at the south of the fair. You can gather petitions there if you'd like, but not here or anywhere else. Those are the regulations. Would you like me to escort you there?" | ||||
You could tell he didn't trust me to find it myself. | ||||
"Sure, if you would please." | ||||
He called up on his walkee talkee to confirm the area. It turns out it was only fifty feet from where I was--to the east. We walked there in tandem. | ||||
Usually I like cops coming up to me while I'm signature-gathering and
spending some time because it usually draws a crowd, drawing out those who
enjoy signing in the very face of authority--or those who have a tendency
to wake up to freedom just when it's being taken away. It didn't happen
much this time. But a man did come up and want to sign. | ||||
We were ten steps away, as it turned out, from the "petition-gathering
area". I started handing the person a petition to sign. This was the final
straw for the beleaguered cop (imagine how he must have felt in the
presence of someone as disreputable as me--a marijuana leaf blazing from my
signboard). | ||||
He turned to me and started yelling, "DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID?! YOU'RE NOT
LISTENING TO ME! I SAID THERE WAS NO SIGNATURE GATHERING EXCEPT IN ONE | ||||
"I heard what you said. But this person came up to me and wanted..." | ||||
"I DON'T CARE WHAT THIS PERSON WANTED! YOU ARE NOT TO PETITION PEOPLE | ||||
Ten steps later we were in that place--before I had a chance to explain to
him (not that he was listening) that I had been faced with a peculiar
conflict of duties when the man had come up to sign. I didn't know whether
the cops right-of-badge was a greater right than the right of the citizen
wanting to put down his signature to redress a bad law. | ||||
Personally, the latter seemed more the American value. I was willing to take the chance; I'd do the same thing a second time. And a third, and... But I could tell this cop wasn't interested in the fineries of American rights. He obviously had more important things to serve and protect. | ||||
The place he had taken me, as I found out, was called the "free-speech
area". Puyallup fair, in the largesse of their hearts, sets aside a portion
of their fair for free speech. How big a portion? Imagine a football field.
Then imagine a handkerchief dropped on that field; such is the proportional
portion allowed to free speech at the Puyallup Fair. | ||||
The cop explained to me, in patronizing thoroughness, that I was restricted
to that area; that I could not wander from that area; that I could not
wander down any other aisles of the fair. | ||||
"If I remove my signboard may I wander the fair?" I asked him, prompting
him to be even more thorough. | ||||
"Of course," he said, "Then you're like any other fair goer. But if I see you outside of this area gathering signatures... Blah, blah, blah." | ||||
He left, and there I was, unlike any other fair goer, exercising my freedom
of speech by standing there silent with a board that read, "END HEMP
PROHIBITION." | ||||
I wasn't alone for long. A fair official now showed up all smiles and told me I was welcome in the fair as long as I stayed in the FREE SPEECH AREA. He told me everything the cop had told me and then left. | ||||
I stood there exercising my free speech by being silent and letting people freely read. Unfortunately not many people were passing the free speech area, and those that were weren't doing much free reading. I stood there for twenty minutes, signing a person or two, but the pickings were meagre. | ||||
The longer I stood there the more ludicrous the whole thing seemed. A slow
burn had caught fire: I decided to escape the free speech area, to get
out--out of the fair that is, and work the crowds from outside the prison,
I mean, the fair walls. | ||||
Before I left I thought I may as well try to get my money back. I got sent
from one place to another (wandering boardless, I might add) until I
finally made it to the administration reception desk. | ||||
"I came to the fair, was here ten minutes, and was told I could not be in the fair with my signboards petitioning signatures. I'd like my money back." | ||||
"I'm sorry, we can not give you your money back." | ||||
"Let me get this straight: you're kicking me out with my signboards but you
won't refund my money." | ||||
"You can leave your signboards here, if you'd like, and remain in the fair." | ||||
I turned around and left. I exited the Puyallup fair and took a breath of
free air. | ||||
I wandered to a minor entrance and stood for half an hour gathering ten or
twelve signatures. But I became restless, searching for bigger game. I
wandered to one of the main entrances. I was there five minutes, doing
alright, when a lady, a fair official, came out and announced that I had to
be on the sidewalk, not on the flagstones of the ticket area. Believe me, I
was straddling the sidewalk when she said that. | ||||
I took one baby step to the right so I was fully on the sidewalk and looked
up to see if that satisfied her. It did; she retreated. | ||||
But no more than four minutes later a man, another fair official, came out
all smiles and said he was awfully sorry but I'd have to move across the
street. | ||||
"It was only last year all those homeless people were peddling here--what's
it called? 'Real Change'-- and the boss heard about it and blew his stack.
He made them cross the street. I'm afraid you're going to have to do the
same." | ||||
Now I knew, or thought I knew, that he hadn't a legal ground to stand on
here. I was on city/county property at that point. His boss could stack a
blow for all I cared, or the law cared. | ||||
Normally I would have stood my ground, because I hate to be bullied. I
especially hate to be bullied by people with official badges and semblances
of authority. Tyranny wears many faces--many of those faces a smile and a
nudge. I believe in standing up to tyranny. | ||||
But by then the rain clouds were gathering, the wind was blowing my
signboards all over the place--even the weather had conspired to tell me
this was not the place to be. The weather's tyranny is one I respect. So I
left and drove the hour back to Seattle. | ||||
Do the Puyallup? | ||||
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