This opinion is written in response to the article titled “North Hempstead, A No-Pot Zone.”
I just don’t understand freedom. I do understand that it must be very important because it’s mentioned in our national anthem. But I just can’t understand it.
After all, “The freedom for me to swing my arm must end where someone else’s nose begins” (Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr.). So we need laws to protect us.
But there is a point of diminished returns, a point which may have long since passed. Haven’t we already learned the lessons of diminished returns? Isn’t the point of diminished returns defined by the 21st amendment (which repealed the 18th, which introduced Prohibition)?
Shouldn’t it also be defined by what grows in our gardens? Is it okay to be so drunk that you can’t stand or speak, and yet if you grow marijuana next to your tomatoes it’s prison for you?
“Innocent until proven guilty” is also a bedrock of liberty. And some people can use drugs responsibly but some can’t.
Under the guise of protection, we can forcibly strip the responsible of their freedom. But when freedom is sacrificed on the altar of protection, then we are safe, but not free.
Maybe the marijuana laws were passed in a drunken stupor…a legal stupor, of course. Then I would certainly understand freedom because it would have no meaning at all.
Under a growing wave of obfuscated regulation America is becoming less free every day. Let’s change the national anthem to the “Land of the Used to be Free.” At least then we wouldn’t look like hypocrites every time we sing it.
The whole world is laughing at us as we tout liberty that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s as embarrassing and heartbreaking as it is dangerous.
I just don’t understand freedom. When it comes to our gardens we’re either free or we’re not. Law and anthem are in contradiction. We’ve been betrayed. Treason and hypocrisy I do understand. I don’t advocate for marijuana. I advocate for truth. Freedom is a thing of yesteryear…and today it’s just a dangerous ruse. Let’s call it what it is.
Now I understand freedom. It’s not free. We’re obligated to defend it against domestic enemies. Every American should feel this obligation.
Visit LandOfTheUsedToBeFree.com.
—Gary Spinello
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