Opinion
It's always the young to fall.”
– Phil Ochs
I spent the past week in Los Angeles with my 18-month-old grandson. It was a pleasure to tickle him and make him laugh his infectious laugh.
It was also stressful, being on duty every single moment: “Hold hands when we cross the street.” “Don’t pet the pit bull.” And, I was reminded how much work goes into raising a human child. How much love. How much sacrifice.
I came home and watched the first part of “Restrepo.” It is a documentary about young American soldiers stationed on a base in Afghanistan.
They take enemy fire every day. Sometimes the enemy bullets hit their mark, and someone’s son dies. The soldiers traipse through villages whose language and culture are unknown to them.
In one village, they ask, through a translator, for help in their battle with the Taliban. The villagers complain about civilian deaths, and the officer in charge tells them that starting now there will be a clean slate. Things will be done differently. The villagers seemed unconvinced.
Nazi Germany notwithstanding, it is hard to find a justification for any of our undeclared wars. There is no reason for any of these wars that can satisfy an American conscience.
So, ultimately, these young soldiers, glued together only by camaraderie, are fighting for each other. They need to come home and get out of harm’s way and not fight at all.
Polls show that the majority of the American people don’t see that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth fighting.
Many voted for Obama because he said that things would be different. He led us to believe that he would end the wars, and surely not start more of them. And yet these wars drag on year after year as we continue to send the young to die (and to kill).
On the flight coming home, the steward announced that there was a passenger on board who was a member of the armed forces and thanked him for his service. Everyone clapped. I was thinking what an easy patriotism it is to clap; to take action to end this war in order to bring that young man home to safety is not so easy.
I wonder if my grandson’s life was at stake, would I be marching and committing civil disobedience.
I can tell myself that I am an old man. I can tell myself that there is nothing that I can do. But, an inescapable truth is printed across the sky: If not me, who?
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
If enacted, this ordinance will make the medical marijuana user a second-class citizen, who's visual presence has been deemed so disturbing that they are to be segregated from the decent folk by forcing them to buy their medicine from dispensaries located in places zoned for heavy industrial use.
Among other hurdles thrown at medical marijuana patients, dispensaries must be closed by 8 p.m., and the dispensaries won't even be allowed to describe their business on their signs, which are to be extra-small in size as well.
Why such harsh measures to manage a group of people who have caused no significant problems in the many years dispensaries have been in operation in Lake County?
It's due to a basic misconception about the marijuana business that has taken hold in some quarters, which is that Lake County is becoming a dope-a-topia for pot growers and that unless strict limits on dispensaries are passed we will soon be overrun by pot shops that will in turn hamper all other forms of commerce.
This is a completely off-base analysis as it shows a total lack of understanding of both the marijuana
business and basic economics as well, as the real outlook for pot production and sales here in Lake County isn't for expansion – it's for a shrinking of it.
Unlike other crops like winegrapes, pears and walnuts, there is nothing about Lake County's soils or climate that suit it to growing pot, and in recent years there has been an ever-increasing amount of medicinal pot being grown in urban areas – a trend certain to continue.
With large legal, government-sanctioned grows in the cities there is less reason to grow in remote rural areas like Lake County, and as there are more sources at the production end every day there has been a dramatic reduction in the value of marijuana, meaning it's becoming less and less profitable for growers. So the feared invasion of pot tourists isn't going to happen, as there will always be sources closer to home to access.
In fact, if there is an issue worth worrying about it is the fact that the local marijuana business is certain to lose its market share in the coming years, meaning that the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people here who work full- or part-time growing, selling and processing pot will be reduced, which in turn will affect nearly every business in the county – for the worse!
Like it or not our local economy has become dependent on the tens of millions of dollars put into it every year by the marijuana business, and you would be hard pressed to find a business here that hasn't profited from it – in fact, it has probably saved a few from bankruptcy.
We don't need draconian laws to solve imaginary problems and don't need the government meddling in and micromanaging our health care more than they already do, and every real American should be offended by the concept of unjustified discrimination against a segment of our society that should have our compassion rather than our disdain.
Ironically, the people who would most benefit from this plan are the illegal growers, who will be more than happy to take up the slack when dispensaries close.
This is the time to let our leaders know that we will not tolerate this sort of second class citizenship bestowed on medical marijuana users, as the county planning commission will be taking up this proposal on April 28 at 10 a.m., after which it will go to the Board of Supervisors.
Philip Murphy lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Philip Murphy
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