cannabisnews.com: Hash Bashers Know Where The Line Is Hash Bashers Know Where The Line Is Posted by CN Staff on April 04, 2004 at 08:53:58 PT By Jo Collins Mathis, News Staff Reporter Source: Ann Arbor News When Mimi Broz drove up from Ohio for Saturday's 33rd annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash, she came prepared. She brought a drum to beat while shouting, "Pot is an herb! Bush is a dope!" She wore her Hash Bash hat loaded with politically progressive pins. And she brought a marijuana cigarette hidden inside a pack of Pall Malls. But the joint was not smoked before its time. Asked if she was going to light up on the University of Michigan Diag, the 39-year-old activist said: "On campus? No, I'm not an idiot. In the city? Maybe." Possession of marijuana is a civil infraction with a $25 fine in the city of Ann Arbor. But because the U-M regents receive their authority from the state, the university's Department of Public Safety enforces state law and university ordinances. Minimum punishment is a $100 fine and/or 90 days in jail. Event organizers urged the crowd of about 1,500 to go ahead and smoke a joint as an act of civil disobedience, but to do so later, on city property where participants could probably afford a $25 fine. So most people smoked nicotine or nothing during the hour-long Hash Bash in which speakers promoted the medicinal use of marijuana, urged them to join the fight to legalize pot and reminded them that the current administration is no friend of the cause. Poet John Sinclair, a former Ann Arbor resident and 1960s activist, reminded the crowd that in the early '70s, he helped elect candidates to the city council who helped change the marijuana law. Note: Those attending hold off on lighting up while on U-M campus. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/line.htmSource: Ann Arbor News (MI)Author: Jo Collins Mathis, News Staff Reporter Published: Sunday, April 4, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Ann Arbor NewsContact: letters annarbornews.comWebsite: http://www.mlive.com/aanews/index.ssfRelated Articles & Web Site:Hash Bashhttp://www.hashbash.com/Activists Have High Hopes for Hash Bashhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18575.shtmlWhims of Weather Affect Success of Hash Bash http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18526.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #15 posted by FoM on April 05, 2004 at 08:02:36 PT goneposthole I wasn't born to follow is one of my personal favorite songs on the Easy Rider soundtrack. I've always been much like that song in my life. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by goneposthole on April 05, 2004 at 06:02:44 PT 'I wasn't born to follow' The Byrds recorded the song, of course. '...She may beg, she may plead, she may argue with her logicAnd then she'll know the things I learnedThat really have no value in the end she will surely knowI wasn't born to follow'http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/easyrider/wasntborntofollow.htmThe movie wasn't titled 'Difficult Rider'. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by FoM on April 04, 2004 at 22:09:50 PT Thanks EJ That's good news. Thanks! [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 20:37:55 PT Keith Alden's free on bail The cheap so and so's made him pay for his own ride home from prison. If they're that short on cash that their prisoners have to pay for the ride home, why don't they stop the war?***********************************************************Keith Alden, who has served more than a year in Federal prison for a conviction of cultivating marijuana was released on bail pending appeal on Thursday night from Federal Prison Camp Sheridan. He had to come up with his own money for the bus trip to his home in Sonoma County.The 9th Circuit court heard Keith's appeal on Feb. 2, 2004. Appellate Judges Alfred T. Goodwin, A. Wallace Tashima and Richard R. Clifton ruled that the case was vacated and deferred pending the issue of the mandates on two cases: U.S. v. Stewart, No. 02-10318, and Raich v. Ashcroft, 03-15481. The motion to grant appeal was filed Feb. 25, 2004 and was granted by the Judges Alfred T. Goodwin, A. Wallace Tashima and Richard R. Clifton on March 23, 2004. Keith was notified 9 days later on April 1, 2004 (of course, 9 days more funding for the warden and prison guards for this prisoner). After Keith realized this was no April Fool's Joke, he packed his legal research and writings in some boxes, was escorted out the front door of the camp, and he found his way to a bus and the way home.Keith sends his thanks to all of you who sent good wishes his way, who supported him by their presence at his hearings, and who wrote him letters. He thanks Angel Raich and Diane Monson and their lawyers for presenting a convincing argument on the fed's lack of jurisdiction in intrastate commerce. He leaves two buddies behind, Tom Kikuchi and Kevin Gage, who are serving time for being handed over to the DEA by a rogue SF cop, even though DA Hallinan promised no bust under his watch for cultivating medical marijuana. Tom called to his mate Stephanie (who is waiting to serve time when Tom is let out so she can care for the children) and told her of Keith's being let out. She called me and I then called Keith's mom. Yeah for continued communication with prisoners of conscience!I am attaching the latest essay Keith and I have finished on Common Sense Law - The Controlled Substance Act. It is in pdf format. You can also order it from us at commonsenselaw yahoo.com.Rejoice, one of our own is free. We pray for many more of these victories. Ken Norton [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 20:33:54 PT I like rituals and good works Rituals are full of metaphors and I like metaphors. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on April 04, 2004 at 20:02:03 PT Very Interesting I was raised Catholic and we had so many Saints I couldn't remember what they were Saints for. I'm like George Carlin. When he received his First Communion he was told that he would feel differently and understand. He said he didn't feel different and from that point on he questioned about everything in the Catholic Church. It was George Carlin speaking about his faith that helped me to see the church differently. There is so much ceremony in the Catholic Church and I never understood why it was important. I always felt that instead of celebrating special church days we should do something helpful for those less fortunate. That wasn't ever done that I can recall. The Church of Ephesus is a church reference that registers with me. It was one of the 7 Churches in the Book of Revelation. PS: I'm watching the 10 Commandments on TV. It's been a long time since I've seen this classic movie.PSS: I think about how nuns wore what were called Habits and how much they resemble Burkas. Also Catholics have rosaries and some other religions have prayer beads. I can see how the cultures and religions blended. Look at New Orleans and Voodoo and Catholism all mixed up together. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 19:49:27 PT Bob Dylan in the LA Times There's a an interview with Bob Dylan about his songwriting in the LA Times, but it's in the paid online content.Speaking of the sixties.He was interviewed in Amsterdam BTW.It's a fascinating interview, he explains a lot about his artistic process, something he never talks about. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 19:25:31 PT Mother Earth FoM The earliest religions worshipped a Great Mother, and the male characters were invented later. Even early versions of the Old Testament have references to this idea, with God giving birth to the world, using the verb for a woman going into labor.Elaine Pagels has written on this in her book Adam, Eve and the Serpent.By the way FoM this is the reason WHY Mary is so strongly featured in Christianity.There aren't very many references to Mary in the Godpels. Her veneration came about when the Christian religion was changing from being Jewish to being a religion dominated by people who grew up in their original religion worhsipping the Roman version of the Mother Goddess.In Roman times, some of the Mother Goddess religions that were active worshipped Cybele, Astarte, and of course Artemis, whose gigantic and renowned temple at Ephesus dominated religion in the region for at least two centuries after Christ.The Christian church put greater emphasis on the role played by the Mother of Christ, the more they were trying to convert people whose religion already included a strong central female deity.The Catholics invented most of their female saints from the Goddesses of the people they were converting.St. Brigid -- there was never such a woman in real life. This was really Brigante, one of the Irish Celtic Mother Goddess figures. They made her into a saint so that the Irish would convert without feeling like they were blaspheming the religion in which they were brought up. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on April 04, 2004 at 17:13:37 PT EJ You're Right About Parishes New Orleans is a very Catholic area. Where I lived up north in PA we were called parishes by the church as defined by a church in the area if I have it right but counties by the government. I don't know who the Goddess you mentioned is. Mary is very special to Catholics that I know. Yes in the movie they set them up to open up with all the hatred they could sum up and speak. It sure scared me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 17:04:58 PT Oh wow maybe it means more than that I was thinking about the river and the term Easy Rider, a man who lives off women.Maybe it has a broader philosophical meaning referring to mankind and Mother Earth.When Peter Fonda is sitting on the Virgin Mary's lap asking his mom why she did it, why she kileld herself and left him, it felt like mankind longing for the return of the Goddess.Even back in the sixties before the Goddess was on the Hollywood A list, it sent that hint. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on April 04, 2004 at 17:00:07 PT They won't make it to the parish line In Louisiana the counties are called parishes, isn't that what the man meant?In the making of film on the DVD, they said they got the men to talk like that by telling them that the hippies were wanted for raping some teenage girl in another state.So their reaction was constructed by telling them a lie about the plot. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 04, 2004 at 14:09:40 PT reggie_the_pug Thank you. The one scene where Jack Nicholson tells Dennis Hooper not to ever tell anyone that they aren't free or watch what happens really hit home with me once again. Easy Rider can be applied to these days or the days gone bye. Easy Rider has it's own life and is a great movie in my opinion. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by reggie_the_pug on April 04, 2004 at 13:54:45 PT flow river flow Flow river flow, I have seen easyrider a bunch of times, I still get tears in my eyes at the end, honest, In grad school last year where I studied to become a high school hisoty teacher we had a project, use a film to address a social/historical issue. I used easyrider, specifically the scene in the café where the redneck in the Catipellar hat says "i still say them boys aint gonna make the parris line", to show that discrimination was not only based on colors, captain americal, billy, and their friend (jack nichalson's character) are made fun of for looking like "freaks". They are called "queer" (this lets me bring up the whole issue about anti-gay discrimination to the high school students), they are also just ripped on for being different. I wanted to show this scene, and with parental permission (because of an R rating), the entire film to high school students. The professor scoffed at my idea and told me that there was no discrimination against Billy and Captain America and Jack's character (I didnt even show the scene with turning people on to weed instead of alcohol in the non-parental approved version). Most of the 15 in the class ridiculed me (we are talking about people in the late 20's to late 30's on average, I was young in grad school at 23). Who defended me in class, an old right wing guy who said roughly that discrimination is discrimniation and it ruis a fair chance at the american dream, (this made me realize some right wing people believe freedom and liberty are for all) and a hippie that graduated high school in 77. I was so pissed at this that I went back to the high school history teacher I had at Elk Grove High School in Illinois, Mr James Brown (not the singer, the history teacher). He was an old hippie that received a BA degree from ann arbor in the mid 60's, he was white and risked death at the hands of other whites when he went to southern states to help black people fight oppression that occured when they tried to register to vote. He received 4 or 5 masters degrees himself as an effort to continue avoinding the war and then to see england. I showed him the peace. He thought it was great and that the movie was exellent to show to high school students. He thought, as I did, that one could discuss drug use, the war on drugs, anti gay discrimination, appearance discrimination, liberty, oppression in general. This hippie teacher was schooled in Ann Arbor in the 60's, he taught, I was the recipent of his teachings, now I teach high school students. The hippies didnt die off, we are just younger now!!!! Sadly we still get fucked with by people that think its ok to discriminate against us :( [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Virgil on April 04, 2004 at 10:36:18 PT All politics is local The Ann Arbor example will be copied for its success in localities looking to protect its citizens from the most onerous laws America has ever devised and it is something that has no victim, not even the user. It could well be that when the wrongness of prohibition dwells in people long enough they will seek a badge of honor. That may well be a ticket from the city of Ann Arbor when people actually demand their ticket on some future Hash Bash. It would be interesting if the Hash Bash people took to petitioning for a $5 fine on the day of the Hash Bash and stir things up. Still, the Ann Arbor example should now spread rather rapidly and if Alaska or Nevada or Michigan withdrawal from CP on the state level, the restoration of reality at the expense of prohibitionist fantasy will rapidly accelerate such moves. The state iniatives would show the rest of the world that the people do not support a prohibition the federal government thinks obvious to defend.My uncle used to keep horses and had rodeos on his ranch and had the horse rides at Ghost Town, the tourist magnet of Maggie Valley, NC. Once, for some strange reason, he undertook to break a couple of horses that stayed with their mother and we had them in the rodeo arena. He would say that the first step in breaking them is let them know that they cannot get out. I think that the prohibitionist that surely study the arguments here and elsewhere are well aware that there will be no letting go in the pursuit to end their dreadful prohibition. Just knowing that it can never end until their prohibition is broken, is what is breaking their spirit. They are locked in situation of no escape that cannot end until their prohibition is broken.As the story of Ann Arbor policy spreads and the call for right grows louder, we should see such policies spread because all politics is local and the people need relief from the terrible laws, that unlike Miracleplant, have no benefit and are dangerous to people's health and well being. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 04, 2004 at 09:23:18 PT A Comment About Many of Us Here Since the web site is working and I'm not worrying about it now and the news is slow last night my husband and I watched Easy Rider again. I wish that Easy Rider could be seen by everyone. I always see something new that makes me think when I watch this movie. In the end of the movie in the interview Peter Fonda said when they panned up in the air from the crash scene about that scene and this song.He said you see a road that was made by man and death and you pan to the left and see the river that flows to the sea that God made. It made me think why they dislike us so. We think and we feel and I don't think they like us to think and feel. The river flows, flows to the seaWherever that river goes that's where I want to be [ Post Comment ] Post Comment