Saturday, April 21, 2012

Since I Dislike Both In This Story, It's Hard For Me To Figure Out Who Is The Good Guy and Who Is The Bad Guy In This Story

The University of Colorado at Boulder is the "Berkeley of the Mountains", and a bunch of pot smoking college students is, well, a bunch of pot smoking college students. I'm having a really hard time choosing which side I'm on here:
Stinky fish fertilizer and two dozen law-enforcement officers kept pot smokers away from a grassy quad at the University of Colorado on Friday, but a few hundred protesters defied the crackdown and rallied on another field, where some lit up at 4:20 p.m.

It was a far cry from last year's April 20 pot celebration, when more than 10,000 people gathered on the university's Norlin Quadrangle for the annual ritual of enjoying a smoke and demonstrating for legalizing marijuana.
Perhaps I don't have to choose a side; rather, I can just sit on the sidelines and enjoy the whole shebang.

4 comments:

mmazenko said...

I'm of the same mind. Don't like the oppressive policing and certainly don't support a bunch of college undergrads toking up in public in the cause of freedom.

Ultimately, I'm all for a protest day with speakers, petitions, information, bands etc., ... but not a toke fest.

I'm not opposed to civil disobedience, but I certainly don't think it's appropriate here. For Ghandi, yes. Civil rights, absolutely. But smoking dope? No way.

The whole day was a huge disruption for CU, it did feature and even promote illegal behavior, and, thus, I have to support CU's right to manage their campus.

Ellen K said...

I hate hate hate the entire 4/20 meme. My birthday is April 20th. From the time I was a little kid people liked to point out that it was Hitler's birthday. Then, as I got old enough to ignore that, the potheads coopt it for their stupid celebration of intoxication. I take my birthday off from work at my peril. This year I had a workshop, but no doubt I will be regaled with snide student comments asking where I was on 4/20. I get really tired of it.

Scott McCall said...

i love the student organizer's comment. he claims the school's use of force to try and fine students is against the student's first amendment rights to protest. the student organizer....the one who organizes and runs student events on campus......you'd think he would better understand that 1st amendment's right to protest only includes legal protests....you can't kill the president in a protest against his policies. same way you can't smoke pot (federal offense, and i believe state offense in CO as well) in protest of the laws against smoking pot.

maxutils said...

Smoking pot is NOT a federal offense . . .