Protesting The Mmma

[The Digital Nomad]

First off I did not come back to be negative or acting disappointed. The MMMA site was my begining to the MMMA program, I started here, I learned here, and I followed many people here. So, I guess people always return to the place they started.

 

Second, I left the active scene for awhile - being club leader, the mmma site down, I disconnected from many people. I was very happy to get my private life back, we all had our lives prior to 2009, the MMMAct. Family time, personal time - we all should include this no matter how involved we are in anything, a job, a protest, a personal cause.

 

I did get bored quickly despite finding other activities to take up my time. I ended up helping at the Occupy movement in Detroit between Aug 2011 to about this time. I learned a lot - about people, about protests. I worked the medical tent due to my medical certs. We had to staff the tent with only medical qualified people to be legal in the camp. I went through the nights, the rain, the cold wind, the police and the street.

 

I was proud to see people standing up for rights, just like MMMP people. People had united because they knew something was wrong, and they agreed something must be done.

The problem did end up to be just like ours - we don't know the exact solution to our problems, we don't have a leader for such an democratic open forum. So, I learned that our problems are not unique to medical marijuana - all protest against the system has its limits and effectiveness, and they have the same problems - just like we complained about the guy dressed as a pot leaf making patients look bad - we had complaints of the black blok guy that looked like he was going to bomb the place. We had people dressed as hippies - while many of us were retired professional workers, unemployed college educated people who wanted to work, we did not hate the government or the police - we were fighting for our homes and jobs.

 

I encountered groups like BAMN - militant, very aggressive young adults used to push the limits of police and other protesters. I found that certain organizations that wished to remain 'peaceful' looking - would use groups like this to promote their cause. It brought attention, media attention. The 'peaceful' occupy groups would deny they allowed those 'black blok' aggressors to be in their protest- to the media, but to see them welcome those violent people in the background was very telling.

 

Then there were actual communist, socialist groups that wanted to get involved, they brought food and more people to the rallies - so many people who just wanted banks to refinance their homes, or the government to stop spending money while they are out of work - got mixed up with some radical government groups. Shiit, the black panther showed up and told everyone to start shooting at cops, that ex-military should take up arms against the government.

 

It got bad. The mob mentality overruled logic and common sense. People got discouraged when their message was clouded by that one freak or was manipulated by a organization. It was not about the people anymore, it became another game for groups and wolves.

 

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We can learn from all these mistakes and decide to move forward with a vision. Patient rights, organic medicine, caregiver rights to medical healthcare jobs. It will be a battle between cities, state, and between states and federal. But it can start here, and it has to hold its ground.

We can learn from the other protests, ours or Occupy - and we can avoid the pitfalls, the mistakes.

This is infowar - we have to stay up on the bills, contact reps, play their games, and not be played by the other side. We can reduce the amount of ammunition the other side tries to use against us. There are things within our control, and we must not let the forum run on FUD, to imply that the MMMAct is out of control.

 

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How do we begin again? How do we define our direction here?

We should state our position clearly and be ready to defend it.

[Fat Freddy]

Well said!! Brovo, sometimes we can not control the actions of others. But we may be in a position to influence their future actions.

So far I have seen only peace loving people at the rallies. I did note the presents of some biker brothers supporting patients and caregiver rights.

Nice to know that their are a few clubs that are informed about the medical benefits of medical marijuana.

[budpuffer]

very well stated Nomad...so many factions,all with their own agendas' it makes it hard to get anything done,,as with us,some want Disps.some don't..some want full legalization some don't.. and on and on it goes..i'm glad you're here...maybe you can help...bp

[Fat Freddy]

What makes America great? It is our diversity! We are not a land of clones. I ask you do you really think all of our founding fathers shared the same ideals about the Deceleration of Independence? It is a fact that there was several versions drafted before one draft was selected. Our nations founding fathers had to contend with various points of view. Did that stop them from narrowing down the message??? No it served to strengthen the document's content and meaning. Remember this George Washington and that little rag tag army won against some pretty high odds. The British army had better equipment better clothing, By today's standards they should have won.

 

They did not. Why? because the army that crossed the delaware was diversified, there was farmers, shop keepers, and town leaders. All with one thing in common.

A desire to be free from British control, unreasonable taxes, and to be self governed. Looking back over U.S. history when the call went out * to arms to arms* people from all walks of life answered the call. Men, women, teenagers. Black, white and red. We all are aware today of the contributions of the African Americans during the civil war.

And those of WWII. Despite ones station in life they answered the call, Some gave their lives on the battlefields so that we could form a more perfect union.

 

What did they fight for? To save another nation and it's people? Did they fight for treasures, gold and silver? No they fought for an ideal called freedom! Freedom from oppression, freedom from dictators. In our diversity we find a common message We want Freedom, freedom of choice, freedom to express our points of view. This is our strength. To deny anyone the opportunity to express their opinion would be an insult to those brave people that have given their all to make this country great.

Not only would it be an insult, it would be the first signs that we are slipping into the very abyss of tyranny that we have fought ageist for over two hundred years.

Think of occupy wall st, was their message clear? On the surface it was diversified but if one was astute and paid attention to the under current the message was clear.

" We are tired of politics as usual, we are tired of being the victims of a failing system!" Change is like a molasses in spring, slow to come out of the jar.

But if you look real hard we can see that those brave souls that stood in the rain for days had an effect. Our nations leadership took notice and are now trying to address the problems of unemployment, high taxes, and corporate greed. Some of the issues may not be adequately addressed, and will need to be readdressed in the future.

So if one does not like the diversity, do something positive to move us toward a more unified one.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Fat Freddy