Re: 2009, Oct 2, 2:45pm show with Marc Emery speaking from prison, where he's being held before extradition to the USA prison system for having sold marijuana seeds from his Vancouver, Canada location to USA citizens.
To Christy Clark,
CKNW radio talk show host
Do you know the name Henry David Thoraeu? This was the man who inspired the likes of Gandhi with his writings, namely that titled On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (published in 1849). Thoraeu was the inspirational thinker that served as the guide to the work of activists like Gandhi and countless others.
Here's a few bites of what HDT had to say:
- "Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?"
- "The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war." (think war on drugs)
- "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor." (Marc proves his honour by making no apologies for his struggles!)
- "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."
- "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
This is the light in which Marc has served in his advocacy, and how his struggle relates to the likes of ML King and M Gandhi and N Mandela, all standing up for the civil rights of a suppressed population, which is to say you are wrong to scoff at the comparison.
Apparently you think that marijuana users should be thrown in jail, just as a past prejudiced perception led others to oppress black people.
I have one last HDT quote for you: "It is never too late to give up your prejudices."
HDT presented his thread of intelligence that led many great men to oppose unjust laws, as Marc is doing now. Every unjust law should be opposed by every sanely just human.
To suggest ML King was the one dimensional advocate you presented him as is to belittle his life efforts, as he fought for the civil rights of people of all skin colours and against different states of injustice, as did Gandhi and Mandela, all of whom may have been best known for single key struggles, but effective in many, and with the desire to enlighten all people to the possibilities of peaceful co-existence across many spectrums, which is to say not throwing people in jail to win propaganda wars, as we are doing with the political prisoner Marc Emery.
The likes of you, Christy, people appearing to have a prejudice to grind, often show us how reality passes you by in your arguments. When you chose to stereotype the work of MLK, Gandhi and Mandela, when you scoffed at Marc's struggle, you entirely missed the point that all of these great men risked their lives to preserve.
Shame on you.
October 02, 2009
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