Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Pot, Protests and Peace

***Updated to include audio links to the interviews.. just click to listen:

Robert Plantshorn

Cindy Sheehan

Mark Rosenthal ****

Those are the three P's for tonight! Yes, we'll deal with all three subjects between 11pm and 1am ET on Air America radio!

Pot... Last week, I interviewed Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). The following day, I noticed this comment on my facebook page:

Excellent interview. It is amazing that LEAP hasn't garnered more authority and attention for their point of view. I'm a fan of LEAP despite having spent 29 yrs in federal prison for a non-violent marijuana offense.
Intrigued, I contacted Robert Platshorn, learned of his history as America's longest-serving non-violent prisoner of the War on Weed. He spent a ridiculous 29 years in prison, just released in April of 2008. His account of everything that happened is coming out in the book "Black Tuna Diaries"

Protests... On August 12, Bob Mackey - CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods Market -- wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall St. Journal in which he suggested that health care is a commodity that only the rich, like him, deserve. The following day, a boycott was born!

Tonight, I'll speak with Mark Rosenthal, the guy who organized the boycott (which today is closing in on 29,000 members in its facebook group alone).

Peace... Unfortunately, we're still at war. For no good reason. So, tonight, we'll be joined by the Peace Mom herself.

Cindy Sheehan
arrived on Martha's Vineyard today, where she hopes to confront President Obama on his engagement in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. She will issue a challenge to President Obama on his escalation of troop presence in the Middle East and his continuation of war policies around the globe.

In addition, Cindy and others who join her on SS Camp Casey will hammer out the details of an International People's Declaration of Peace.

Some of their early ideas include:
* We will not send our children to kill other people's children.

* We will not fund our disparate country's penchants for violence with our tax dollars.

* We will recognize the intrinsic value of each human. We will proclaim that no
person is better than any other person irrespective of: race, religion, gender, gender
preference, age, or national origin.

* We will remove ourselves as far as ideologically possible from our governments when war is proposed, or promulgated.

* We will demonstrate or protest war, violence or economic oppression no matter
who, or what governs our nations.

It sounds like they're off to a great start...


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