Like a lot of people who have awakened next to a beer can what time just grab my shoes and race race to take the final exam, I have been on the other side. Far longer than most of you reading this. I think I figured it out once: I'm in 29th grade. Not that that has any importance whatsoever... or does it? Isn't learning about experimentation? Sampling? Choosing something new and different over the safe and secure?
A life unchallenged is a life compromised.
So a little negotiation for the good of the people, their safety, the children, their children, their children's dogs, their children's dog's puppies... you get the picture. It's very cute and hard to argue against. But arguing against things is what this country is about, physically as well as philosophically and psychologically. Creativity and innovation are the qualities that make this country great.
All my years of education have taught me one thing: it isn't years of education that sparks creativity and innovation.
But it isn't about chucking out the old and in with the new either. To evolve in a way that improves lives and systems across the board requires knowledge of the past to set the context for the future. Every generation offers up its knowledge as fertilizer for the next crop of generative sprouts.
So it isn't about just doing things differently, it is about doing them differently in the context of the past.
Let's talk about drug laws. From the time I could read the Constitution I could not figure out why these laws exist. Yes, a society needs rules so we don't trample all over each other. And yes, freedom means freedom from the crap your neighbor is pumping into the lake. And yes, liberty means that sometimes we do things that we ought not to do for various agreed-upon valued goals such as longevity and that look of determination on every action heroes' face. And, finally, yes, the pursuit of happiness does not mean getting your little sister hooked on heroin.
But ultimately, people; it all comes down to choice. The reason we have this society, the reason we have this Constitution, and the reason that in some spiritualists' minds for why we are here is simply this: choice.
Take away choice and you take away the spice of life. And it doesn't matter what it is we're talking about. It is a principle. Perhaps THE principle. Teach your children to understand principle and context. From there, everything: and I mean everything (cite: philosophers who agree with me) can be deconstructed.
And when you can deconstruct something, then reconstruct it, then see the system in which it plays a role - the larger contexts - and reimagine those galaxies of options, then people can make reasonable choices. It happened with alcohol, it happened with tobacco, it happened with sugar, caffeine, red meat, and any other substance or chemical constitution we choose to sample.
In the end, we really ought to shake out that dusty rag of a document and implement fully the playbook. We keep trying, but for some reason some people think that this country is about where you were born, not the set of values and social contracts that construe the American experiment.
It is funny... the Founders felt that democracy was and should always be a "work in progress" - hence the unfinished pyramid on the back of the $1. But my sense is that they felt that the Constitution was the foundation for building upon. And over many, many areas of American life the reasonable people of our nation have managed to keep the purpose of this country alive. We have yet to see the free society that the Founder's envisioned. We're close, and we may never get there, and we may always and should always be building and rebuilding, but we must decide. Do we want to adhere to the principles that we hold dear or do we reject them out of fear and loathing?
Fear and loathing have their place: in the movies. With all the other crazy emotions we humans have but as civilized people do not express but in story. But ultimately we are supposed to come out of the theater with an "aha" or a reflection. What was moved? And what is left in its place?
So we move. From one policy to another. But we do so with reasonable people at the helm. Look, folks - I'd like to hear him say - let's try this, and if it doesn't yield the results we expect based on our informed national dialogue, we'll not go back, but will take the context of the past to inform our future choices.
Learn how to choose. Teach how to choose. Choose language that empowers people and does not reduce them. Discard labels like "gateway drugs" or "illicit" and so on. What message do these words connote? Do these words make certain segments of society feel weak and powerless? Think about it. How do we define drug? Is it, as I've heard, a "mood or mind-altering substance?" That works for me, except for the fact that I'd put my library in that category. And what about these categories of legal/illegal? That stirs up evil cultural narratives that should be left alone. Do I think of the substance that I put in my chili legal? Ridiculous.
Regulation, taxation, education. That's the way to go. Always has been, always will be. Let me close by way of analogy. When I was a young boy, about 7 or 8 years old, my father came to me and said, "son, see this in my hand? It's a loaded shotgun. I keep it here behind the door in the guest bedroom just in case some nut tries to come in and kill us. Don't touch it. If you do, it might go off and blow your head off. Okay?" "Okay" I said. "Now let's get some ice-cream." Good choice.
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