More Drugs, Less Service

Dinner conversation at my dining table tonight: Should marijuana be legalized?

(Reuters) - Pot smokers formally gained the right to light up in Colorado on Monday...

The topic was explained to our youngest child- the problems of taking the drug itself and the current legal consequences of ownership/inhaling. My husband added, "and we wouldn't need to pay prison guards to supervise the community service hours."  Our daughter observed, "but Mom loves community service," and she is right! I'm just glad I don't have to volunteer in an orange jump suit while being supervised by gun-bearing guards!

So, if pot-smoking becomes legal in our state, or country as a whole, won't that provide more paying jobs and less opportunities for community service? Who will clean up our freeways? Who will movies make fun of? Who will video tape themselves doing flash-mob versions of Michael Jackson tunes?! Who will get to sell their land to the farmers and benefit from the "second hand" "weeds" that blow over into their yard? 

Another great question, posed by our teenager, "Why is it legal to smoke cigarettes and drink beer?" That spun off into an entirely different direction while explaining lobbyist, company bribery, and the lack of integrity our nation exhibits. But most of all, how slippery the slope really is between right and wrong, freedom and slavery (addiction), safe roads and impaired drivers. If it is OK to vote at 18, why is the age limit to buy cigs and beers at 21? Do the law-makers really think that underage peeps are not getting their goods? No matter what an age limit is, or how illegal a product is, someone will always want to have it and share it, and someone else will always have to monitor their behavior (and consequences) for them. Same thing goes for obesity...

My mass media professor stated, "The drug war is not about drugs."  

Owning atomic bombing equipment and nuclear warheads is illegal around the world. Would making them legal mean the owners wouldn't have to work so hard to pretend they don't have any?

Hmmm...

~ET

WHY BLOG?

To answer two more of your questions:

What is the point of this blog? 

This site was started for a mass media communication class assignment. It was set up as a contest. The professor hoped, for the sake of the students, that some of the blogs will bring in enough attention for the authors to start making money from their posts and links.  For a handful of students this did actually happen!  The food critic was offered free food.  The fashion reporter has commissioned links to retail stores.  And the Hollywood celebrity watcher has been able to personally interview some low-scale stars on the rise. 

Needless to say, the class-wide contest for the best blog was not won by me! The prize went to a student that has been blogging and youTubing for some time. Go figure. I can't compete with youthful curiosity about fads, celebrities, video games, dating games, and world travelers.

The purpose for my posts is not to gain material recognition.  My goal is three-fold: 

1. bring attention to volunteer opportunities for others in the area;  
2. share challenges and rewards of my volunteer experiences; 
3. receive support and suggestions from other people who give service and have figured out how to do it better.    
   At the end of most of my entries you will find a question, or a list of questions. These are to trigger your comments and stir your soul into sharing with me. Then we can laugh and cry and improve our programs together.

How long will this blog be operational?  

I will probably keep this blog open and semi active as time goes by and I learn how to manage it to the point of enjoyment. In general, writing these posts drives me crazy! I'll trying to type something in here but the curser keeps jumping around, and the paragraphs keep shifting back and forth on the page. Inserting videos or images is a royal pain in the carpal tunnel!  I'm pretty sure each post takes me two hours, unless I'm trying to insert a picture, then add another hour. It's not a pleasant or efficient use of my time. *

This blog will likely last six more months. Unless something amazing happened, like I learn how to make it run how I want it to, and I think of something worthwhile to say, and viewers start to add their comments and ideas for the rest of us, (both of us), it will fade away into the sunset.

* For example, I have been working on this post for over an hour and a half. I had already typed the message in a WordDoc. When I copied it into this horrific blag spot, it shifted all around, turned into three fonts, and I cannot change it to save my life. Luckily, it is only a grade that I'm trying to save. If I could show my professor how it looks in the draft mode he may like it. But when it publishes to the blog it is just hideous and discouraging. It makes me look like I can't type and format a decent post.