The things in my head go 'round and 'round

The much bally-hooed bailout of the Big 3 Automakers has brought attention of the parts of detroit that have been in the background. Its abandoned houses, and factories.

This was written in The Michigan Messenger:

Big Three bailout spotlight reveals Detroit’s decay
By Minehaha Forman 12/12/08 1:12 PM

Now that the Big Three car companies that made Detroit the “Motor City” are reduced to begging for federal life support, a national spotlight is on Detroit’s decaying infrastructure.

On Sunday, Bloomberg.com reported that “General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC are fighting for their lives. Large stretches of Detroit are already dead.”

The article highlighted areas of Detroit that are brimming with natural growth, a mix of urban and rural living. City lots are being recycled back to farms and vacant lots without cultivation are becoming stretches of prairie.

Similar coverage of Detroit’s return to a rural habitat was posted in Michigan Messenger earlier this year.

Both highlighted Detroit’s >urban farming and natural overgrowth in urban decay.

Adding to the more recent national attention was Time.com, which recently published a photo essay, shot in March 2008, of Detroit’s gutted old factories and train station. The photos offer a glimpse of a haunting, abandoned block.

“On many occasions,” said photographer Sean Hemmerle, “I had the feeling I was working in a post-Apocalyptic environment.”

Everyone knows the automotive industry was born in Detroit. Now national news organizations are realizing that it is—and has been for some time—dying here.

Hemmerle said he came to Detroit to take photos of “derelict” buildings as part of a project exploring “how far America has fallen”. He didn’t have to look hard. Leave the immediate downtown area and you’ll see signs of industrial decay. Tall office buildings, factories and historical homes stand slashed and gaping black holes rimmed with sharp broken glass mark the windows. On my street, on the East side of the city close to Eastern Market that was once an industrial community thriving on auto plant employment, there are multiple abandoned buildings, full of rust and still water or ice.

When I first moved from the suburbs to the inner city, I looked at the ruins in shock. I couldn’t believe a First World industrial country could have vast parts of a major city looking that neglected. But after living in Detroit for more than a year, I have come to the point where I often overlook the broken glass, the gutted factories and the piles of ruin and charcoal where there were once houses and factories. Detroiters have been forced to accept the gruesome neglect of city infrastructure or move. Many consider moving out of Detroit as a sign of success.

While some argue that the auto industry will fail without a bailout, a look at Detroit’s corroding infrastructure will tell you the damage cannot be undone by a mere $14 billion.

A Thanksgiving tradition followed yet again this year.

My heart is as full as my stomach.

Even though I live 1000 miles to the east, my heart is always there along the banks of Lake Michigan. Tuned in to watch the Lions play whoever it is that they will be playing. And losing.

I love tradition.

Namaste.

After a few days of letting it sink in that Proposal 1 did pass, I am ready to talk about it.

First, I am really happy that the voters in Michigan took this important step in aiding their neighbors by giving them an alternative to drugs to help combat pain and suffering. Use of a natural product rather than a man-made one is always preferrable.

Michigan now has 10 days to verify the results of the vote, and then 120 days to put it all into action. My advice to the residents of Michigan?

Don’t screw this up. Proposal 1 still has a group of folks who did not want it to pass, and that group of folks includes people in law enforcement. Do not screw this up.

We, in Pennsylvania are working for what you just voted for. We want to use your success to help our citizens who are suffering. Here is an article written by Derek Rosenzweig:

Smoke Blowing in the Winds of Change
By Derek Rosenzweig, PhillyNORML – 11/5/2008

With the astounding victory this 2008 Election of Barack Obama and Democrats in the House and Senate, the people of the United States have stood up to re-claim the American Dream. For decades the world has seen us as a beacon of hope and opportunity, but the last eight years have marred that image for many. Now the time has come for our country to prioritize and set a new course.

Massachusetts’ and Michigan’s voters had the chance to show where their priorities lie by voting on ballot initiatives which would liberalize marijuana policies. In Massachusetts, citizens voted over 65% to decriminalize possession of an ounce or under of cannabis, making it punishable only by a civil fine of $100. In Michigan, voters decided 60% – 40% to allow sick and dying patients to cultivate and use marijuana under their doctor’s care.

Over the last few months I’ve spoken with dozens of patients throughout Pennsylvania who suffer from ailments including chronic pain from a botched surgery, obsessive compulsive disorder, severe arthritis, HIV/AIDS, PTSD, and other conditions. Some of these patients are on disability and can’t work. All of them are on all sorts of medications, often times to the level that it incapacitates them or simply doesn’t give them the relief they need. Then they take one or two puffs on a joint and it brings them almost immediate relief.

Pennsylvanians have, for the most part, long taken a rational view of how to deal with the problems that we face collectively. Now that we as a nation start to walk in a new direction, we as a Commonwealth must do the same thing. Our citizens – our friends, loved ones, co-workers – deserve the chance to live their lives with dignity and self respect, but for many of the patients I spoke to that simply isn’t the case right now. The condition their medications put them in precludes a normal life. For these people the simple fact that medical marijuana actually helps their lives become bearable makes it an easy choice to use it. From a medical standpoint, marijuana has huge potential as a medicine, it’s safer to use than most pharmaceuticals, and its side effects (ie, the high) are well within tolerance limits.

The problem for them is how are they getting it, and what are the potential consequences of illegally obtaining and using this drug as a medicine. For some, it can mean getting fired from a job (and losing health benefits) for testing positive on a urine test, and for others it could mean they’re severely unlucky and get arrested. Depending what they get caught with they could be in jail for 30 days or 5 years. Some ailments require a large amount of cannabis to effectively treat, and under our current laws that amounts to a potential death sentence. We have to be better than this.

That’s why it’s so important that this Commonwealth takes the advice of the voters in Michigan and allows our friends, loved ones, and co-workers to use marijuana as medicine under the care of their doctor. Thirteen states – over 25% of our nations’ citizens – now have the right to use cannabis under state law, and President-elect Obama has publicly stated numerous times that those patients in medical-marijuana states will not have to fear Federal interference during his administration. Until the Federal government changes marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 drug, Pennsylvania must create its own system of legal cultivation and distribution so that doctors can legally – and without worry of losing their license – prescribe or recommend cannabis to a patient. Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana, along with PhillyNORML and the Marijuana Policy Project, are working together to introduce a bill in the General Assembly which would do just that. It’s the least we can do to show where our priorities lie.

Comment at our online forum at http://www.phillynorml.org/forum/index.php?action=post;topic=548

- Derek Rosenzweig

Ok folks, here is your chance. I just received a comment from someone who wants to know where the proof is?

Who has proof the medical marijuana works? Who of you has used it, or knows someone who uses it and gets relief from pain. I need you comments now. There are only 5 days left to change minds. Si let us get to it.

Leave your comments now.

namaste.

It is getting closer and closer to election day. Two ads for Proposal 1, to legalize the cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes, feature a West Michigan woman describing how marijuana gave her relief during cancer treatment, and a retired obstetrician who said marijuana was the only thing that helped his cancer-stricken and now deceased wife of 51 years.

Both, now airing statewide, are the first of the marijuana campaign by either side. They can be seen here: http://stoparrestingpatients.org/

Vote on Tuesday, November 4th!

namaste.