Day Four: The Journey for Justice Educates A&M
September 25, 2000
Texas A&M is the home of the President George Bush Museum,
George Bush Drive and a reading center named for Barbara Bush. It is
the home of
8,000 ROTC students - the largest military training university outside
of West Point. The ROTC's make up one-fifth of the student
population
and affect the attitude of the student body. They walk through
campus in
uniform with boots that clang as they walk.
Throughout the day Journeyers did outreach to the students - passing
out
1,000 pieces of literature advertising the organizing meeting we were
holding that night. They reported that one in four students were
receptive. The reminder seemed afraid to be associated with drug
issues.
Many probably thought that what we were doing - speaking out against
the
drug war - was illegal. Journeyers also drove through the campus
and
surrounding town with a bullhorn talking about the drug war.
Once again the CBS-TV affiliate (the only network with a
local staff)
covered the Journey extensively, interviewing members and filming the
handing out of literature.
The evening program began, after an introduction by Jodi James, with
several skits about the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment. The
First Amendment speech was particularly cogent because today the
Scripps
Howard Texas Poll found that more than one-third of Texans can’t name
any rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution
and only half recognize they have the right to freedom of speech.
The first skit showed an example of an activist collecting
signatures
for a petition. A police officer approaches, asks for a permit,
tells
the activist he is creating a disturbance, disturbing the peace,
encouraging illegal activity. The activist remains polite but firm
throughout each of these allegations but firmly stands his ground
on the
First Amendment. He shows the officer the literature he is handing out
and attempts to educate him about the need to end the drug war and
engage him in discussion on the issues. The officer asks whether the
activist has identification with him. The activist responds that he
does. The officer asks to see it. The activist tells the officer his
name but refuses to provide ID. The officer accuses the petitioner of
disturbing the police and arrests him. Scott Bledsoe reviewed the
actions taken by the petitioner and tells the audience the correct way
to handle the situation (the activist in this scenario has
taken all the
right steps).
The next two scenarios involve a traffic stop. In the first situation
the
passenger, a medical marijuana patient carrying marijuana, does not
protect his Fourth Amendment rights. In the second, he does. The
critical points, as the conversation escalates, are to do not carry
drugs in plain view, refuse to consent to search and ask whether
you are
free to leave or are under arrest.
The group next heard from Ann McCormick, who told the story of
Todd and
other medical marijuana patients. Kay Lee spoke about the history
of the
Journey, the plights of prisoners as well as prison guards and
the need
for prison reform.
The focus of my comments, which concluded the night,
was two-fold:
(1) the drug war is a more serious problem than they
realized and that
until we solve it many of the other social problems we face
cannot be
solved; and (2) they have the power to do something
about it and now
that they had the facts they had the responsibility to do something
about it. Further, being on a conservative campus made their work even
more powerful because they were not speaking to the converted, but
would
be educating to convert people.
Several students showed interest in getting involved.
One came to our
RVs and portable prison talking about forming a NORML chapter.
Several
others were interested in SSDP. They were considering putting up
a table
at A&M to get petitions so they could become a college group.
They
expected that even taking that small step was likely to get attention
at A&M.
Day Five will focus on drug war deaths as we go to Hempstead -
the site of an alcohol prohibition related killing.
Kevin
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