by Barry Liss on November 17th, 2007
Dr. Michael Moore: Drug Trafficker or Modern American Hero?
The right to nonviolently protest in peaceable assembly for redress of grievance is a cardinal guarantee so primary that the founding fathers placed this privilege in the American Constitution’s First Amendment. We ought recognize this with due homage to our Veterans this past week.
Out of respect for the holiday, I suggest you read the Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend King’s I Have A Dream speech given late August of 1963 is widely recognized as one of the great rhetorical performances of the Twentieth Century. The Letter from a Birmingham Jail preceded the march on Washington by four months and a better summary of the belief system supporting civil disobedient nonviolent protest is yet to be written.
The blood of peaceful disobedience runs deep in American veins. In addition to the Bill of Rights, the philosophy is present in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Politics, when he writes “Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well” (205). Emerson bestowed the sacred flame over to his good friend Henry David Thoreau who penned the Essay on Civil Disobedience, contending “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison”(275). The Essay on Civil Disobedience profoundly influenced Mahatma Gandhi whose Satyagraha method of peaceful disobedience overthrew the stale subdivisions of the caste system and liberated India from British imperial rule. I cannot stress enough the Christian roots of nonviolent protest. A fundamental inspiration of Gandhi’s method is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, specifically the Sermon on the Mount’s edict “love thine enemy.”
I offer this local example as a method for establishing doubt – to unsettle the taken for granted by pointing out an instance whereby perhaps morality and the law hold opposing ground. Recently, a man and his wife were arrested in Antigo. Their names are Michael and Kerry Moore. There is no doubt that these two were growing marijuana for non-personal consumption – over 5 pounds! The police found all the evidence necessary to warrant a host of charges involving the felonious manufacture of the substance. Case closed. Given the clarity of the evidence the two miscreants deserve a hefty prison sentence as penance for their unlawful acts against the state. So meets the naked eye.
However, with a little magnification the lens uncovers disconcerting facts. Michael Moore is a board certified physician with a lucrative salary. Greed, the typical motive for narcotics manufacture and trafficking, cannot be applied in this context. What could be happening here? I have no evidence as of yet to support my contention, but my sense is that Dr. Moore was providing marijuana to patients as a means to medically alleviate their suffering. In confronting the misery of AIDS, Cancer, Glaucoma, Lupus and the other diseases we turn away from in unspeakable fear, is it not likely that this man adhered to his Hippocratic Oath instead of obeying the laws of the land? If this be true, the case is potentially precedent-setting and could find its way to the United States Supreme Court.
It’s a generalization, I realize, yet American physicians today maintain the ugly tendency of tranquilizing themselves in the material trivialities of luxury their fiscally rewarding careers provide. The effect is a diminution of character evident in their everyday speech. If the topical content of conversation is a golf handicap, new automobile, expensive wine, professional sports, or most recent vacation experience, the physician maintains little difficulty in establishing some measure of commonality in the communicative interchange. These topics pose little risk to identity because they fall within the boundary of cursory small talk with little potential for substantive disagreement. However, in matters of significance such as culture, philosophy, morality or aesthetics too often I have seen the medical doctor’s words take on the awkward contortions of the dilettantish dabbler who lacks the spiritual force requisite for eloquent speech. Moreover, rather than assume the risk of taking an argumentative and moral position, the medical doctor stands down and folds for the easy stream of trivial talk. Monetary wealth that maintains its foothold in buying an endless array of baubles causes a scarring effect of inducing complacency and indolence in the higher social forms.
However, in Antigo we have a highly distinct situation. Could it be possible that a local physician would place his entire life in the balance to heroically stand his ground against what he believed were the government’s unjust and inhumane edicts regarding his patients’ suffering? And further, will those whom this man helped publicly speak out in his defense or cower like frightened rabbits if the authorities attempt to brand this man a common criminal, a felon, a drug trafficker? The case is in its preliminary stages and I will be following its unfolding.
Barry D. Liss
References for further consideration:
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays (Second Series). New York: A.L. Burt, Publisher, no date (originally 1846).
- Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Barnes and Nobles Classics, 1854/2003.
American Constitutional Amendment I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
by Dino Corvino on October 23rd, 2007
Far be it from me to assert that taking care of the environment is for communists, BUT… I should point out that Rudy “I am not really a Republican, but vote for me anyway” Giuliani was mayor during the creation of the Office of Sustainable Design in New York City. Ahh, that’s just me being funny; sorry Rudy.
Anyway, tonight the Samuels Group and Wisconsin Public Service are presenting to the Common Council a plan called Sustainable Wausau. I am truly excited to see something like this come about. I have giant reservations about the folks involved – for example nowhere on the Samuels Group’s website was I able to find even a slight mention of green building practices, and Wisconsin Public Service is a giant corporation and the pseudo-green verbiage on its website is really just the basics.
My criticism of these two leaders – or definers – in this area are not so much of what they do, but rather of what they have a chance to do. Both are leaders in their fields, and have a bully pulpit to define the terms with which our area moves forward. They could, if they chose to, decide to step forward and become a more vocal supporter of these environmental initiatives that surround us daily. It is with that hope that I will be going to the meeting tonight, to see and hear firsthand whether these two companies step up to the microphone and hopefully address the issues.
For the past few years I have read about the paperless office, productivity tools, and the like. It started oddly enough with Bill Gates’ Book, Business @ The Speed of Thought. In it Gates discusses how the goal for his company is to be a paper-free workplace. Not that it’s possible to completely eliminate paper, but at least there wouldn’t be anymore of those interoffice envelopes with the little strings on them. Microsoft has an internal agenda to follow processes and systemic uses of resources like paper, and to evaluate them for environmental concerns first. It is hardly a unique or groundbreaking idea, but to see it come from an organization as large and as corporate as MS is an interesting thing.
When I worked at NTC, I saw first hand how the Personal Computer can be used as a true tool of work place connectivity. Chet Strebe and his staff had implemented Lotus Notes and the college culture had been educated enough to see the value of working within that software environment to communicate and schedule. It was an amazing shock to me to see several hundred people using a simple tool and using it with consistency.
I blather on, but at the end of this… I think small cities like Wausau are the ideal place to become green. We have smaller developments, smaller city departments, small small small. It is an easy place to communicate ideas from small departments to other small departments. These small towns can become beacons of hope for the future.
Can you imagine how much paper we could recycle? I mean sure there is a program at City Hall, but how active is it? Why not make it something that people buy into?
What about solar energy? Why not make City Hall solar-powered? Or at least try?
I think that is what this terrible blog post is about. I hope our city tries. Why not try? Why not have the legacy of this city council be the city council that embraced Sustainability? Why not, along with the giant tower, the Pala… (oh I have no idea what it is called), the parking ramps, Wausau Benefits, and all the rest of the great things… why not make Jim Tipple the “green” mayor?
Yeah,this costs money. Yeah, we’re spending 8 million on pools, and who knows what on all the other stuff. But Marathon County is a farming county. Farms need environmental practices to ensure long lives. We have seen that giant corporations like Monsanto are devils and are killing the planet… why not take a stand? Say in public and out loud, “It’s time for you citizens of Wausau to be leaders. We don’t need a new pool, we need to spend that money on solar power for city buildings which will save us money in the long run!”
For example, ask that all new developments of commercial property have to have a wastewater/grey water recycling plan. Make contractors do a public environmental impact study for all new buildings. Ask the deep checkbooks in this city to help out. Put solar panels on top of the Grand?
Why not have a plan? Why not charge Mike Morrissey with this very task? Mike…why not see that urban planning is now important? It’s not just about acquiring property for McDevco; now we need to put the needs of our area first!
We have a chance to embrace a life change, right now. We can demand green space, alternative energy, conservation education, hybrid vehicles, computer recycling (what does the city do with all the old PC’s?), aggressive handling of landfills and garbage, aggressive protection of our waterways, and paper-free workplaces in Government offices.
It’s 2007; is it not time yet for our City and County leadership to do just that? To adopt something, to show something other than voting block bickering? What about the common good?
by Kevin Korpela on October 17th, 2007
The place you live offers options on what you eat. This past September 2007 the citizens of Wisconsin had an opportunity to participate in the “Wisconsin Eat Local Challenge” and become more aware of food choices that are locally grown or produced.
The Wisconsin Eat Local Challenge was a ten-day food challenge running from September 14th to 23rd, 2007. The purpose of the challenge was to help citizens become more aware of buying food from locally grown and raised sources. The challenge encouraged food shoppers to spend at least 10% of their food budget on food sourced within a one hundred mile radius of their home or from sources within the State of Wisconsin. (more…)
by Dino Corvino on October 10th, 2007
So, Citizen Wausau has been in existence for about a week now. A week and one day, a bunch of hours, some minutes, a few seconds, a couple of tacos, and occasional pitcher of coffee, ten or fifteen shots of espresso, some time in our quiet place…but yeah, a full week of Citizen Wausau. Community has been started, comments have been made, discussion had, phone calls of outrage have been received and ignored, and Guiness has been drunk. I assume this is how this sort of thing goes. Though, like any venture of truly brilliant minds (Cindy Crawford told me I am brilliant, she liked Marcus a little, and thought Andy was just handsome), one can never really chart the flow.
So let’s jump right in. Let’s do a little call to action right away… (more…)
