Everyone has heard the tale of the princess and the frog. Beautiful princess kisses slimy toad, slimy toad turns into Prince Charming, both find love together and ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after.
This same idea has been embedded into the fabric of nearly every single children's film, nearly all romance films, nearly all pop and country music, and even into our schools. The idea that there is some magical world where the beautiful girl meets the handsome prince and everything else is history.
Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but... That world doesn't exist...
As much as we'd like to believe there aren't people strung out on meth begging for pocket change on the street corner, the reality is there are, and even though anyone with two eyes and the ability to observe the standard metropolitan area can see that, some people still think putting troubled addicts in big boy timeout somehow solves the rampant addiction problem in our society. We've all seen divorce, adultery and domestic violence, yet somehow there are still plenty of women between the ages of alive and dead that are making out with slimy, scaly amphibians, hoping they'll turn into a prince.
The idea that a grown adult can be told by another grown adult that is neither their parent nor employer that he or she cannot partake in whatever they want as long as it has no physical effect on someone else is absurd. Not only is it entirely contradictory to what America has been made out to be, but it enables an ongoing, nonproductive money pit for American tax dollars that could easily be allocated to more impactful and reasonable areas. (Like national debt... Or maybe drug addiction rehabilitation.)
When you are able to separate your idea of a comfortable utopia where there is no crime, every princess has her Prince Charming, everyone is equal, has two kids, a dog, and a modest suburban home with a white picket fence, your ability to make conscious, rational, adult decisions generally becomes second nature. When you observe the ongoing 'War On Drugs' in America, you're observing a blatant ongoing war on human liberty and right to choose. Taking away the freedom of nine people because one isn't responsible in their decision making is illogical.
Go to any McDonalds in the country and you're likely to see an obese person feeding their kids the remains of under exercised, over genetically engineered mutant cows with a side of previously frozen, fried and processed potatoes doused in table salt for dinner. Should it be illegal to eat junk food? And if it were illegal to eat junk food, would it really keep people from doing it?
The fundamental common ground between liberals and conservatives (really all people) is that they do not want to be told what they can and cannot do, but they also have no issue with telling other adults what they can or cannot do. At what point do we realize that the more we allow the government to impede on people with different lifestyles right to choose, the more our right to choose is impeded on? At what point do we realize that this "War On Drugs" is never ending and more resembles an addiction than a war? Maybe this illusion that punishing people with addictions fixes the core issue is just that... an illusion.
Anytime there is a money pit as deep as the "War On Drugs", it is worth asking the question; who benefits from this war? I still have crackhead neighbors. The national debt certainly isn't. The three year old kid who is growing up without a dad because he is in prison for selling illegal drugs is damn sure not gaining anything from it.
Is it drug cartels? Is it the pharmaceutical industry? "Terrorists!" (In a G.W. Bush voice.) I know one thing, it isn't the American people. Is it just a coincidence that the originator of this war (Ronald Reagan) was a career actor turned president?
It's very possible the same people feeding you this illusion are the same people telling you if you kiss the frog he becomes a prince...
If you aren't a drug addict, it's hard to understand one. If you aren't a homosexual, it's hard to make sense of a homosexual. If you aren't religious, it's hard to see things from a religious persons point of view. But to me the most unique trait human beings have that no other species known to man has is elevated consciousness. With that you have the ability to step outside of yourself and your own comfort zone and stand up for the rights of others even when you don't understand. We are perfectly capable of stepping outside ourselves and our own personal standards for living enough to allow other people the right to choose their own path, but have a hard time doing it when it doesn't effect us directly.
Maybe it's time to really evaluate what it means to be free. Do you even want freedom? If so, the question must be asked: to what extent would you sacrifice your own comfort to protect another's liberty?
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