THE BONG SHOW

Re "Drug gear seized; 55 charged," Feb. 25: Once again, under cover of a
heightened terror alert, our authoritarian Drug Enforcement Agency moves
out to defend liberty and freedom. Last time it was Ed Rosenthal (the big
fish) whom they captured while terrorizing the medical cannabis community
of Oakland. Again they hit the hated minority, those cannabis consumers,
with totalitarian force right where they live this time -- their precious
artwork as expressed in glass.

These acts appear to be those of a police state executing a cultural
persecution. Bongs don't kick your door down in the middle of the night;
bongs don't shackle helpless patients to their beds. I see a pogrom, and I
wonder if either of the superpowers really survived the Cold War.

It would pay us enormous dividends to invest in a few of Thomas Jefferson's
words on oppression and resistance: "The majority, oppressing an
individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the
law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society." And it follows,
"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne,
resistance becomes morality." Wise up, America -- legalize!

- - Jay Bergstrom, Sacramento