RULE OF LAW

I am writing to express my support for Mr. Bernie Ellis ("Marijuana
Martyr," April 26). I recently read about his situation on your
website and felt it necessary to log disgust with the state of
Tennessee and those prosecutors who have decided to destroy this man's
life.

What I want to know is: whom was he harming? He broke the law, fair
enough. I'll even grant that when the law is broken it constitutes an
ostensible harm to all of us, as the rule of law is at the very root
of our American ideology. However, as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King once said, "we have a moral obligation to obey just laws, but we
also have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws" (or something
thereabouts). And what law could be more unjust than a law whose
execution calls for the destruction of this kindly old man's life?
Ellis was doing nothing but minding his own business and trying-in a
most Christ-like fashion-to help those in pain.

Christiaan Mitchell

Blackwell, Okla.