I really wish Marc had not apologized simply because he had nothing to apologize for.

Norman Spector awarded me Idiocy of the Day

http://www.members.shaw.ca/nspector4/IDIOCY.htm

I will not be apologizing...I only wish the National Post had printed my complete letter without the edits.

It is the prohibtionists who owe us an apology.

Marc is just making a statement to put an end to a media sensation that does nothing to further our cause, or to spread our message, or to persuade non-believers, or to educate the public. When the media controls what they want to print and show, we have to choose our words and comments carefully.

But remember, we still know this is a holocaust on cannabis users and believers. WE know this. People who do the research know this. But the media, and the general population, do not. Therefore, we have to present our argument in a better way, and using "hot-button" words eliminates any possibility to put forth a discussion on this topic.

I'm going to post this again:

Marc Emery quote:

"Calling Cotler or anyone a nazi disengages almost everyone. Don't be using the N word or the Hitler word. I'm OK with 'modern day holocaust', because it doesn't trample on any hurt feelings. Pol Pot was responsible for a modern day holocaust in Cambodia, Stalin committed a holocaust in the 1930's. With 24,000,000 people since 1955 charged or arrested or jailed or executed worldwide for cannabis possession or sale or cultivation, there is a credible argument to be made that this is a modern day holocaust."

Quote:

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"With 24,000,000 people since 1955 charged or arrested or jailed or executed worldwide for cannabis possession or sale or cultivation, there is a credible argument to be made that this is a modern day holocaust."

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Whoa!!! What a sobering statistic.


Source: City of Vancouver; official site.
Vancouver Information Page

Quote:

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With a present population of about 560,000 (estimated), Vancouver lies in a region of more than 2 million people. Vancouver is the largest city in the province and the third largest in Canada. It covers an area of 113 sq km.

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Okay, so lets extrapolate a lil bit from this.... We'll even give the census takers some slack & adjust the population upwards for them, to: 600,000 (a nice round number), & toss up the 'area covered' to 115 square kilometers.

This is a population density of 5217.39 people per square km.(Lest we use the 2,000,000 people pop., then its: 17,391.30 per sq. km.); but for this we will stick to 5217.

People, thats the ENTIRE POPULATION of Vancouver FOURTY TIMES OVER!!!!!!
or: 4,600 square kilometers of land populated as densely as Vancouver right now...!!! Thats an area 40 times greater in size than Vancouver currently is!!!

Call it a modern holocost , "the war on drugs", or GENOCIDE (from SOURCE )

GENOCIDE:

Quote:

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gen·o·cide ( P ) Pronunciation Key (jn-sd)
n.
The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.

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Thats us...

sorry for the distraction, but I had to toss in the stats; they really are scary, and the definition of 'Genocide" fits us.

People, we need to stand behind the principle, as well as Marc.
We cant all always agree on every little thing... & until someone steps up to the plate in a fashion that even closely resembles the leadership and 'cahones' that Marc ALREADY has...STFU, and get in line. If you aint leading, then your following, &/or getting the hell outta the way of those that are.

STOP mincing words people, until you've stuck your freakin neck out there as far as Marc has, and been kiked in the huevos as many times as Marc has, & still get up and stand there to LET 'them' do it again, ...and again...??

I dont really see where anyone can criticize Marc at all

Give 'till it hurts!; Marc does for you
Peace & Pot

People have become more engaged with Marc's statements and that gives us the opportunity to make the case that the Nazi comparrison is not so far out of line as most people would think.


Edited for length, and because this Apology thread is not for more facts and links, but for people to read and respond in short.

We still have a very serious problem politically with the Justice Minister.

Last fall, on CPAC, Mr. Cotler issued very chilling words when he said that "There is a whole culture of marijuana in Canada that needs to be redressed. " Ominous indeed. To "redress" means "to get rid of " in Mr. Cotler's political context.

He understands the impact of cannabis culture -his own children were proud viewers of POT-TV.net. He boasted this on Global National news in October 2003, I believe the date was. He understands we are part of the Canadian body politic, and we have been winning the debate, at great cost to our own liberty over the last 10 years. In the ten years since 1994, when I started, over 500,000 Canadians have been arrested for a cannabis 'offence', 300,000 were convicted and tens of thousands of us spent significant time in jail, for 'cannabis'. What was our crime exactly? Culture crime. Thought crime. All the negatives in today's political climate regarding marijuana stem from the prohibition of marijuana. The state manufactures 'crime' with its black markets, and then propagandizes the public to regard these problems as created by the cannabis culture. We just want to buy our marijuana legally, safely, honestly. The state wants us to be deprived of our beloved herb and will stop at no umbrage to our privacy, our liberty, or our safety. The state demonizes us, segregates us, jails us, punishes us, and casts the inevitable fallout from prohibition onto us as 'our' fault.

The Canadian government, under Mr. Cotler's watch, is proceding with a round-up of the leadership of this culture, and an end, through deportations to the USA and crack-downs on our culture here in Canada, of our cultural viability.

I definitely believe in the definition I provided to the media on what it means to be a Nazi, or similarly, if the use of the term Nazi is beyond useful parameters, a 'government-sanctioned sadist' is perhaps the term we want to use :

" To inflict pain, punishment, torture, jail or death on human beings acting peacefully & honestly, and to hold an ideology that gives moral sanction to inflict pain, punishment, torture, incarceration or death for the good of the state. "

People have to be programmed to believe in enemies. They aren't born wanting to persecute other human beings. In the book Drug Warriors and Their Prey, Richard Lawrence Miller said this dangerous style of hate propaganda often takes on a life of its own and develops a "bureaucratic thrust" which cannot be stopped. Thats what happened in Germany when it eventually became a job requirement and career booster to murder Jewish people. Now its becoming a job requirement and career booster here in Canada and the USA to abuse and jail marijuana people, with new laws coming all the time; just following orders. The government of Canada is in the midst of a new propaganda assault on the marijuana culture, of which my extradition is a key element.

In Canada we have real estate agents promising to weed out marijuana people, police, fire departments, neighbourhood watch groups, DARE programs, traffic stops, teachers, and many other segments of our society clamouring to help in the round-up of Canadians acting peacefully & honestly in regards to marijuana culture. Mothers Against Drugged Driving have just launched a anti-marijuana propoganda campaign as Parliament considers a bill to stop drivers everywhere and force test them for marijuana use.

I have been the leading spokesperson for over 10 years in this country, and what remarkable progress we have made: medical marijuana won in the courts, hemp cultivation, hemp stores across Canada, four magazines about cannabis made in Canada (magazines and books about marijuana were banned in Canada from 1987 to 1995), a hemp industry. Not coincidentally, support among Canadians for a taxed & regulated legal approach to marijuana has doubled from 26% in 1994 to 57% in 2004.

Yet the Liberal government, with urging from their colonial masters the United States government, and with sanction of Canada's Conservative Party leadership, is prepared to integrate Canada fully into the cruel and barbaric US war on marijuana.

We've got to stop them. The survival of North America's 25 million cannabis culture hangs in the balance.

Further, if Canadians fall prey to a campaign that demonizes peaceful & honest activity revolving around a plant, then any level of barbarism is possible once the government employs its massive power of propaganda. If Canadians can sleep through the destruction of the innocent in our case, then they will accede to even more grievous folly in the future.

It's things like this that give me even more confidence in your leadership Marc. You are and were never afraid to say you made a mistake.
It's obvious to those of us who listen to the jail blogs that you were very upset. But for those who want to discredit you these blogs are a gold mine.
I remember in one of your blogs (or posts) I don't remember...that you mentioned you were having a hard time loving your enemy. This is concept that most people don't even grasp, let alone struggle with. You do.
I'm proud of you Marc!

Marc.. I dont think You dont need to explain anything to any of us!youre doing an oustanding job and even if you did call him a Nazi...I totally understand why...it really has nothing to do with the fact that hes jewish. Youre 100% justified in everything youve said and done over the years..canadians and people across the world will continue support you and were not going to let this shit happen!

Peace,
Jerryskid

Hey Jodie,

Well it seems KKKate has decided to give you some digs today. What a wonderful ball of contradictions that lady is. I thought her kind had died out a while ago.



“But remember, we still know this is a holocaust on cannabis users and believers. WE know this. People who do the research know this. But the media, and the general population, do not. Therefore, we have to present our argument in a better way, and using "hot-button" words eliminates any possibility to put forth a discussion on this topic.“


Hey, I'm right there with you. We face unfair persecution to the degree where “ unfair persecution “ fails to adequately describe what confronts us. We are left scrambling to find a way to properly vocalize our feelings. I wonder if the use of the word 'holocaust' might also be another 'hot-button' word. It seems the lunatic fringe over at smalldeadmorons think so, and I can't really disagree with them. Here's a quote fromdictionary.com concerning the usage.

“Usage Note: Holocaust has a secure place in the language when it refers to the massive destruction of humans by other humans. Ninety-nine percent of the Usage Panel accepts the use of holocaust in the phrase nuclear holocaust. Sixty percent of the Panel accepts the sentence As many as two million people may have died in the holocaust that followed the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia. But because of its associations with genocide, people may object to extended applications of holocaust. When the word is used to refer to death brought about by natural causes, the percentage of the Panel accepting drops sharply. Only 31 percent of the Panel approves the sentence In East Africa five years of drought have brought about a holocaust in which millions have died. In a 1987 survey, just 11 percent approved the use of holocaust to summarize the effects of the AIDS epidemic. This suggests that other figurative usages such as the huge losses in the Savings and Loan holocaust may be viewed as overblown or in poor taste. ·When capitalized Holocaust refers specifically to the destruction of Jews and other Europeans by the Nazis and may also encompass the Nazi persecution of Jews that preceded the outbreak of the war.“


As I said, I agree with your sentiments completely. Unfortunately, those opposed seem to lack any credible arguments and instead choose to latch on to our misjudgements in terminology.WE know the truth.......but we have to keep it simple for those who don't.


L8R!
Brianj

BTW

Check out the third meaning on the list for Holocaust.

Thats rather ironic....It seems I commit a Holocaust many times a day

L8R
Brian

My favourite definition or meaning of a word is in its usage.