I don't smoke pot. I never have. That's not to say I'm opposed. It's just not my thing.
The fact that the majority of my friends and previous girlfriends were potheads meant that every day at 4:20 there would be giggles and high fives and the refrain of "let's go smoke a bowl." I would roll my eyes, not because the smoking bothered me (it didn't), but because having some official time, like it was a holiday to get excited about - well, it just struck me as arbitrary and annoying, like somehow that was more their time than it was my time.
But I get it now. For almost a hundred years, marijuana has been criminalized and scandalized. And for what? Alcohol is a harsher drug, but that's legal. Cigarettes can kill people who don't even smoke them, but they're allowed. I've always been in favor of legalization. I even sponsored a bill in mock congress when I was 14. (When it lost 6-6-1, I literally fell backwards out of my chair in frustration. Ironically, the one dude who abstained from the vote didn't abstain from drugs. But I digress.)
What I understand now, on 4/20, is that when you're a group that's been fighting for your rights for the better part of a century, it helps to have a rallying cry. A rallying time. A rallying place.
It may be 4/20 today, but now is the time for poker players to rally as well. Now is the time and this is the place: Free Association
If you want to fight for online poker in America, follow this link: http://theppa.org/takeaction/
ReplyDeleteIf you have time to do everything they suggest, that's great. If you don't, that's fine. Just pick something that looks easy. Liking a pro-poker post on facebook takes seconds. If we all do something, it will add up. There are no guarantees, but we're in a position to improve our expectation.