Bryan William Brickner
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Articles
  • Books
  • Photos and Video
  • Links

There are no Pilgrims on the US Supreme Court

11/27/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
John Bunyan 1628-1688

There’s no Blue Ox in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), though there does seem to be about everything else.

The book is an English Christian classic for its allegorical portrayal of a pilgrim’s pilgrimage. In Bunyan’s tale, “Christian” is both a metaphor (one who accepts Jesus as Christ) and the name of the Pilgrim who takes a life changing journey from the City of Destruction to Mount Zion and the Celestial City. Christian’s trip reads like Alice in Wonderland dosed with Voltaire’s Candide and highway-tested with Zarathustra-like problem solving. For example, after seeing the cross, dropping his burden and watching it fall into the mouth of a sepulchre (burial pit), Christian meets three Shining Ones (angels) who bless him with gifts; he then breaks into song:

Who’s this? the Pilgrim. How! ‘tis very true,
Old things are passed away, all’s become new.
Strange! He’s another man, upon my word.
They be fine feathers that make a fine bird.

Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on, singing:

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in
Till I came hither: What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me![i]

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was a “tinker” by trade (he fixed pots and pans and traveled Gypsy-like) and an earthy-type of preacher (imagine a swearing Puritan). He was jailed twelve years for preaching Protestantism (basically, he wanted to preach his way – the way he felt the Good Lord); they would have let him out if only he’d stop the preaching – but he kept saying he’d preach his word of God as soon as he was out the prison gates. Bunyan began The Pilgrim’s Progress while jailed (he wrote lots of books) and the Quakers helped secure his unconditional release through petition to the English Crown.

How famous was John Bunyan? Ben Franklin wrote in his Autobiography (1791) that The Pilgrim’s Progress was the second most popular book in colonial America (Bible first); he also said, as a noted book collector, that Bunyan’s works were his first complete collection.

Obviously, Bunyan and the Protestants didn’t invent the Pilgrim: there have been and will be Jewish pilgrims, Catholic pilgrims and even Nothing-in-Particular pilgrims. In the US though, our founding and what we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day are rooted in a Protestant-Puritan Pilgrim Age.

This problem, that there are no Protestants on the US Supreme Court (the last one was in 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens), is not a religious problem; Article VI of the US Constitution is clear on that question, as it states: “but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” No, this is about representation and twelve words in Article I of the US Constitution: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand.” Unambiguously, this is not religious: it’s representational and about representing We the People in Congress according to our birthright – George Washington’s number, 30,000.

The US Congress sets the number of justices on the Court and a constitutional House of 10,000 Representatives would certainly add judges; to wit, as things are, five judges decide the fate of a law for a nation of over 300 million citizens: that’s one justice for every 60 million people.

Here’s a just bid: add a nine before the nine to make it 99.

Yeah, 99 Supremes instead of nine. That alone would add Protestants (51% of Americans according to Pew Research), Nothing-in-Particulars (12%), Mormons (1.7%), Atheists (1.6%), Buddhists (0.7%), and Muslims (0.6%) to the six Catholics (24%) and three Jewish (1.7%) justices on the Court. While we are on the topic, let’s think of adding citizens like a truck driver judge (approximately 0.5%), you know, people familiar with life on the road, journeying like a pilgrim across this land of ours – yeah that sounds supreme as well.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, after encountering the Shining Ones, Christian’s dreamscape takes him to three men in iron fetters – Simple, Sloth and Presumption – reminding all of us in the 21st century (and perhaps even this weekend) that maybe things haven’t changed that much.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone ~ Peace Up!
Bryan W. Brickner

[i] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (New York: Washington Square Press [1678] 1961), 37.


0 Comments

If Pot’s Legit … Blame Cannabinoids (Or, 270 + 51 + 1 = FMCA)

11/9/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Bryan W. Brickner

Flags


We’ll get to the “Free Markets Cannabis Act” below – first a Veterans Day flag note.

Flags are signs. The flags of the US Armed Forces show the story of each branch; for example, the year of our rebellion, 1775, emblazons the center of the US Army flag, highlighting a principle of our political heritage: force precedes morality.

Recent Pot-Polity

The past two weeks have seen an interesting warm-up to reforming our cannabinoid (pot) laws, and it reads like an autumn assault on federal complacency:

  • 22 October: “Gallup Poll Finds 58% of Americans Support Marijuana Legalization,” Jacob Sullum ~ Reason

  • 26 October: “Why Pot Legalization Is The Most Important Issue Voters Face This Election,” Nick Gillespie ~ Huffington Post (Reason)

  • 30 October: “Why It’s Always Been Time to Legalize Marijuana,” Katrina vanden Heuvel ~ The Nation

  • 31 October: “The Reality of Permissive Pot Laws,” Steve Chapman ~ Chicago Tribune

  • 31 October: “Special Issue: Marijuana Wars,” The Nation

  • 1 November: “Pot Goes Legit,” Reason Magazine

  • 2 November: “DC on Fast Track to Decriminalizing Pot Possession,” Ben Nuckols ~ Boston Globe

  • 4 November: “New International Study: Herbal Cannabinoids More Effective Than Pharmaceutical Cannabinoids,” National Institutes of Health ~ The Weed Blog

  • 6 November: “Colorado Voters Approve Hefty Taxes on Marijuana by Large Margins,” Jacob Sullum ~ Forbes (Reason)

  • 6 November: “Measures to Legalize Marijuana are Passed,” Dan Frosch ~ New York Times 

270 + 51 + 1 = Free Markets Cannabis Act

Now, how to harness that energy for political change: something like the Free Markets Cannabis Act (FMCA) would clear the federal way for making cannabis legal again (it’s only been illegal, federally, since 1937). Loving Congress the way we all do, perhaps a one sentence law, in honor of veterans, would be best; laws, like military commands, should be clear and easy to understand. The ratifiers of our Constitution knew this and intended laws to be read and easily understood – not interpreted by lawyers and courts – interpreted and understood by We the People.

For the legal language in FMCA, here’s a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) offering: “Cannabis is legal (again).”

Politically, if we want end pot prohibition, and a Gallup number of 58% foretells of this coming change, We the People will not want to include much federal regulation in our FMCA. We need 270 “Yes” votes from the current number of Representatives in the US House; that being the facts on the ground, we’ll need to be as free market-based as possible for the Republican majority.

In the Senate, 51 votes to end the ban on herbal cannabinoids seems easy compared to the 270 in the House; yet, if those two things happen, a President Obama would gain nothing politically from being against such a thing as cannabis is legal (again).

In our post-Gupta age with pot’s legitimacy growing, we’d be wise to let the states and locals handle the cannabis issue – they’re already doing it – and we might see something akin to alcohol’s wet and dry counties develop. Plus, federal income tax revenues will likely increase (free markets do that) and we’ll save money by lightening the nonviolent drug offenses burdening our judicial system – mostly at the local level.

Is that Victory? It’ll look something like that even if the language is a little different. Changing a federal law has a known and constitutional pathway. Creating that change involves many unknowns, one of which is sort of clear: in 36 months we’ll have a new President and Commander-in-Chief. That’s when we’ll know if the seeds of change blowing around today grow into a new cannabinoid law for We the People.

Happy Veterans Day Everyone ~ Peace-up!


0 Comments

    Author

    Brickner has a 1997 political science doctorate from Purdue University, cofounded Illinois NORML in 2001, and was a 2007 National NORML Cannabis Advocate Awardee. He is also publisher and coauthor of the 2011 book banned by the Illinois Department of Corrections – The Cannabis Papers: A Citizen’s Guide to Cannabinoids.

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    17 September
    22nd Amendment
    2 AG
    2-AG
    435
    502nd Infantry
    5 HT
    5-HT
    5-HT
    5 HTP
    5-HTP
    7th Amendment
    9 April 1792
    Aborigine
    A Cabal
    Acetylcholine
    Adam Smith
    Aesop
    Aging
    Akhil Reed Amar
    Albert Hoffman
    Alcohol
    Alexander Hamilton
    Alexander R. Boteler
    Alice In Wonderland
    Alzheimer's/Dementia
    Ambrose Burnside
    American Revolution
    Anandamide
    Andrew Leitch
    Antietam/Sharpsburg
    Anti Republic
    Anti-Republic
    Anti-Semitism
    Archie Lieberman
    Art
    Artemis
    Article The First
    Aspasia Of Miletus
    Athena
    Augustus Kotka
    Bastogne
    Benjamin F. Cheatham
    Benjamin Franklin
    Bivalency
    Black Hawk War 1832
    Brain Gut Axis
    Brain-gut Axis
    Bringing It Home
    Burning Man
    California
    Cancer
    Candide
    Cannabinoids
    Cannabinoid System
    Cannabis
    Carcinogenesis
    Caryophyllene
    Caudate Putamen
    Cb1
    Cb2
    CB2 GPR55 Heteromers
    CB2-GPR55 Heteromers
    CBD
    Cheatham Hill
    Chicago
    Circulatory System
    Cluster Headache
    CNS
    Colitis
    Comrades
    Confederate
    Conservative-Liberal (CL)
    Constitutio Libertatis
    Constitution
    Daimon
    Daniel Morgan
    David Bradford
    David Redick
    Depression
    Despotism
    DHA
    Didaskalos
    Digestive System
    Domestic Tranquility
    Donald Trump
    Dopamine System
    Douglas Southall Freeman
    Dubuque
    Earth Day
    Eisenhower
    Elbridge Gerry
    Electoral College
    Emperor Napoleon
    Endocrine System
    Enumeration
    EPA
    Epilepsy
    Er
    Estrogen
    Exercise
    Ex Falso Quodlibet
    FAKE News
    Federalist 57
    Florida
    Fort Sumter
    Founders
    Francis P. Blair
    Freedom
    Free Markets Cannabis Act (FMCA)
    French Revolution
    GABA
    Gallant Fourteenth
    Georges Danton
    George Thomas
    George Washington
    Georg Groddeck
    Gettysburg
    Gideon
    Gliomas
    Glutamate
    Goddesses
    Government Grown
    Gpr55
    Graham Greene
    Hannah Arendt
    Harlem Heights
    Headache
    Hedonism
    Hemp
    Henry Knox
    Henry Kyd Douglas
    Henry Lee III
    Herbaceutical
    Herbiceutical
    Heteromers
    Hillary Clinton
    Homeostasis
    Horatio Gates
    Hot-flash-reduction
    Hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal
    Ice
    Illinois
    Immigrants
    Immune System
    Indiana
    Indiana 99th Regiment
    Indole-quinuclidine-analogs
    Inflammation
    Irritable Bowel Syndrome Ibs
    It
    Jack-herer
    James Monroe
    James Rumsey
    James W. Foley
    James Wilkinson
    Jean Baudrillard
    Jefferson Davis
    Jesus
    Jim-champion
    Joe
    Johann Palm
    John Adams
    John Bunyan
    John Finley Pettigrew
    John F Kennedy
    John-jay
    John Locke
    John Mosby
    Johnny Reb
    John Roberts
    Jonathan Magbie
    Kaiser Wilhelm
    Keith Marker
    Knowbody
    Kynurenine
    Lil Man
    Liminal
    Lincoln
    Lipids
    Louis Armstrong
    LSS
    Lt
    Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Lsd
    Madison
    March-madness
    Marijuana
    Martin Luther
    Maximilien Robespierre
    Melanocortin Circuit
    'Mericans
    Michigan
    Microbiota
    Migraine
    Mitochondria
    Molly Role
    Monroe Doctrine
    Montesquieu
    Morphine
    Mt-vernon
    Muggles
    Multiple-sclerosis
    Nabiximols-sativex
    Nazis
    Nemesis
    New York
    Nietzsche
    North Carolina
    Nowhere
    Nuclear Receptors
    Obama
    Obesity
    Ohio
    Once Upon A Time
    Opioid
    Otto Snow
    Pain Relief
    Paraquat
    Parmenides
    Parthenongenesis
    Patrick-henry
    Paula Lind Ayers
    Peace Terms
    Pediatric
    Pericles
    Philadelphia
    Phototherapy
    Physiodelia
    Physiology System
    Pituitary-stalk
    Plato
    Pot
    Pregnancy
    President Taylor
    Psilocybin
    PTSD
    Publius
    Puritans
    Putin
    Quakers
    Race
    Ra Chaka
    Ralph Waldo Emerson
    R. Bruce Dold
    Representation
    Reproductive System
    Republic
    Respiratory-system
    Richard Lee I
    Rick Simpson
    Robert Dahl
    Robert E. Lee
    Roman Republic
    Sarah Tonin
    Sarajevo
    Secession
    Serotonin System
    Shall
    Shivitti
    Silent Night
    Skeletal System
    Slavery
    Sleep
    Snake And Turkey
    Socrates
    Sophie Scholl
    Sophocles
    South Carolina
    Sperm
    Spermatogenesis
    Spermatozoa
    Sport
    Star Of David
    Stephen Young
    Suicidal
    Sun Tzu
    Sweat
    Tell Lie Vision
    Tell-Lie-Vision
    Texas
    THC
    The Boys
    The Cannabis Papers
    The Federalist Papers
    The-federalist-papers
    The Few
    The Lost Special Orders #191
    The Many
    The Quiet American (1955)
    The Unrepresented
    Thirty Thousand
    Thirty-thousand
    Thomas-jefferson
    Thomas Knowlton
    Thomas Sumpter (Sumter)
    Three Fifths Representation
    Three-fifths Representation
    Tom Paine
    Tory Crown
    Traumatic Brain Injury
    Trenton
    Truck Drivers
    Tryptophan
    Tsar Nicholas
    Tuscarora / Hemp Gatherers
    US Grant
    Us Supreme Court
    Usurpation
    Usurpecans
    Valkyrie
    Vanilloid-system
    Veritas
    Veterans
    Vietnam
    Virginia
    Visual-system
    Walter-benjamin
    Weed
    West Virginia
    We The People
    We-the-people
    Whiskey Rebellion
    White Rose
    William-abens
    William Findley
    William Washington
    Wine
    Winfield Scott
    Women
    Yale
    Yankee Doodle Dandy
    Zarathustra

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.