Legalize It

Today, I noticed a man wearing a black t-shirt with "Legalize It" written in bold white font. (We're talking about Marijuana here.)

To be clear, I personally think there's nothing wrong or dangerous about using pot. It's a weed. It has medical benefits. And, most importantly, I don't really care what others choose to do.

I have smoked it, and I have enjoyed every occasion.

I have known pot dealers, growers, and users. There was nothing extraordinary about any of these people that would have given an indication as to what they did in their free time.

With all that said, I can't get behind the whole "legalize it" movement. Not because I don't support one's right to use marijuana. In fact, it's just the opposite.

When does something even BECOME illegal? When the government declares it punishable by their law...which, in case you missed the memo, not EVERYONE signed up for.

To make something 'Legal' is to regulate something into accordance with the State. Legalizing pot would hardly mean free and ready access to everyone who desired it. Rather, it would mean, thousands of dollars paid annually to the State for the RIGHT to buy and sell. It would mean licensure in accordance with strict regulations. It would mean age limits, quantity limits, and quality specifications.

Right now, there's a threat of force against my person hovering over my head, but I CAN walk next door and buy some quality pot off the guy who's growing in his backyard...for one fee. No questions asked. No papers filed. No paper trail as to what I do with my time.

It's a tiny bit like freedom.

There's a really excellent essay by Emma Goldman that always comes to mind whenever I overhear people ardently in favor of legalizing or regulating something. Emma Goldman is not quite a hero of mine (I think she's a bit of socialist) but this particular essay always struck me as rather important.

Back in her day, women were pushing for the right to vote. They wanted equal rights as their fellow men, and that meant having the right to cast a vote. Emma couldn't quite see eye to eye with her fellow feminists...not that she was AGAINST them having the right to vote, rather, she couldn't understand why they wanted to join up with the people she saw as enslavers to the entire human race! An anarchist by all definitions, Emma thought that women might do better to withhold themselves from the State.

At first it boggles the mind.

It takes some thought.

When women joined to the State through the right to vote, they lost their right to exist outside of the State. We welcomed the State into our lives thinking it preferable to living as the chattel of Man. Instead of a husband or father telling us what we might and might not do, we welcomed a much more demanding master. Government is not something you can lightly shake off...or run away from, or dissuade.

 Nowdays when people talk excitedly about getting something legalized or regulated, it makes me cringe. Isn't something like that going on right now?...Obama's healthcare plan that 'regulates' insurance companies and makes it 'illegal' to go without a healthcare plan...under THREAT OF FORCE.

There are movements all over the country to make homeschooling a 'legal' option for parents. Where it is 'legal' there are massive amounts of paperwork and regulations that infringe upon the very freedom people think they have received.

The same is true of homebirthing. There are still states where it is illegal, and midwives operate under threat of fines and imprisonment. They hope for legalization and state regulation. This all means paying hard-earned money INTO the very State that has been punishing your actions for the RIGHT to NOW do those actions legally.

WITH more restrictions than when you were just going ahead and doing the damn thing illegally.

?????!!!!

This happens ALL the time.

I just can't support it.

It's sort of like nursing-ins. I admire the women who go do these shows of force about breastfeeding, but I will probably never join one. If I want to breastfeed my child, I will. I will not wait for the State to approve my action. It might make a larger statement if everyone just did what they wanted to do anyway...without aiming for any sort of 'approval' or state sanction.

*sigh* Do you know that at the most recent nursing in, the woman running the thing actually went down the city office to file for AND receive a PERMIT for her protest.

Getting a STATE PERMIT to protest AGAINST  the State????!!!!

That's another blog post ;-)

I have no idea what the law will be in whatever state we happen to be in when K reaches 'school age', but it just won't matter. He will be home with us no matter the law because it's absolutely within my right as a parent to require the best education possible for my child.

The next baby will be born at home. I don't care if it's illegal. It's my body, it's my child, it's not something anyone else can tell me is legal or illegal.

So, in conclusion, I DO wish that pot were legal...meaning, I wish there was no THREAT OF FORCE preventing me from buying some off of that guy down the street, but I can't get behind the "legalize it" movement...or any such moment really. I don't support the State...nor do I look to the State for support or permission to go about my life as I see fit.

Mainstream Media and School

Have you seen this video? Or, better yet, read this book?


Is it funny? Or just disturbing? how books and movies so effectively illustrate the spirit-crushing tendencies of structured schooling, without intention?

It's satisfying for me, as a mother who would prefer her child to never enter public or private school, to see  these examples so widespread in mainstream media, but it's sort of like the anarchism thing in that I just can't understand why people accept this as normal so...passively.

I mean, how is this video NOT disturbing? (outside of the fact that the little pup appears to have a happy home life!)

FDA Seizes Birthing Pools

Have you heard about the recent seizure of Birth Pools by the FDA?

Yeah.

They've since been returned, with a warning that the fate of Birthing Pools in the United States will be decided on June 7th.

Seriously.

 And you wonder why I'm an anarchist?

Birthing pools are sort of like inflateable kiddie pools. They differ in height, durability, temperature controls, ect... but ESSENTIALLY, the FDA seized a shipment of kiddie pools that women throughout the world like to use as an assistance to their birthing experience, and the country is now waiting to hear if Birthing Pools will be recalled for DESTRUCTION or permitted to continue as usual.

Ridiculous!

I guess there's a general concensus throughout the US, that waterbirths are unsafe. And homebirth waterbirths even MORE dangerous. So...naturally...the government has decided that it needs to review the situation and determine whether or not such unsafe birthing conditions might 'legally' continue.

If, when I next find myself pregnant, N and I have to buy a birthing pool on the black market, I will literally HAVE to laugh. Not that it's really funny. Just that anyone who really thinks a bunch of home-water-birthing moms/midwives/doulas are going to send their birthing pools in to the FDA for destruction MUST be crazy!

Ban on Public Breastfeeding

So, in just the short amount of time since I wrote my last post, N and I have fallen prey to whatever virus has been ailing K for the past week. Naturally. So now it's three of us with snotty noses, soar throats, and slight fevers...FUN!

I don't think we've ever had so many bouts of illness since K has been BORN as we've had in the past two months. I guess I should be thankful it's not my tiny infant that's sick...but rather my big, strong toddler who isn't about to let a little taste of the flue slow him down. (Too much that is. I've been relishing all this extra sleeping he's been doing...a NAP during the day AND 12+ hours of night sleeping...can this REALLY be my kid?!)

In the meantime, I'd like to pass along this rather alarming article. Forest Park, a suburb outside of Atlanta has recently passed a ban on public breastfeeding for anyone over the age of 2. Apparently this is viewed as a proactive approach to enforcing public nudity laws...

??????????????????????????????????

Because, clearly, once a woman is nursing a child over the age of two, it becomes a seductive sexual display of nudity rather than the provision of nourishment to her child. Right.

Latest UPDATE.

Obedient Children

So, there's a pretty awesome article up on Attachment Parenting.org that seems to have everyone in a tizzy. Titled, I Am Not Raising Obedient Children, it articulates my own thoughts on the subject perfectly.

I do not want a passively obedient child. I want a child who thinks for himself and chooses his actions out of preference rather than my say-so. That might mean that he learns socially appropriate behaviors by FIRST acting (as others would call it) disobediently. So, like the author of this excellent article, I would indeed prefer my child act disobediently and question my authority.

The comments accompanying this post are, to me, somewhat alarming. It seems that everyone has the same belief; given half a chance, every toddler in the known world will instantly run into the street and die. Avoiding this future is then the primary reason most parents discipline their children and practice a punishment and reward system of behavior modification. Seriously?

The street?

Why is it always the street. Parents seem deathly afraid of the street, and I really can't figure it out. I've mentioned we're car-less? Yes, well, my two year old doesn't seem very keen on playing in the street, and he's never once been punished or disciplined regarding proper roadside behaviors. Yes, when he was younger, he liked to dart into the street. Mostly because he didn't understand the differentiation between a sidewalk and a road. I was mindful of this fact, and kept a close eye on him as we walked to and fro our differing destinations. Sometimes, I had to chase him down. Sometimes, we just talked about the road and cars, and the danger I saw. Sometimes, we noticed dead animals along the side of the road and they served as excellent natural examples of why I 'preferred' K walk only on the sidewalk.

It took time. Months in fact, but today, he walks the sidewalk without holding my hand. He stops of his on volition at every cross street and carefully waits for me before continuing across. He notices the cross-walk signals, and even juts his hand out in a stop motion if he feels that a car is edging too much while we cross. He's not quite two and half.

So, the road people? Really...that's the best excuse for why one should utilize punishments and rewards. It seems a bit weak to me.

The other comment I saw often mentioned was that our children must learn to respect authority because there are certain instances where the parent or caretaker can foresee a dangerous reaction BEFORE the child. Or, they can understand the harm being done by the child's action better than the child...or maybe they just have a better grasp upon compassion than said child. For example, the undesirable behaviors of hitting, biting, or other physical actions that might cause harm to themselves.

So, I don't punish these behaviors, and, so far, we've yet to really experience anything like these. And, honestly, if my kid wanted to hit other children, or otherwise physically harm them, I'd be too alarmed at the emotional state of my child WHO WANTS TO HURT PEOPLE to even consider punishing him. So...I'm not sure what else there is to say about that, but before punishing your child for harming another, maybe the parent's role should be to first understand WHY their child WANTS to hurt said child?

As for climbing too high, or running into the street, or some other action K might undertake that I might foresee has a dangerous consequence, I TELL HIM  what I see. I explain how his chosen action might end, and present other choices of behavior or action that might be safer. If he still prefers the dangerous activity, then I either stand by until needed (if he's climbing something high, ect..) or physically remove him from the danger (like a moving car on the road). And, frankly, there's not much trouble with this type of behavior. NOR, do I consider this sort of exploratory, testing-limits, style of behavior to be bad. I think it's good and healthy and simply requires a mindful physical presence on my part. Not too hard really.

And finally, folks seem to think that it's best that we get children used to listening and obeying an authority figure early on because that's just how life works. We don't get to do whatever it is we want to do when we grow up, so why on earth would we teach that this is true to our children?

Well, if you are an anarchist like me, then you DO actually want your child to grow up and see the difference between a free state and a regulated adulthood. And, if you're not an anarchist, then doesn't it at least bother you a teeny tiny bit that you're squashing some part of your child's innate personality and human construct just because. Just because that's...how things are done? hmmm...it's certainly worth some thought.