Lighting Up for Mother Earth

[PFlynn]

New York - As I sat upon the Low Library steps–minding my own sweet business and soaking in the rays of the first beautiful day of spring–my ears were accosted by a raucous salutation. "Yo dude! You pumped for 4/20?" I looked up to find the source of this cryptic aural assault. It was your average lanky Columbian greeting his friend with a goofy grin as he took the steps two at a time.

The cogs of my brain whirred, flipping through my veritable Encyclopedia Britannica, my urban dictionary, of hip and with-it college kid terms. 4/20? As in Hitler's Birthday? The anniversary of the Columbine shooting? The second night of Passover this year? Two days before Earth Day? Or maybe Miss Rhode Island's idea of "the perfect date" in Miss Congeniality. None of these seemed to be applicable though, to the subsequent dialogue.

"Absolutely!," replied the other boy. And, with this, he met his friend's outstretched palm with a resounding high five.
Okay, enough. Look, unfortunately I'm not that out of it, obtuse, or ill-informed. 4/20 is indeed the High Holiday of pot smokers, the Motherload of Smoke Sessions for stoners. It is correlated with words like baked, bong, bowl, brownie, and bud–just to name a chosen few. 4/20 and the accompanying marijuana-smoking ethos are emblems of an anti-institution, anti-war, anti-hate, anti-the-man, pro-peace, love and unity subculture. Thus, marijuana and college campuses, just like marijuana and hippie communes, go together like traffic and weather.

The number 4/20 is a rallying cry, a mating call, a secret handshake. This lucky number of the idealist subaltern has, through the past three decades, leaked to the masses. Movies like Half Baked, Grandma's Boy, Smiley Face, Harold & Kumar, and Knocked Up, television shows like Weeds and That '70s Show prominently feature, glorify, and poke fun at stoners. Pot-saturated counterculture has bubbled up into the mainstream with rappers and reggae, a heightened awareness of marijuana Meccas like Amsterdam and Jamaica. To go into every single pot reference or even a smattering would be impossible, exhausting, and probably pointless. Pot references are everywhere, as explicit as the language on Flavor of Love or as disguised as that white and red striped shirt in Where's Waldo? No wonder it's turned up on Columbia's campus.

This holiday did not originate here on campus, nor did it come from Hollywood soundstages. Like any folk tradition, the roots of the commemoration of 4/20 are not easily determined. Karen Bettez Halnon, in her sociological study of 4/20 in smoker culture for High Times Magazine, writes "Most pot-smokers would probably accept as fact that 4/20 originated in San Rafael, California with Steve Waldo, who used the expression '4/20 Louie' in high school. Waldo used it as a secret code to remind friends to meet for smoking sessions at the Louis Pasteur statue." Other myths have to do with the number of chemicals in marijuana, the police code used by narcotics officers to notify other cops of pot smoking, the official tea-time in Holland, and so forth. But, if one were to ask anonymous Columbia students what they think of the origin of 4/20, which I took the liberty of doing, one's findings would be, "Who cares? Let's blaze."

Now this day commemorating grass is all well and good, but I've got a bone to pick with all you smokers out there. Do not let 4/20 become the most involved you get–"activism" must go further than this. We should not let the idealism and the desire for positive change that is intrinsically linked with counterculture to be lost. In America, where Veterans Day has become synonymous with low interest rates and Memorial Day with clearance sales, it is important that all of you stoners do not give up the dreams that are the real power behind 4/20, the spirit to fight conformity and for revolution. No matter what the actual source of the holiday is, the motivation is a desire for camaraderie betwixt those who light up for change.

So, April 20 of 2008 has passed, but, today is April 22, 2008. Earth Day. Believe it or not, a holiday that wants to save the world, not just save the herb. But in all seriousness: pot smokers and not smokers, put down the toke–momentarily, if need be–and take up the banner for a better planet. Ignite the spirit of 4/20–the revolutionary spirit–and fight for our planet in the wake of this hazy holiday. Let's move forward, let's utilize our youthful idealism to make our voices heard and our presence known: not just as silly goofy kids on the steps but as earth shakers.



Source: Columbia Daily Spectator (NY Edu)
Copyright: 2008 Spectator Publishing Company
Contact: opinion@columbiaspectator.com
Website: Columbia Spectator | Online Edition

 

[zolar]

so how much cheaper will it be to use hemp in our economy and has any economics majors done cost studies on how much money the govt would get
if it was legal and taxed at 10 % by both feds and states

for real if we start getting real market anylysis [sp] numbers on cost differentials if used for textiles [ cost and carbon footprint of 100 tons of
cotton vs 100 tons of textile grade hemp fiber]

and did the same for biodiesel with corelation to reigons near biodiesel
production plants and could show commercial truckers fuel they could afford produced locally do you think they would start making waves
or noise in favor of hemp for industrial uses its a start in the right direction

 

[Boss]

Numbers mean so little in this war. We have shown them all the numbers, people just say they are false. Our war is as much about changing the way we live our lives as much as it is about teaching others how to raise thier children. The hate, lies, deception, all the "ism's" you can ask for.

I truely beleive we are in a generational war here. One generation beleives everything they were taught, and will never think different, until the day they die. They are not able to process new information, they don't know how anymore. This is the group that makes up 45% of our elected officials, and 46% of every voter in this country. The only thing that would make these people listen, is if you told them Cannabis would make them live another 100 years. Then they would smoke that shit like a cuban cigar.

 

[superbface]

Numbers mean so little in this war. We have shown them all the numbers, people just say they are false. Our war is as much about changing the way we live our lives as much as it is about teaching others how to raise thier children. The hate, lies, deception, all the "ism's" you can ask for.

I truely beleive we are in a generational war here. One generation beleives everything they were taught, and will never think different, until the day they die. They are not able to process new information, they don't know how anymore. This is the group that makes up 45% of our elected officials, and 46% of every voter in this country. The only thing that would make these people listen, is if you told them Cannabis would make them live another 100 years. Then they would smoke that shit like a cuban cigar.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Herb Fellow]

Now this day commemorating grass is all well and good, but I've got a bone to pick with all you smokers out there. Do not let 4/20 become the most involved you get–"activism" must go further than this. We should not let the idealism and the desire for positive change that is intrinsically linked with counterculture to be lost. In America, where Veterans Day has become synonymous with low interest rates and Memorial Day with clearance sales, it is important that all of you stoners do not give up the dreams that are the real power behind 4/20, the spirit to fight conformity and for revolution.

But in all seriousness: pot smokers and not smokers, put down the toke–momentarily, if need be–and take up the banner for a better planet. Ignite the spirit of 4/20–the revolutionary spirit–and fight for our planet in the wake of this hazy holiday. Let's move forward, let's utilize our youthful idealism to make our voices heard . . .

If we don't stand up and be counted, who will? If we don't let our voices be heard in the corridors of congress, you can be assured the oil companies and corporations of this nation will to ensure their pockets continue to be lined and they won't have to change from their self absorbed lifestyle. It's not the time to toss another soda can, plastic jug and newspapers in the trash; it is the time for hemp to be a major crop in America. It is time to plant a garden instead of having crops shipped across the nation for our dinner tables. We can conform to the statis quo and our children will have a crippled and damaged earth to inherit. As the writer of the article stated, "Ignite the spirit of 4/20 - the revolutionary spirit and fight for our planet." If there is no revolution, there will be no future.