California, Nevada, Massachusetts OK Recreational Pot Use

By JIM PURCELL

As well as electing Donald Trump for president and giving control of Congress to the Republican Party, the November 8 election also legalized recreational marijuana use in California, Massachusetts and Nevada. Arizona rejected the referendum there, though Maine has yet to announce an election result in that state.

In a report written by Patch staffer Marc Torrence, he noted that the three new states that have ratified recreational marijuana use join the states of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, where similar measures have previously been enacted.

Meanwhile, during the 2016, four other states, Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota have decided to pass measures in those states that allow for the use of medical marijuana.

Former Atty Gen'l Janet Reno Dies at 78 Years Old

Janet Reno

THIS JUST IN...

By JIM PURCELL

According to the Associated Press, reporting from Miami less than two hours ago, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Wood Reno,78, died during the early morning hours today, Monday, November 7. Reportedly, she died from complications that arose as a result of Parkinson's disease.

Ms. Reno served as the attorney general between 1993-2000, after being nominated by then-President Bill Clinton. Notably, Ms. Reno was the first woman ever to serve in that position within the U.S. Government.

Ms. Reno was born in Miami, to parents who were both reporters for the Miami Herald. She attended public school in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and was a valedictorian and a debating champion at Coral Gables High School.

Ms. Reno then enrolled in Cornell University, in 1956, in Ithica, New York. There she became president of the Women's Self-Government Association and majored in chemistry. After her bachelor's degree was completed, Ms. Reno entered Harvard Law School, in 1963, where she earned her law degree.

In 1978, Ms. Reno was appointed as state attorney for Dade County and was then elected to the Office of State Attorney in 1978. At the time she was nominated for the post of U.S. attorney general, she was actually President Clinton's third choice. Previously, two of his nominee's, Zoe Baird and Kimba Woods, failed to be approved because both had employed undocumented immigrants as nannies.

During Ms. Reno's tenure as U.S. attorney, there were several high-profile situations that have since become pages in the nation's history. These include: the 51-day siege in Waco, Texas with Branch Davidians; bringing suit against Microsoft for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act; prosecution of 21 persons of the Montana Freemen after an 81-day armed standoff; the capture and conviction of Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber"; and the capture and conviction of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, among others.

Reflections on the many Americas

By REV JIM PURCELL

I have not lived everywhere in America. However, I have briefly lived on the West Coast, and in the Midwest and the Southwest, as well as the Deep South, when not residing in my native New Jersey.

The city of Brotherly Love: Philly any old day

Yet, what I have noticed along the way is that there are subtle, and sometimes more than subtle, differences in what people in one part of our country call "American," as opposed to what others in different parts of the nation characterize as "American." The whole view of what is wholesome, sought after and believed in, governmentally speaking, changes with the scenery. There is also the matter of race that has to be dealt with, also regionally, but that would just make this post too darn long.


Suburban New Jersey when everyone is going home

I was raised in the shadow of New York City, across the Raritan Bay in Keansburg, New Jersey. I lived in a diverse environment, wherein Blacks, Hispanics, Asian and people from all over the world settled into to live. Because I lived near New York City, I understood and was frequently exposed to varying opinions and points of view. New York City is nothing if not a global city. New York does not have to go to the world, because the world comes to New York. Rather than list those things that New York is a leader in, it is easier to list those things that are not well known to people in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area; most notably, farming, agricultural life, animal husbandry, growing things or raising things that walk and moo. Sure, like the commercials say, you can find a little bit of everything in Jersey and New York, but those things are not a central preoccupation of the people here.


Rush Hour in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska

When I lived in Killeen, Texas, I was a soldier who lived on a base. So, it is not like I had a chance to really get the flavor of what it was like to live in the Southwest, per se. I know that, where the base I was at (Fort Hood) was diverse, the community was not. While there were many occasions for soldiers and locals to join in common activities, they did not frequently, in my experience. In fact, what I noticed was that Central Texans more or less kept to themselves and tolerated the soldiers. Maybe they ran local stores and sold us things, or rolled their eyes when we came into a bar or restaurant they owned. Still, if there was something I can say I actually felt in the locals was a sense of invasion. The Central Texan lived their lives around us, where we weren't: not at the same place and time. Their lives were agrarian or commercial.

Lovely old New Hope, Pennsylvania

On the West Coast, again I lived on a base: Californians welcomed soldiers. Where I was stationed, though, at Fort Ord, in wine country, soldiers were as welcomed as sunlight. Of course, things were also very expensive there. While perusing the local town  of Carmel, in 1986, I could buy a T-shirt stating I had been to Carmel for $20. I don't know what that is in today's money -- but $20 then was a lot more than $20 today. Things were so expensive, in fact, that it was just easier and less expensive to hang around Ord, which was affectionately termed "the Planet Ord" by its residents. My impression, though, was that people who lived there were very educated and successful, and the local economy probably went the way of the grape industry.

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina

There was my sojourn to the Mid-West, in the 2010s, which was unsuccessful for my part. It was a sparse place without many people. The economy in Lincoln, Nebraska, while bolstered by the University of Nebraska and several major corporate giants, still seemed to orbit around the business of growing corn, wheat and whatever the heck else they grew out there. I will always remember Nebraska, as I had a reversal of luck there and ended up, for the first time ever in my life, homeless there. It was not a particularly urbane place. The state's capitol city strove to be more than the under-sized college town it was then (and probably still is). Roads were made and entrances were cut into undeveloped lots of real-estate, in the hope that one day something might be developed there. It was a 'primer' of a city, and not actually a city yet. It had hospitals and a small Downtown area, and with every printing of the local newspaper, it gave the new number of residents who moved into the state. The weather is brutal in the winter, and it has led me to wonder why anyone ever settled there in the first place.

A NYC street -- and I wouldn't call it crowded

Then there was the Deep South. Anyone from the crowded East Coast can find it very easy to fall in love with the gentle lifestyle and beautiful weather and scenery of the South. I have been a Floridian, a Georgian and a North Carolinian. And, whenever my professional career is done, I will do what I can to find my way back to the sleepy little towns of the Great Smoky Mountains. In contrast with relatively close Charlotte, the mountain life is still a place where seclusion is possible. Yet, major urban areas like Charlotte; Richmond, in Virginia; Atlanta, in Georgia and so many other places have dramatically changed the nature of the Deep South. The stereotypes I grew up with in the 1960s and '70s just do not hold water anymore. Southerners, in my opinion, are not unlike their Northeastern cousins in many ways. An agrarian economy still exists there, though, and is probably one (of many) factors that make the Southern reality contrasted to those of Northeasterners.

In my life, I have not seen one America, which values and holds dear the same things in the same ways. I have seen many Americas, which elevates some traditions higher than others, and discards others entirely. Yes, geography plays a role: Now, what size the role is can be debated from here to kingdom come. The local economies and who is making things, or growing things, bartering things, banking things all plays a part of the reality each area lives, and the lens through which so many different people see what is commonly called "The United States of America."


The suburban borough of Red Bank, New Jersey

It is too easy to just look at a map and guess the differences in perceptions over people. However, at the same time, I would use a map as one of many ways to inform one about the priorities of others in this country. I am colored by my perceptions of what I have seen in my American sojourn, and my experiences -- like everyone else. I am interested to see the commonalities in our nation, and those things that are uncommon and particular to certain areas of people.

If I were being politically correct, I would say that all of the many differences are part of that '...great mosaic that is America.' I will leave it at that, and maybe be a little politically correct today.

GUN VIOLENCE: How far we have strayed

The U.S. military knows what it is doing with weapons

In the news there seems to be a school or university shooting or shootings with some frequency. Kids have been behind the triggers and it has been ghastly. Columbine was only the first of many horrible things that came after. It is an American tragedy.

Then there is George Zimmerman, Jr., who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin to death in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012. The state of Florida through the person of Florida State Attorney General Angela Corey tried to make the case that Zimmerman murdered Martin unlawfully. Well, she didn't win her case.

Did you know he is selling artwork of Corey saying she didn't respect the justice system or some such garbage? He is apparently using an Associated Press photo shot of her during the trial, and the AP is bringing his ass to court to try and stop his selling his "art." Who knows how that will end up?

Zimmerman was back in court later on some domestic issue with his girlfriend or wife or whatever, following the murder case, after and media reports that a gun was involved then too. But, nothing came of it.

Then, there was that video shown on the news about Zimmerman being stopped by a cop for speeding or some such thing and he was being treated like a celebrity by the officer.

While we are at it, let's remember all of the terrible police shootings that have ended up with innocent people being shot down in cold blood by officers in the street. I only pay attention to the Greater New York Area, so I don't speak for anywhere else.

We all remember these things. We all know about these things. And, these things have impacted each of us personally, and perhaps differently.

If someone had to put a brand on me, I'm a Democrat and a Liberal. I started out as a Conservative Republican, but life taught me that wasn't going to work for me until I made my first couple million.

Let me recount the Conservative argument: Criminals will always have guns, and if "good people" are disarmed then they will be easy prey for cutthroats. And, just in case the U.S. Government "turns on" its own people -- or we are invaded by some other country -- then an armed citizenry is good because it came in handy during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and the Civil War. So, the last time a citizen of the U.S. needed a gun to protect themselves from a marauding army was in 1865, which was like 150 years ago.

Meanwhile, I don't think the U.S. Government, or any president or executive elected or appointed within it, will ever try to change our form of governance by trying some mad military or police takeover. It's rubbish.

Meanwhile, if there are armed "good guys" and armed "bad guys" then it sounds like a cheesy western picture where the only one that wins are the weapons manufacturers; that's it.



The Civil War was the last time citizens had to 'arm' themselves for war

In the U.S. Army and the Marines, servicemen and women, particularly in combat units, live with their rifle or sidearm at all times. They know everything about it. They not only shoot for qualification twice a year, but some units frequently fire for sustainment to get better. Our servicemen and women live in a culture within the armed forces that knows firearms safety and lives it every single day. There is even lots of formal schooling about firearms and firearms safety throughout their careers. They know what they are doing, and they truly need to because they are our national strength: God bless them.

OK, back to cops. I had a roommate who was a retired police officer for a while. He always talked about what a great shot he was and how he was great on the range. He went once or twice a year. When he was younger, he went a little more -- but it was pretty casual. This us unlike the constant drilling and grilling of our servicemen on the range (well, yes, certain specialties).

I am saying that police officers, with qualified exceptions, really understand the responsibility on their hip or are thoroughly versed in firearms use in a live-or-die situation. So, they frequently screw it up, kill someone, and say they had to make a "life and death call and used their gut." Well, that system seems to be working like a charm.

Hardly anyone 'needs' a gun, certainly not civilians, unless they live in some rural part of the country where animals may have to get hunted for food or a firearm might protect people from will animals.

I don't believe enough use of non-lethal weapons is in use yet by the police from sea to shining sea. And, some cop not knowing what they are doing with pepper spray or rubber bullets is a lot better than them not knowing what they are doing with ball ammunition (live rounds). Sure, there are times they will need guns. But, by far, and again with some exception, police officers don't need firearms to do their day-to-day job if they have non-lethal alternatives. They are not the weapons experts they make themselves out to be in their hubris.

I know...I know...if you're some die-hard gun guy or gal you are jumping up-and-down about what I am saying. But, a lot of people think like me. People are more valuable then guns.

'What if they use knives instead?' OK, let's entertain that. It's harder to use a knife than a gun. Maybe, a crazed kid will injure or kill someone with that at school before he is knocked down and arrested. But, he will not kill 10 or 20 or 30.

What about the criminals? Arrest them. Start using prison space for actual criminals. Put child support non-payers and marijuana smokers somewhere else or in some community based program. Prison should really only be for violent offenders: That's it. Wow! Look all the space we made in prison by putting the non-violent people elsewhere!

Meanwhile, redneck yahoos who just want to have and carry guns to do it and be their version of Matt Dillon are utterly frustrated by their attempts, I hope. History will ultimately make the call on this one, and I believe, despite all the money behind the gun lobby, this issue will eventually have common sense applied to it.

Hey, I'm done with this world and focusing on my last act, kids. So, I have no dog in this race. But, this gun lunacy is so preventable, so counter to common sense and so very tragic.