Thank you again or proving my point, Pepper. Predictably, you have chosen to
attack the messenger and ignore the message. I hate to use the same quote
twice, but since you missed it the first time: "Ignorance of the truth is
sad, being proud of your ignorance is just stupid."

So, while Pepper is wallowing in his ignorance, this one goes out to Nate:

First of all, let me just say that I do my own research and can think and
write for myself, but if it helps you sleep at night to say that I’ve
plagiarized everything, knock yourself out. As I said, I'm interested in
talking honestly about the truth, not wasting time with pointless character
assassination to make myself feel better.

More importantly Nate, I agree with most of what you said. I don't think all
politicians are corrupt anymore than I believe that all corporations are
corrupt. I'm just against the corporations that kill people for profit and
the politicians who help them do it. Greed transcends party politics.
Everybody knows that nothing will change until we begin to speak honestly
about the history and behavior of the people behind the current unelected
Bush administration. I ask you, Pepper: Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Truth?

Is that enough to put me on your Un-American Activities list?

You might want to add a few other advocates of Democracy like: Thomas Paine,
Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Lennon,
Abraham Lincoln, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and George Washington (who said:
"Make the most of hemp and sow it everywhere.") Not to mention Jesus, who
would have been called before your Neo-HUAC Committee and forced to denounce
the Apostles as Communists.

I'm glad Nate mentioned Diesel engines, which I'm sure you know, were
invented over 100 year ago in 1895 to be run specifically on organic fuels.
Every Diesel engine on the road today could run on cheaper, cleaner, safer
plant-based fuel, instead of today’s petroleum based Diesel fuel (but that
wouldn't go over too well with all your rich oil buddies like Bush and
Cheney, would it?).

More to the point, in 1941 Henry Ford built a car "grown from the soil" that
ran on organic methanol fuel and had a body made from hemp-based plastic
that was 10 times stronger than steel. Ford also helped pioneer the lost
science of Chemurgy, which used plant-based carbohydrates as its primary
resource, instead of expensive and toxic petroleum-based hydrocarbons. They
knew in the 1930s that everything done with petrochemicals could be done
better, cheaper, cleaner, and stronger with natural alternatives. (See:
"New Billion Dollar Crop" Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938, Pg. 238. Available
on-line at: http://www.HempFarm.org/BillionDollarCrop.html)

If hemp based organic products were grown and processed in America the cost
of supplying food, clothing, shelter, and fuel to the people of America
would be drastically reduced, along with our bloated petroleum-dependant
cost of living. With an abundance of renewable resources and natural
products, we wouldn't have to sell weapons to oppressive dictatorships to
protect our oil pipelines, or train right-wing extremists to rig elections
and blow up our Airplanes (and buildings, and foreign oil refineries).

As Nate said: "We have it --why don't we use it? I know the standard
answers--but what do we actually do about it?"

I see hemp as the catalyst for a national paradigm-shift and a way to reduce
the oppressive cost of living that holds the American people in a death
grip. As the cost of living goes down, we would all be able to work less,
spend more time with our families, and still have time to do the things that
make life worth living as individual human beings. All of us would have
enough time and money to feed our families and explore the creative urges
that makes us human beings, instead of just working ourselves to death for
slave wages then having a heart attack at 43. (Just think, Pepper, with all
that free time on you hands you could write those two novels you told me
about).

Nate summed it up best: We need to work together toward our common goals.

We have to demand the truth from our elected officials and then stand back
and watch closely as the Petrochemical Propaganda starts to fly. Once you
have their attention, ask the question again: "If an alternative to oil has
been available to us since before World War II, why does our government
force us to perpetuate our dependence on toxic products that we don't need?"

If the majority of our elected representatives are actually trying their
best to help us, and honestly don't know that an alternative to oil has been
available for 100 years, shouldn’t somebody stand up and tell them?

But what do we do if they know the truth and don't give a damn?

Am I the only one who thinks continuing to sell weapons to terrorists is a
bad idea? Am I the only one who thinks protecting Nazi murders and spying on
"Dangerous Left Wingers" like John Lennon and Martin Luther King might not
be the best way to "protect our freedom"? Am I “un-American” for simply
asking these questions?

I've managed to live my life without selling weapons to murders and bombing
children, why can't George Bush and his business partners do the same?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Pepper agreed with me face to face (in
a hushed voice) that hemp "would indeed help the people of his state," but
when it came to taking a stand in public, he was more interested in toeing
the conservative party line and calling me a "crazy motherfucker" and an
"assassin". It's always fun to hear people who promote carpet-bombing yell
"Murderer!" at the people who promote peace. I have no doubt that Pepper
will have a long life in the Grand Political Game: "Say whatever you have to
say to get elected, then screw everybody who didn't give you money."

Its funny that you should tell me to relax, because as I'm sure you've seen
on TV, if there’s one thing us wacky Hollywood types know how to do, its
party.

Unfortunately, when I try to get a little peace and quiet these days all I
see is my bills piling up and my friends fighting for work. I see people
working 18 hours a day for shit pay who still can’t afford health insurance.

I see parents fighting to put their children through school, and I see my
grandparents dying in the hands of a pathetic healthcare system.

I also see my mother getting robbed by a corrupt banking system and blowing
her head off because she couldn't afford to pay for her medication.

And to top it off everyday on TV I see my best friend's mother explode in a
ball of flame and rubble on all over Manhattan's west side.

Then I see ignorant good 'ol boys smiling wide as they continue to poison
children, piss on the constitution, and give our hard earned money to
malignant corporate criminals like Enron.

Spare me your simplistic, TV friendly view of the world, Pepper. Books are
more than paperweights and props. If you want to learn something you
actually have to read them.

As Methodman said: "Fuck the President, he don't represent the ghetto
resident."

Yours forever,
Zed