Our Hero!
Thanks for the Facebook comments left in response to “Don’t Be Afraid to Get Arrested: Longtime Activist Paki Wieland Says Today’s Protesters Aren’t Disturbing Enough People”
Jim Sorter: Now we have a new hero who will inspire our lives. Thank you for letting us meet her!
Kathleen Daly: ’Bout time someone put this to the page!
Ana Thompson: Loved reading about this woman!
Pro-Marijuana Groups are Blowing It
Many people thought it was legalized (“Between the Lines: Thought We Already Legalized It, What’s the hold up with weed?”, March 9-25, 2017). The pro-marijuana lobby continues to mismanage the issue. Many who voted for legalization also voted for the politicians who were against legalization, or at least, through their inaction, gave them a free ride back to their offices.
Legalization is simple, abolish the laws against it. When a question gets to be over two paragraphs to “legalize” marijuana, that alone is suspicious.
We need very few controls on it, such as selling to minors. We already have that with tobacco and liquor, and it did not take months to make the regulations. Now there are attempts to tax it, thus keeping the black market alive and well. We should be asking who will benefit, and why so many elected officials want to help keep it alive.
But when all is said and done, “progressive” Democrats are still Democrats and will support the incumbents and their status quo to the last.
— Robert Joseph Underwood,
Springfield
Plenty of Viable Music Venues
With the Parlor Room, the Academy of Music, and the Shea Theatre as viable working music venues these day, who needs to be booked by or beholden to the tollbooth of the IHEG any more for our musical consumption (“Cold Fingers at the Iron Horse: Vanessa Carlton Calls for Boycott of Northampton Venue,” March 16-22, 2017). We shall rise up and let our wallets do the talking and the walking!
— Kathleen Daly,
Northampton
Correction: Due to an editing error, the timeline for Patricia “Paki” Wieland’s education was incorrect in the print edition (“Don’t Be Afraid to Get Arrested,” March 16-22, 2017). After graduating high school, Wieland attended college at St. Mary’s in Louisiana. She then spent some time with the Appalachian Volunteers in West Virginia before attending Boston College to study social work.
