Boston, Dig Freedom?
September 17, 2004
Contact: Stephen P. Gordon Office: (512) 637-6867
Cell: (256) 227-8360 communications@badnarik.org
LIVE FROM THE CRADLE OF THE REVOLUTION
Badnarik to address 15th Annual Freedom Rally
Boston, MA - Few places are as haunted by the ghosts of American freedom as Boston Common. Standing quietly, one can almost hear the mingled sounds of musketry from the Boston Massacre, the tramp of British feet departing for Lexington and Concord, Prescott's calm command to "wait until you see the whites of their eyes."
"This place is just suffused with the echoes of freedom," says Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. "Sam Adams led the Boston Tea Party out of Old South Church in 1773; Paul Revere's lanterns hung from the steeple of Old North Church; Revere and Adams are buried nearby at the Granary. William Lloyd Garrison preached his first anti-slavery sermon at Park Street Church. You couldn't swing a cat on Boston Common without hitting all of those places."
It's only natural, then, that Badnarik relishes speaking here as well. And speak he will, at Saturday's 15th Annual Freedom Rally, sponsored by the Cannabis Reform Coalition and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Tens of thousands of Americans attend the Freedom Rally each year in support of ending the war on marijuana.
"The drug war is one of the last things one would associate with the Common," says Badnarik, 50, of Houston, TX. "Boston's a seafaring town. The area around the Common was once devoted primarily to 'ropewalks' -- factories for making rope out of hemp. Before Garrison turned Park Street Church into an anti-slavery hotbed, it was briefly a canvas factory where hemp was turned into sails for the USS Constitution."
As a Libertarian, Badnarik advocates lifting the ban on industrial hemp -- and on its cousin, marijuana.
"The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were printed on hemp paper," he says. "Thomas Jefferson farmed hemp. George Washington farmed hemp -- and, some say, marijuana for smoking as well.
"Growing either of them today will land a farmer in prison. That's not right. It's not American."
Badnarik will share the stage with a number of distinguished activists, including NORML founder Keith Stroup and Steve Bloom, editor of High Times magazine, and several music acts. He speaks at 4 p.m.
The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party; more than 600 Libertarians serve in public office nationwide. Badnarik will appear as a presidential choice on ballots in at least 48 states and the District of Columbia.
For more information on the Freedom Rally, please visit http://www.masscann.org/rally.htm. To obtain information about how to assist the Badnarik campaign at this event, please contact George Phillies at phillies@4liberty.net.
Contact: Stephen P. Gordon Office: (512) 637-6867
Cell: (256) 227-8360 communications@badnarik.org
LIVE FROM THE CRADLE OF THE REVOLUTION
Badnarik to address 15th Annual Freedom Rally
Boston, MA - Few places are as haunted by the ghosts of American freedom as Boston Common. Standing quietly, one can almost hear the mingled sounds of musketry from the Boston Massacre, the tramp of British feet departing for Lexington and Concord, Prescott's calm command to "wait until you see the whites of their eyes."
"This place is just suffused with the echoes of freedom," says Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. "Sam Adams led the Boston Tea Party out of Old South Church in 1773; Paul Revere's lanterns hung from the steeple of Old North Church; Revere and Adams are buried nearby at the Granary. William Lloyd Garrison preached his first anti-slavery sermon at Park Street Church. You couldn't swing a cat on Boston Common without hitting all of those places."
It's only natural, then, that Badnarik relishes speaking here as well. And speak he will, at Saturday's 15th Annual Freedom Rally, sponsored by the Cannabis Reform Coalition and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Tens of thousands of Americans attend the Freedom Rally each year in support of ending the war on marijuana.
"The drug war is one of the last things one would associate with the Common," says Badnarik, 50, of Houston, TX. "Boston's a seafaring town. The area around the Common was once devoted primarily to 'ropewalks' -- factories for making rope out of hemp. Before Garrison turned Park Street Church into an anti-slavery hotbed, it was briefly a canvas factory where hemp was turned into sails for the USS Constitution."
As a Libertarian, Badnarik advocates lifting the ban on industrial hemp -- and on its cousin, marijuana.
"The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were printed on hemp paper," he says. "Thomas Jefferson farmed hemp. George Washington farmed hemp -- and, some say, marijuana for smoking as well.
"Growing either of them today will land a farmer in prison. That's not right. It's not American."
Badnarik will share the stage with a number of distinguished activists, including NORML founder Keith Stroup and Steve Bloom, editor of High Times magazine, and several music acts. He speaks at 4 p.m.
The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party; more than 600 Libertarians serve in public office nationwide. Badnarik will appear as a presidential choice on ballots in at least 48 states and the District of Columbia.
For more information on the Freedom Rally, please visit http://www.masscann.org/rally.htm. To obtain information about how to assist the Badnarik campaign at this event, please contact George Phillies at phillies@4liberty.net.
posted by Mark Rauterkus at 9:38 PM
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