Reposted from Loretta Nall’s blog
I communicate with my very close friend and mentor Marc Emery nearly every day while he is being held political prisoner in an American federal prison for selling marijuana seeds from Canada.
Despite Marc’s miserable circumstances he maintains his sense of humor…which is essential for maintaining ones sanity during difficult times. For example I got the following email from him yesterday and thought it would be good to share with those of you who read this blog. It’s very humorous in a morbid sort of way.
Dear Loretta,
One of the unsurpassable ironic moments is the postage stamps they sell me are the ‘Liberty Bell’ universal 44 cent stamps. So here I am, a political prisoner (clearly stated by none other than head of DEA Karen Tandy) putting the Liberty Bell on my letters from jail. Oh these United States just crack me up. Like the license plates made in New Hampshire that say “Live Free Or Die” made by the prisoners at the state prison in Concord, NH.
That having been said, one correspondent wrote and asked if I was a dual citizen, because in my writings I write “our constitution” when referencing the Bill of Rights or the Amendments. I said that all my heroes are american, all my political philosophy is guided by Americans, virtually no Canadian political philosopher. My top 5 life influences are Thomas Jefferson (greatest man ever), Ayn Rand, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr and Ron Paul. Even as a teenager the founders of Marvel Comics Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby influenced me more than any Canadian ever has. So much as I like being a good Canadian (polite, well mannered), I’m really culturally an American, and one day I would appreciate being made an honorary American and given the Medal of Freedom, which I will richly deserve if I get it.
Not only is it humorous….it’s true. We Americans parade around the world gloating about our freedoms. But, how free are we really? Sure we are freer than say those who live in Afghanistan or Iran. But we are far from entirely free. And seeing as how we make up only 5% of the world population but have 25% of the world’s prison population we can’t be that damn free. Can we?