Amy Goodman: Seattle’s Lessons for London

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Seattle’s Lessons for London

Posted on Mar 31, 2009
By Amy Goodman


Protests dominate the news as world leaders gather in London for the Group of Twenty meeting. War, the economy, corporate globalization and grass-roots opposition to financial bailouts are at the forefront.

Executives receive golden parachutes while workers and unions are forced to make concessions. President Barack Obama has inherited a slew of deep, interlocked crises, yet elicits broad global hope that he can be an agent of change.

Obama last week held an “Open For Questions” town-hall meeting, streamed online, with questions posed by the public and voted on to rank their popularity. Obama answered a question about marijuana:

“Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. And I don’t know what this says about the online audience ... this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

That question’s popularity might indicate audience concern with U.S. drug policy, and the enormous toll on our society of the so-called War on Drugs.

I am traveling around the country this spring, visiting more than 70 cities. In Seattle, I interviewed a strong critic of U.S. drug laws, who said, “I ... support the legalization of all drugs.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090331_seattles_lessons_for_london/