Thanks for Life

As a cancer survivor, I have much to be thankful for.

It is not just that I have been in remission for ten years, it is that in this past decade, I have tried to maximize and appreciate the time I have been given- to do and see the things which make life worth living.

Of course, like everyone else, I have been weighed down by work, realities, and the daily drudges we all experience. But this man Jack Rushton, surviving life as a quadrapelegic, as a sit-down comedian, captures the essence of energy and resolve in the face of adversity.

We may not believe in everything he does, but you can believe in the way he does it. Like Jack, I cannot explain why some survive and others do not. As Charlie Brown has said, through the voice of Charles Schulz, sometimes your number just comes up. Until that time, make each day count ought to be more than the aspiration of a cancer survivor. It is a message for all of us.

Adam Lambert’s Erotic Performance Deserves Praise

Not Just Dorothy Anymore

By Norm Kent

"Part of what I love about being a live performer is that sometimes you just are in the moment and sometimes things just happen.."

-Adam Lambert

I come to praise Adam Lambert, not to bury him.

This is an artist I really want to meet.

When a bunch of gay activists complained a few months ago that he was not political enough he told them to leave him alone and let him sing. When Out Magazine complained he was not supportive enough of gay rights, he told them to screw off with a series of four letter words. He basically has sent a message that he is going to be his own man, set his own agenda, and carve out his own musical path.

Adam Lambert has asked to be accepted, if at all, as a performer, and not to worry about his role as a political activist. The gay community has somehow demanded of him to be something he is not. But in his own way, on Sunday, he became, if not a gay rights activist, America’s most notable gay performer. In a small way, with a simple act, he displayed more courage than any gay artist ever before him- in case you are listening, Barry Manilow.

Sunday, America got a taste of this erotic and emerging male Madonna. Sending shockwaves throughout the audiences at the American Music Awards, he performed a number while allowing a male to simulate fellatio upon him, only moments after sharing a deep erotic kiss with his male keyboardist. For good measure, shades of Elvis Presley, he grabbed his crotch. Oh, not to mention the boys on leashes.

His cutting edge and groundbreaking performance should probably be commended by Gay America for its brash and open display of male upon male sexuality. It was not at the Human Rights Campaign and not at ABC. The latter promptly canceled Lambert’s scheduled performance on Good Morning America set for Tuesday morning.

Still, moderate gay activists were called out to local news stations to suggest that there was a double standard in actions by heterosexual performers compared to gay ones. Surprise. But a group of timid leaders, afraid to shake the status quo, also have been opining that Lambert used an ‘inappropriate’ forum to stage his exhibition. Yeah, tell that to Janet Jackson. If a woman does this, half of male America cheers in approval. Hypocrisy Heaven.

Here is the deal, America. Gay men kiss. Gay men grab crotches. That is what we do, preferably in private, but if it is on stage, during a performance, at nite, under the lights, designed to elicit sensuality and excitement, don’t be shocked; don’t be surprised. It is us. It is real.

Throughout the American Idol series, Adam Lambert demonstrated his ability to remain within the rules and comply with prime time TV guidelines and standards. But here he was at the American Music Awards, a show for stars and theatrics, and he brashly displays his sexuality in a way no gay male performer ever had before. That is gutsy. That is courage. No apologies from me, and good for him.

Complaints poured in about the sexually charged performance to ABC, which aired the AMA and GMA,. Supposedly, more than 1,500 people complained. Not surprising. Might even lead to a fine with the FCC. Not surprising either. As an entertainer, it may be a small price for the international exposure stars yearn for. Now who did he lose American Idol to? Can't even remember the dude's name.

Let’s keep this in mind. I mean it is not like he declared lives expendable to put an unsafe car on the road. He did not put lead based paint in children’s toys. Or, if you saw this evening's news, he did not become a crib retailer knowingly marketing unsafe dropside baby cribs. Corporate America did that for decades. All Lambert did was show who Lambert was: a sensual gay performer who has made no attempt to conceal his homosexual bent. He pushed boundaries. And? That is what an artist does; should do.

Lambert summed it up best: "You know honestly, if I offended some people... it's apples and oranges. I'm not an artist that does things for every single person," he told Access Hollywood, "I believe in artistic freedom and expression, I believe in honoring the lyrics of a song, and those lyrics aren't really for everybody either."

Without even trying to be an exponent for free speech, artistic expression, or gay rights, in one small way, Lambert is becoming one anyway. I think it is great that he kissed a male drummer on stage, and was the first performer in America to openly do so. The sad thing is that it took until December of 2009 to get there.

Heterosexual artists have played the sensuality and sexuality card on stage for decades with no consequence or criticism. Adam Lambert is sending a cross across the bow of America to let them know gay men can also. In doing so, the kid is becoming a pioneer in his own right. Good for him. If you can’t accept it, that is your problem, not his.

If he needs a lawyer to defend him, he has got one in this writer.

Doctors Light Up a Joint as AMA Steps into 21st Century

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man."
-- DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young

Docket No. 86-22. 1988.

Doctors Light Up a Joint

by Norm Kent

Better late than never, I suppose.

After decades of burying their head in the sand, the country's largest physician group, the American Medical Association (AMA), has reversed its long-held position that marijuana has no medical value. Now that the whole country has caught on, they have decided to jump into the ocean and see if they can’t swim and catch up to the ship that has left shore.

This is why the gay rights battle and pot advocates have so much in common. This decision is like the American Psychiatric Association saying there is nothing wrong with homosexuality years after gay rights professionals have formed coalitions in professions from law enforcement to medicine.

Nevertheless, to their belated credit, the AMA has called for a review of marijuana's status as a ‘Schedule 1’ drug with ‘no accepted medical use’ under the federal Controlled Substances Act. As a ‘Schedule 1’ controlled substance, in the same category as heroin, ecstasy and LSD, the federal laws for possession remain unduly harsh and the public access even for medical testing remains severely limited.

Reducing marijuana's federal classification even just to Schedule 2 -- the same class as cocaine, methadone, oxycodone and morphine -- would allow for more testing on the medical effects of marijuana. Since the government’s purported unwillingness to accept marijuana as an herb with medicinal value has been based on their allegation that all we have is limited anecdotal evidence, the scheduling conundrum becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The powers that be have been shouting we do not have enough evidence to reclassify while inhibiting the very research which could prove it. Politically savvy perhaps, but morally unconscionable.

Consequently, the rescheduling of marijuana is a critical battle that marijuana advocates must win. There is a terrible comfort zone the political left can succumb to if we find satisfaction that a particular administration is easing off on law enforcement. Political power is temporary. Those in office today can be voted out tomorrow. But those in office tomorrow will still have to follow the law in effect on that day. Thus, battles must be fought in courtrooms and legislatures. Laws must be changed now to insure change is permanent. Rescheduling initiatives must go forth.

Social activists have to understand that without pressure centrists will drift to the comfort zone of the right. The reason close to a million Americans are still getting arrested every year for marijuana possession is because so many people could care less about the laws and assume it is perfectly okay to light up where you want when they want. But some of you wind up like the South Florida judge, Lawrence M. Korda, who had spent 30 distinguished years on the bench. He decided to light up a single joint during a rock concert in a Hollywood, Florida park, and after a series of humiliating front page articles documenting his arrest, was forced to resign his position.

You can’t let up if you have the ball. For marijuana reformers, like gay rights proponents, the wave is on our side. We can’t get off the board. You have to ride it out and carry it to a new tomorrow. Yes, gay marriage may have lost a 31st state vote in Maine last month, but more significantly, scores of communities nationwide are extending homosexual couples the rights and privileges afforded heterosexuals, under the umbrella of domestic partnership ordinances. If your community is not, contact a city commissioner near you today.

It's been 72 years since the AMA has officially recognized that marijuana has therapeutic benefits. It’s been 30 years since Administrative Law Judge Frances Young ruled that rescheduling should occur. He was overruled by Presidents, politics, and the DEA. See Fred Gardner’s article about Judge Young here online in Counterpunch from early this Spring: http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner03022009.html

After three decades, it is time to honor Judge Young’s decision that cannabis has the capacity to provide medically based options in pain relief treatment. We know what they are, from taming nausea for cancer stricken patients to reducing neuropathic pain in those so suffering, whether from AIDS or multiple sclerosis or comparable ailments.

As stated by Aaron Houston of the successful Marijuana Policy Project, "Marijuana's Schedule I status is not just scientifically untenable, given the wealth of recent data showing it to be both safe and effective for chronic pain and other conditions, but it's been a major obstacle to needed research." The truth is more people died from spinach last year than pot. And a thousand people a year, I understand, overdose from aspirin. You don’t die from pot, just maybe ‘jones’ out a bit if you don’t have it.

The government has maintained a legally inconsistent position for decades regarding the scheduling of marijuana as an illegal drug with no justifiable medical uses. Even today, our government continues to operate the remnants of its once popular ‘Compassionate Use Protocol’ program, which allows the DEA to distribute marijuana cigarettes under a prescription to those deemed medically worthy to receive it. New applications have been denied for two decades. Only four patients are still alive who still receive medical marijuana thusly.

Ask yourself this: how can the government go into court and say there is no medical use for marijuana when its own DEA was and has been distributing it to dozens of patients for two decades? It is a case we must undertake again.

In changing its policy, the AMA said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug. But it is a lot more than that. Now it is time to pressure your congressman to pressure the Obama Administration to pressure the DEA to insure that the rescheduling occurs, and marijuana is removed from that list of drugs which can still lock your ass up in prison for years. Make no mistake about it. This change is not just about medically based research. This change is about insuring your freedom. It’s about preventing future lawmakers from using the ‘drug war’ as a tool to inhibit your liberty.

Freedom is a nice thing to have, and repressive pot laws are a stupid reason to take it away.

Breckinridge Lights Up the Slopes

Don't know about you, but I am going skiing.

Last nite, the Colorado ski town of Breckenridge voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana.

Early returns Tuesday night showed the proposal winning with 72 percent of the vote. The measure would allow adults over 21 to have up to 1 ounce of marijuana.

The measure is largely symbolic because pot possession remains a state crime for people without medical clearance. But supporters said they wanted to send a message to local law enforcement to stop busting small-time pot smokers. So basically you have the population of a community telling the police to back off. Not surprising at all.

In Tallahassee, Florida, a few years ago, when students from FSU NORML initiated a successful petition drive to make pot enforcement a low priority, the city commission sued, alleging that they could not interfere with state enforcement. You can't sue to suppress a vote though, can you?

Breckinridge sent a message last nite that thousands of Americans all over this country are fed up with pot laws. It is also an indicator there is popular support for their new medical dispensaries statewide.