LEAP on the Hill: Stories from the week of February 20, 2009

Howard came out of the closet: After two years of attending a monthly breakfast with 100+ very conservative folks in Virginia, I came out of the closet*this week. Previously I only asked questions that did not reflect drug policy in order to be accepted. Only the people I broke bread with knew my mission in DC. The speaker was Star Parker, African American conservative activist. I told her who I was, who I represented and our take on the War on Drugs; namely that it is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow. I asked her, “If you were in charge of drug policy, what changes would you make?” She stammered and mumbled something about bringing out the Libertarian in her and then talked for 3 minutes without answering the question. Nobody came up afterwards and said hi. Nonetheless, I will be there next month. Laughter, The Best Medicine: It goes without saying that the mood, the air on the Hill is somber and serious. People whisper the ‘D’ word (depression). Legislative aides and I go into my presentation as professionals. However, I always like to ‘break the ice’ and help the aide relax as quickly as possible, so we may develop a dialog. 9 of 10 times this is done in the first two minutes, when I ask them to stop giving law enforcement money to continue the Drug War. This week with a serious, Republican woman nothing was working. Halfway thru she still maintained a tight, poker face. I played my last ace. I said another pressing problem that ending prohibition would fix was the chaos on our southern border with Mexico. “I have read several articles about this in the Washington Post, so it must be true.” She finally broke a grin and mumbled something about the Post always tells the truth. The last 10 minutes we had a real chat with her asking good questions. Who knew? As I walked from Union Station to the House buildings, a retired naval officer asked me about my jacket’s writing (This Cop Says Stop The Drug War). We chatted the next 10 minutes with me mostly listening to his proposal on how to fix banking system. It was all interesting. Just before departing our ways, he went into foreign policy, warning that China would soon begin invading her neighbors. Why, I asked. ‘Because of the one child policy they will soon run out of enough people to make the country function,’ he replied. I asked, ‘So China will invade Viet Nam or India for the purpose of stealing its children?’ ‘That’s right,’ he responded. I could not help but start chuckling which the gentleman did not appreciate. Howard Officer Howard 'Cowboy' Wooldridge (retired) Education Specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com Washington, DC Hablo espanol, je parle francais, Deutsch auch Howard J. Wooldridge 4619 Araby Church Road Frederick, MD 21704 817-975-1110 Cell [email protected] The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional & immoral domestic policy since slavery and Jim Crow. LEAP cops in their own words: http://youtube.com/CopsSayLegalizeDrugs