Indeed... In my opinion, the rally was a disappointment. The weather sucked and the speakers I heard were inarticulate and not very well informed. After about a half hour of standing in the drizzle, my girlfriend and I decided to pay a visit to Sen. Jones and Rep. Abed to ask them to support legislation that protects patients and caregivers and stop conspiring with the supreme court to change the law against the will of the voters. The Senator (and former Eaton County Sheriff) was a tool who just punted by saying, "...well, what we really need is a change in federal law..." Rep. Abed was much more friendly and took the time to write down our contact information for further correspondence. By the time we got done talking to our legislators, the rally was over.ok enough hijacking....back to the rally
How the fuck do you know what I sound like? You're not listening to spoken words, you're using your eyes to read printed words on a computer screen. Give me your phone number if you want to hear what I sound like. I showed up at 3MG for cultivation advice and info and I ended up as collateral damage in a pointless war between 3MA and 3MG, two groups who share common goals and need to work together. I was hoping I'd run into pepper at the rally today so I could give him a piece of my mind in person. I told him to go fuck himself only after he gave me a totally lame excuse for revoking my live chat access, after which he revoked all access to any portion of the website. Nothing anyone can say or do to make me want to go back to 3MG. What's done is done and no apology is going to make it all better. I just wanted to get this shit off my chest because it's not good for my health to keep shit like this bottled up. As far as I'm concerned pepper can still go fuck himself and anyone who sides with him can do likewise.you sound a little high strung. The 3MG is mostly about growing...not really an activist site...try to stay current but leave all the political BS at the door. Again, not sure what happened but if you told him to fuck off that might have done it.
Nobody hurt me, deeply or otherwise. Being banned doesn't bother me one fucking bit. What bothers me is that my access to michiganmedicalmarijuanagrowers.net is apparently conditional based on my personal web browsing habits, due to some petty grudge pepper has against michiganmedicalmarijuana.org that I have absolutely nothing to do with.Yeah ok you're right I don't know what you sound like lol. Being banned is crazy hard to deal with isn't it? Carry that shit a long time eh? I'm sorry pepper hurt you so deeply. Need a hug?
It's true I've witnessed plenty of (both party) over-reactions, it's the inet shit man take it w/ some perspective and consider not personalizing so much. errors in opinion happen, stewpid mistakes, etc... Nature o web. so don't give em your business.[video=youtube_share;xoJGDC10lZw]http://youtu.be/xoJGDC10lZw[/video]
Thanks for the encouragement Doc. I guess some folks just aren't happy unless they can piss in the punch bowl and ruin it for everybody.Not butt hurt, just another member of this community turned off by that kind of politically motivated abuse from folks that like to hide behind ever changing screen names Cheese.
As for Pepper, I've seen him take part in cyberspace dog piles. He is very loud until it is brought to his doorstep, then he tends to quiet down and cower a bit. He has a very ill family member and I want to believe some of his on line behavior is related to the stress he lives with.
Will don't let it bother you. Your contributions are welcome and I am sure there are those that will help you here and in other forums. Just put up your questions and someone will respond, even if you have to put up with some abuse from folks that like the attention it brings them.
Dr. Bob
Notice how the first thing posted was. There is a group like that in every forum. Keep the faith.Thanks for the encouragement Doc. I guess some folks just aren't happy unless they can piss in the punch bowl and ruin it for everybody.
lol some people dont get a hintOh Bob.....
Since you signed my cert, I've been getting a little more politically active, but never again will I be as hardcore as I was in my 30s. Most of us in the marijuana reform movement who lived downstate back then were deeply affected by the state sanctioned murders that took place over labor day weekend 2001 in Vandalia. I don't think newcomers to the Michigan marijuana activist scene really understand what it's like to see your friends and fellow activists literally gunned down for their beliefs by the government. When you have the kind of perspective we do, you tend to develop a low tolerance for the type of behavior exhibited by pepper.Notice how the first thing posted was. There is a group like that in every forum. Keep the faith.
Dr. Bob
Not exactly accurate, but close enough. There are virtually no independent witnesses to what happened because they secured a half mile radius around the place. Brandon got through the perimeter and was lucky he didn't get caught. He's the only independent witness to Tom's death and the feds scared him so bad he still won't talk about it. Imagine driving to the funeral of a friend and fellow activist who's just been murdered by federal agents and hearing about the 9/11 attacks en route on the car radio. It's rumored that Jennifer Granholm (attorney general at the time) made comments comparing 9/11 to the Oklahoma City bombing and speculating that it was revenge for the rainbow farm killings.Background
Beginning in 1996, the two annual Rainbow Farm events, "HempAid" (on Memorial Day) and "Roach Roast" (on Labor Day), were part Woodstock, part union picnic. They were family-oriented affairs, with Rohm's son, Robert, wheeling his golf cart among the soft-drink stands and hemp clothing vendors and representatives from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Guests included Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, High Times editorSteve Hager, Merle Haggard, members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and John Sinclair, the White Panther Party jefe and MC5 manager who, in 1969, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for marijuana possession. Most of these guests, unlike Crosslin or Rohm, could trace a lineage to radicalism of the 1960s, when they played to a more engaged audience. The legal loophole that Crosslin used to hold these gatherings without sparking mass arrests was that he, his employees and the concessionaires who paid to be a part of the festival sold absolutely no drugs.[SUP][1][/SUP]
These events from 1996 through 2001 made Rainbow Farm the center of marijuana activism in Michigan. It was listed by High Times magazine as "fourteenth on the list of twenty-five Top Stoner Travel Spots in the world".[SUP][2][/SUP]
[edit]Investigation and arrests
Rainbow Farm was the focus of an investigation by Cass County prosecutor Scott Teter. A Rainbow Farm festival was linked to the death of a Berrien County teenager killed April 21, 2001, after his car crashed into a school bus carrying Eau Claire High School students. After a few months of unsuccessfully trying to gather evidence using undercover police officers, the investigation eventually came to a head in early May 2001, when Michigan State Police troopers served a tax-fraud warrant and found more than 200 marijuana plants.
Tom and Rollie were arrested on felony manufacture and weapons charges, and Rollie's son, Robert, was taken into foster care. Crosslin was charged with felony possession of a firearm, growing marijuana and maintaining a drug house. He faced 20 years in prison and was out of jail on a $150,000 bail bond, as the state was moving to seize Rainbow Farm under civil asset forfeiture proceedings. During this time Crosslin publicly violated his bail agreement by announcing that he would throw another festival.
In August 2001, Crosslin and Rohm failed to appear at their appointed court date, and set fire to a building on their property.
Throughout Labor Day weekend, according to law enforcement accounts, Crosslin and Rohm systematically burned down the ten structures on their farm, shot at and hit a news helicopter filming the fires, shot at and missed a police surveillance plane, and sprayed the woods bordering the 34-acre (140,000 m[SUP]2[/SUP]) property with gunfire to keep police at bay. Crosslin and Rohm also began procuring assault rifles and claiming that the farm had been mined and booby-trapped.
[edit]September 2001
The standoff began when deputies went to the farm after neighbors said Crosslin was burning buildings on his property. Believing they were outgunned, the local authorities called in the FBI. The state police and FBI agents surrounded Crosslin's house on August 31; with snipers in the woods watching the house.
Crosslin and Rohm fired several times at the police, striking both a helicopter and an armored vehicle.[SUP][3][/SUP]
On September 2, Crosslin walked into the woods on his farm, and while walking back he spotted an FBI agent lying on the ground. Crosslin raised his rifle[SUP][4][/SUP] and was shot in the forehead and died instantly. The autopsy report said Crosslin was shot five times in the head, and three times in the torso.
That morning, at 3:45 a.m., Rohm asked that his son be brought to see him and told police that if he was, he would surrender at 7 a.m..[SUP][5][/SUP] Shortly after 6 a.m., a fire was reported at the Rainbow Farm residence. While walking outside the house Rohm was shot dead by another police marksman.
A third man, Brandon J. Peoples, suffered minor injuries when Crosslin was shot and was questioned by authorities.
[edit]Time Line
[edit]R
- 1993: Tom Crosslin buys the property for Rainbow Farm in Vandalia, Michigan. The farm begins holding annual "hemp festivals."
- 1996: Scott Teter is elected Cass County prosecutor.
- 1999-2000: Rainbow Farm campaigns for the Personal Responsibility Amendment, a failed measure that sought to legalize private use of marijuana.
- 2001 - April: Rainbow Farm is linked to the death of a Berrien County teenager killed April 21, 2001, after his car crashes into a school bus carrying Eau Claire High School students.
- 2001 - May: Early on the morning of May 9, some 30 state police officers raid Rainbow Farm.
- 2001 - August: Crosslin and Rohm skip their court date and set fire to a building on their property.
- 2001 - September 3, Crosslin and Rohm are killed.
......Since you signed my cert...........