Wednesday; October 2

I am not about to launch into the debate about the legalization of marijuana.  Yes, I have an opinion (and if you really care about what I think, I will be happy to share it with you), but now is not the time and place.  However, as I have watched this discussion throughout my lifetime I have come to believe that we have fallen into a dangerous trap of justification.  In other words, are we having this debate merely because “everyone is doing it”?  Based on this thought, if everyone is doing it, should we just go ahead and legalize it and be done with it?  We would alleviate pressures on the court system by just going ahead and allowing it.  It doesn’t have anything to do with right and wrong, it is just more expedient to allow it than to incur the expense of sticking to the old standards.
Again, my point is not to debate this as it applies to marijuana, rather to discuss this type of rationalization as a whole.  Interestingly, this thought has encroached upon many different debates – criminal, moral and spiritual.  Giving up on something just because standing up against it becomes difficult is not a good reason to make changes in laws, mores or religious doctrines.  It isn’t about being an old stick-in-the-mud, it is about believing in a cause and having the fortitude to defend it to the end.  If we need to change our opinion we should do it because we are convinced of a better way, not merely because we get tired of being ridiculed for our beliefs.
Are our principles good and solid?  Are they worth defending?  If we don’t stand up for what is right, only those things that are easy will be the standards.
Think About It!

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