Common sense was a most admired quality in the beginning in America. Throughout history, big government has caused more harm than good; often hiding tyranny under the guise of good intentions. Our founders knew big government would always mean a gang of evildoers.

The plan was for America to have small, open, (no secrets) and fiscally responsible government. The people are grand and government is small plan.

The real visionaries, who laid down our laws, those who defined what an American patriot would be, were rebels with just cause. They made it not just our right but our patriotic duty to rebel against big government corruption.

"Give me Liberty or give me death" - Patrick Henry, "Live Free or Die Hard" - Bruce Willis, Americans believe self-government is worth sacrificing our precious lives for.

Our heroes, who have given their lives for this country, died for freedom and for making this world a better place will have died in vain; if the American dream of self-government free of tyranny and big government oppression dies.

War creates a booming economy for some on the suffering of many. War could end if we build bridges of tolerance to differences in race,
religion and life style.

People who love freedom have a lot in common, we can celebrate our similarities. We can keep up the pressure for change, for returning to our roots, to really be the land of the free again. That's the best way to encourage the flowering of liberty worldwide.

Once Americans stood proudly for freedom from oppression. America now has the dubious honor of being number one in the world for having the most people in prison. The Land of the Used-to-be-Free has become the most incarcerated nation in history.

A good percentage are nonviolent parents who made a safer choice! One in nine black men (20 to 34 years old) and one out of every thirty-six adult Hispanic men are serving time. Human Rights Watch is also shining a critical spotlight on this evident racism.

The Innocence Project and DNA testing has shown our judgment to be totally unreliable! In case after case corruption or ineptness has found innocent people guilty of murder and allowed the real predator to roam free. So many of the incarcerated are mentally ill, nonviolent drug offenders or the innocent; very few should be in prison!

A white lady is raped and puts a black man named Cotton in jail until DNA proves him innocent. The two now lecture and have written a book called, "Picking Cotton."

Harvard is conducting a study and part of it addresses this issue of, "they all look alike to me." You'll need fifteen minutes to complete their questions and see the results of their research. Basically it tells us we can work to overcome our prejudices when we identify them.

Will we ever end racism, violence, and drug abuse? No, but we want better control, we want better drug policy based on real science and common sense.

Racism I've heard said will end when we are all one color. Own your
heritage, be proud of it but be tolerant of another's.

Violence triggered by prohibition will end with repeal. Violence triggered by the mix of alcohol, pharmaceuticals and other killer cocktails will be cut back with more compassionate policy treating abusers as patients not criminals.

Violence could be bred out of the human race just as aggressive behavior was bred out of foxes in Siberia. According to Wikipedia compulsory sterilization is a crime against humanity and in many of the cases in the past sterilization was used abusively.

Some sterilizations took place in prisons and other penal institutions, targeting criminality, but they were in the relative minority. That said, why not sterilize the violent as part of their punishment? Exceptions for self defense, protecting public safety and other extenuating circumstances could be made.

Drug abuse is a medical problem best handled by the patient and his doctor.

It is a fallacy to believe the evils of the drug war are unintended. Felony convictions disenfranchise mostly poor and minority Americans.

Dick "Tater" Nixon was really good at hiding tyranny under the guise of good intentions, a con used by the servants of tyranny, throughout history. He said on a white house tape "marijuana was the drug of choice for Mexicans, hippies and black people," making perfectly clear his racism and authoritarian leanings.

The DEA he started could be called the Drug Encouragement Administration. Use of drugs in the last 35 years has increased. Drugs are more potent and available. Disband the DEA.

Save the children, just say NO to prohibition!

Trigger less violence, racism, tyranny and ruined lives!

Stories of violent attacks, hate crimes and murder fill the media. Two young women were found killed execution style in Granbury and three Dallas children were shot in the back seat of their mom's Mercedes recently.

Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston in a botched drug raid not long ago and the carnage continues. An Ohio SWAT team killed Tarika Wilson and shot her one-year-old son.

Prohibition's legacy is legend in the waste of our precious lives and
resources. Deaths and needless injuries happen too often in botched
paramilitary drug raids. Overzealous, unconscionable to the extreme,
situations are occurring!

Ashley Villarreal: in San Antonio DEA agents shoot innocent 14-year-old girl in the head, but deny any wrongdoing.

Rachel Hoffman: a young college grad, coerced by police to act as an
informant after she was arrested for marijuana possession and then killed by drug dealers following a botched drug sting.

We all want, "Resilient Teens, Empowered Parents, Strong Communities!" This is Joy Strickland's Mothers Against Teen Violence
organization's motto, following the tragedy of losing her son Charles
Christopher Lewis (Chris), 19, and his friend, Kendrick Demond Lott, 18, who were robbed and brutally murdered in Dallas. Joy believes the war on drugs undermines the safety of our children.

Over a thousand people die each day due to tobacco use! Close to 300 a day die from prescribed pharmaceuticals. The tobacco, alcohol and
pharmaceuticals gangs deal drugs that kill many more annually than all
illicit drugs. We tolerate their salesmen!

Science shows that withdrawal symptoms from caffeine are much worse than those for cannabis. Cannabis is one of the most benign chemicals we can ingest. Arresting nonviolent people for making a safer health choice in a medicinal/recreational drug is scandalous reefer madness.

We are punishing people because servants of tyranny ignore science in naming their choice unwise when in fact it is a scientifically proven safer, wiser health choice, compared to legal alternatives. Taking children from the homes of parents who made a safer health choice in a medicinal or recreational drug is insane policy.

Taking property from these same, destroyed by government families, is legalized extortion ! States seized $1.52 billion in 2007 End asset
forfeiture! We owe reparations to people for all this tyranny.

Research shows little or no overdose deaths before prohibition. Currently bodies pile up like cordwood or holocaust victims (more than 33,000 precious lives lost in 2005).

Treating AIDS is expensive, providing sterile syringes to addicts is a cheap and effective way to curb the epidemic. Yet, the United States has used its influence in the United Nations to prevent countries that receive UN aid from distributing sterile syringes for disease prevention.

We can see where our laws are causing more harm than good and change accordingly; with modern unbiased, science based statistical reporting.

Snipers, killers and violent sexual and other hate-filled predators roam
free, while we use up limited resources policing individual medicinal and
recreational drug use. Drug warriors don't have to look far for something better to do.

The countless daily injustices mean it's time to ramp up efforts to end the Drug War, repeal prohibition! European harm reduction policy works so much better than our current response.

US Representative Barney Frank has filed a bipartisan federal bill to
legalize "small amounts" of marijuana and make room for serious criminals. Representative Ron Paul is a cosponsor. This Texas straight talker says we are "politicizing pain." Visit Marijuana Policy Projects Legislation page to write your Congressperson about "The Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act"- HR 5843.

No Walls, No Fences, No Tyranny, No Propaganda, No Secrets, No Fear!

Leaders responsible for current quagmire will one-day answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. It's time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.

Join the easy revolution. Stop war, save the American dream! Restore justice in the world; construct science based drug policies about saving and rehabilitating instead of ruining lives. Warriors can get their adrenaline rush increasing public safety; chasing murderers and violent sexual predators.

Compiled and written by Colleen McCool