In The Jester’s Court

I have just finished reading David Kupfer’s entertaining interview with Paul Krassner [“In the Jester’s Court,” February 2009]. I had to agree with most of what Krassner said, but I vehemently disagree with his opinion that marijuana will eventually be decriminalized. There is one reason this will never occur: taxes. The federal government has yet to figure out a way it can effectively tax something that is grown and processed as easily as marijuana. You almost can’t stop it from growing, and processing it is as simple as letting it dry on your windowsill. I have grown it in gardens, in window boxes, in closets, and in a pot in my living room. There is no special machinery needed nor certain type of soil. Anyone in the world can grow it anywhere. How will the government tax this? They may as well try to tax the air you breathe.

After reading the interview with Paul Krassner, I spent the night wondering whether he and I live on the same planet. I wouldn’t bother writing, except I always think it is worth trying to communicate with people who believe they are intelligent and enlightened and witty but have smoked too many joints and lost all ability to understand anyone different from themselves.

I am seventy-seven and grew up with Krassner and his confederates Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman — clowns who sought publicity in every way possible. They didn’t amuse me then, and Krassner doesn’t amuse me now. But I realize that aging radicals have to make a living, too, so I have tolerated Krassner, even though he is not tolerant of anybody who disagrees with him.

Krassner is proud of having provided an abortion-referral service when it was still illegal to do so. I have been an abortion protester for thirty-five years. Abortion is a violent solution, fraught with psychological damage for the mother and death for the child. Men like Krassner could not possibly comprehend its effects, especially while high on drugs. What is more, thanks to legalized abortion, the afterlife has been flooded with millions and millions of embryonic human beings for the angels to raise. How is that for a hard job? (But then, angels volunteer for hard jobs.)

I am a new subscriber, and I hope to God that you have some people like me lined up to interview, to balance this rag out. I am still open to whatever changes will help me to think and live better. My most recent change was to become a vegan and to quit eating for entertainment. I am the only seventy-seven-year-old woman I know who is still healthy enough to have sex, if only I could find a partner who’s not on drugs or an alcoholic. In this world, such men are hard to find, but I keep looking.

I can’t resist defending Paul Krassner from the accusations in the June 2009 Correspondence. One has only to compare Krassner’s articulate, level-headed, thoughtful responses in the interview [“In the Jester’s Court,” by David Kupfer, February 2009] to the insults about “drug-induced paranoia” or being “high on drugs” to decide who is nutty and who isn’t.

Would we insult someone for admitting to drinking wine with dinner every night or several cups of coffee a day? As a proud daily cannabis smoker, I look forward to a time when this plant will be legalized. Perhaps the angry letter writers would be happier and more relaxed if they smoked a joint now and then themselves.

I am offended by Paul Krassner’s comments in your February 2009 issue [“In the Jester’s Court,” interview by David Kupfer]. He says that it’s unfair to generalize about the humorlessness of any group, yet he stands on his soapbox, in his drug-induced paranoia, and spouts generalizations about our troops who are in harm’s way in Iraq. Krassner states that they are battering down doors and killing innocents, then going to the pharmacy for their Prozac. It’s true that in war sometimes innocent lives are lost, but Krassner says our troops are just walking into houses and killing everyone. In fact our troops are targeting people who are collaborating with or harboring known terrorists. These people bring their fate upon themselves. They are no different from the Japanese who used churches to build bombs during World War II or Hamas, which uses schools to cache weapons.

Our servicemen and -women die daily to preserve our freedom and liberty as well as our national security. Every one of them is a true hero. Krassner should appreciate the sacrifices they have made to protect the rights he so freely exercises. And he should use his creativity to do something that benefits society rather than smoking weed on a daily basis, traveling to Egypt for Grateful Dead shows, and getting Groucho Marx to take LSD. Those are not very substantial accomplishments in my book.