I’m not sure if this is the proper venue, but i wrote this piece and it’s kind of an editorial. anyway, let me know if you can use it, i quite like it. ———————————————–

I guess I haven’t taken enough time to explore the Boston area AM dial, because until Friday, I’d never heard of this Howie Carr fellow, and apparently he’s pretty big cheese. Well, maybe just a big mouth?

Mr. Carr, a syndicated WRKO talk-show host and whose program can be heard nation-wide, penned a letter to the editor in Friday’s Herald lambasting this weekend’s annual “Hempfest” marijuana legalization rally on the Boston common. In an acerbic rant, Mr. Carr also upbraids the Boston Police Department for failing to arrest hundreds of these “Goth losers from high school” and “burnout freaks” who dare to “ruin a late summer afternoon for everybody else” in the name of First Amendment rights. Carr’s main beef with the rally, which drew over 50,000 people on Saturday, seems to be just that he doesn’t happen to like the people attending and finds their presence in “our” city noisome. What’s more is that all these “dirty, scraggly losers” are too stoned out and under-motivated (obviously a side effect of the devil weed) to work towards legalization, according to Carr. He mocks ever-so-cleverly,

“They want to legalize pot, but apparently they can’t be bothered with going out and getting signatures to put a referendum question on the ballot. That would be, like, work, man. Bummer.”

With cutting sarcasm as his weapon, he sought to discredit the gathering as merely a good opportunity to round up all the riff-raff in the greater Boston area and dispatch them in the manner of the Nazi einsatzgruppen.

It was impossible for me to resist an opportunity to take a look at all these goons-this was going to be a real laugh. Nothing like a little field trip to the circus, and by Carr’s description this was going to be a real show. I was especially interested in watching police officers ignore rampant lawlessness and mayhem. What a scoop.

So I hopped in my car and off I went, but I didn’t get far. Police were so busy containing a volatile group of drug addicts infecting the Common that none remained to direct pedestrian traffic on Charles St. I sat idling for nearly an hour, alongside hundreds of other motorists, hoping and praying that a neon-clad officer would come to the rescue. No dice.

Finally emerging from the mess of traffic, I strolled onto Boston’s oldest green patch. Immediately, I was surprised (given Carr’s predictions) to see that a good percentage of rally-goers were not high-school aged at all and in fact quite well-groomed. In fact, many of them were 35 and over, including Boston city councilors Felix Arroyo and Chuck Turner. Otherwise, the crowd resembled the usual Beantown college crew, baseball-capped and fresh-faced basking in the sunshine. No more spiked collars or black face paint than usual.

And as for the widespread complacence Carr caricatured so harshly, if he’d actually left his throne of conservative ridicule at WRKO studios and taken a firsthand look, he would’ve seen more than a few pro-active organizations at work. In just a cursory cruise through the grounds, I saw booths for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, Activists for Social Justice, Amnesty International, No Drug War.org, and petitions for legalization of medical marijuana. Perched in a shady corner of the park, gesticulating enthusiastically, a man described the dangerous encroachments of the USA Patriot Act. Another held up a sign painted with the statistics of yearly US alcohol-related deaths (roughly 45,000 proven) compared to those attributed to marijuana (roughly zero proven). Groovy. People care, man.

But did the Boston P.D. do its civil duty? Can we come out now, is it safe? Police have arrested anywhere from 50-150 people for cannabis possession at the rally in previous years, but did would not give figures on how many they nabbed this time around. They were certainly out in force, however, as horse-mounted cops trotted the perimeter and plainclothes officers circulated in the crowd. Their presence was more evidenced by only rare and discreet marijuana smoking. I saw only a few people light up, sitting amongst patches of saplings, or in tightly grouped circles. The mood of the gathering was peaceful and relaxed, reminiscent of the college campus quad. So much for the delightful shock of a freak show.

Justin Hamilton, 25, an Allston resident and advocate for marijuana decriminalization praised the event as a unique kind of coalescence and free expression,

“I think it’s incredible whenever you can get a group this size together to support something in a peaceful but honest and direct way. This is my fifth year coming here, and it’s always a nice afternoon.”

In the couple hours I spent at Freedom Rally 2003, I could find little reason why Carr found this event such a nuisance. In the words of the late comedian Bill Hicks, “Did I miss a meeting?”