Lesson In Honesty

[Lightning Rod]

I learned a great lesson in honesty from a wise man named Sheldon Neuman. I was living in Denton in the late 1960's and early '70's. I was a student at the university there and Sheldon was probably forty at that time. He was the resident campus elder hippie organic eccentric. Sheldon made his living by selling brown rice to the macrobiotic crowd. He lived in the 'free house', which was an abandoned shack across the street from a cemetery. Sheldon would buy a hundred pound sack of brown rice and sell it a pound at a time to the rice-heads.

Of course Sheldon also smoked pot. This is not surprising because half the people in Denton at that time smoked pot. This distressed the police. They knew they couldn't really make a dent in pot use when half the people in town were doing it. North Texas is a jazz school, after all. So, they picked high profile people to bust. They needed to make examples and assure that the taxpayers knew that they were doing their jobs.

Sheldon was known by many in the campus community. He sold the rice after all. And he smoked pot with the youngsters like me which provided a certain sagely validation for our juvenile behavior.

The cops put their magnifying glass on Sheldon. He was a prominent member of the underground that existed in Denton. He was visible and unashamed.

The police sent their undercover agents to camp out behind the tombstones in the IOOF cemetery. They took pictures of people coming into the free house and exiting carrying brown paper bags. Of course there was rice in those bags and not pot, but when you imagine weapons of mass destruction, you see them everywhere.

On the strength of these photos, a judge issued a warrant to search Sheldon's abode. The cops raided the place and found a hundred pounds of brown rice and a stack of paper bags. Oh yeah, and also a half an ounce of Sheldon's personal stash. They didn't find weapons of mass distribution. They found a bag of rice and a little bit of pot.

But they arrested Sheldon. It was their duty, I suppose.

Now comes Sheldon before the judge.

Judge: How do you plead?

Sheldon: Not Guilty.

Judge: How can you plead 'not guilty?' We have the evidence right here.

Sheldon: Yes, that is mine, your Honor. I smoke it because it's part of my religion. I do no harm to anyone. I feed people.

The judge cut him loose. I think he cited the First Amendment--freedom of religion.

[stilltrucking]

Freedom
of speech
Nothing to do with all this but I don't think there is a person on studio eight I disagree with more than you Clay.

I suppose I think of you as the crumdegeon of S8, I get so dam ambivelent about your poet eye's sometimes On one hand I am saying awww, old H.L.M. would have liked that
and at the same time disagreeing with your take on something.

thanks for this one
I can relate.
you always a good read Clay
makes me want to do better
sometimes I edit with you in mind.

[jimboloco]

Interesting when a resident elder back in the day is 20 years younger than I yam now, mercy, very interesting, but Sheldon's tale needed to be told an ya done it.

Also back in th day th judge was affected by the mores of youth culture I spoze, anyhoo, my old family dfriend Steve Hale was the prosecuting attorney in not-so-Wise County, west of Denton, and he refused publically to prosecute anybody fer pot, and he didn't except for one case where it was what they had on a feller who was mean and violent to his loved ones,

then later on Steve got set up by a dancer gal in Denton and was busted, now is far away in Alaska.

As fer me, I don't care for the effect anymore. I wants my natual mind back and someday I yam gonna get it, tooo.