Hello 'Mary Jane'

Thinking about marijuana made me think of the slang term for it, "mary jane" --
Thinking about "mary jane" made me think of the song,
"Hello Mary Lou"
which I imagined was sung by the Everly Brothers
but
You Tube teaches me that -- No,
it's the STATLER Brothers who sing "Hello Mary Lou."

Good song.
When I was a teenager my dad told me that soldiers during World War II called reefer "mary jane."
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I rarely think about marijuana; I don't smoke it; (tried it once, as a teenager, & found myself underwhelmed.)
As an adult, I don't have a desire or a need to do stuff that's against the law, so that's not a part of my life. And nobody I know personally does it. That I know of.
It's like zebras: it exists in the world, but not really in my sphere of immediate experience.

However,
someone told me that someone they worked with was drug tested at work and then -- I don't know -- subjected to some kind of consequences (don't know -- didn't ask -- for Heaven's sake - !) because supposedly there was evidence the person had smoked pot.
I said, automatically, "Smoking it at work?"
"No, at home."
And the only thing I could think of was, "Whatever someone's doing on their own time, in their own home, is truly -- (pardon me), but -- NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

It seems to me.

If an employer, or a boss, or whomever, was going to make a policy of interrogating / intimidating employees in the workplace based on their own judgment of something the person may purportedly be doing on their own time, at home -- that seems like a slippery slope toward some sort of un-American type of policy, or behavior.

This is a free country and each person belongs to him- or herself.
What if you smoke pot (on your own time) and your employer wants to criticize you for it?
What if you look at pornography (on your own time) and your employer wants to criticize you for it?
What if you smoke regular tobacco (on your own time) and your employer wants to criticize you for it?
What if you have premarital sex and your employer wants to criticize you for it?
What if you hit your spouse and your employer doesn't like it?
What if your employer doesn't like
the books you read
the music you listen to
the candidates you vote for
the church you attend
the charities and causes you support?

I could go on and on.
(Come to think of it, I --[a Bob Newhart hesitation] -- I have!)

Pointing out the sins and weaknesses of Other People is such a transparent way to --
a) get the Focus off of one's own sins and weaknesses; and
b) get "Power," the quick-and-dirty way.

It goes back to my philosophy that in today's world there is way too much Picking On People.

And furthermore, maybe marijuana should be legalized. I don't know. Most of the time, don't care. But I watched our state legislature, more than once, kill a bill to legalize the use of marijuana to ease the pain and suffering of people who have glaucoma.

I feel like, when you get a bill handed to you like that, it's like being given a lovely piece of Italian pastry, on a silver platter. Yay, you! And just eat it, and enjoy. A bill like that is a way to easily participate in alleviating pain. And you can do it.
Nothing there but cause for celebration.

And you know what our state legislature did?
Voted it down.
It was more important to them to appear conservative (like that's a problem) and to be anti-hippie, or whatever. Most of them are old enough, they're still fighting what Pres. Obama and others have called "the culture wars" of the sixties & seventies...it was MORE IMPORTANT to them to maintain that image than to help people who are in pain.

It was a sad, sad display.
Maybe pain doesn't mean much to people if it isn't their own pain.

Here's a recipe:
More Compassion
Less Picking-On-People
More Dignity, and None-Of-My-Business.

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