Sigh. I’m easily fooled. My favorite line in “The Diary of Adam and Eve” by Mark Twain is when Eve (who calls herself an experiment), finds fire, thinks it’s beautiful, touches it and burns herself She later says of the event, “The burned experiment shuns the fire.”
We’re having politics here in my little town, an election for city council. There are three guys who have banded together and they call themselves a “movement.” I’ve been wanting to find out what they actually represent, but have had a hard time getting answers. In today’s paper, all was revealed.
They say they want to bring business back to the town, so it will be like it was back in the prosperous 1970s. Well, everyone would like the town to be more prosperous, but nostalgia isn’t a business plan. The near-dead status of my town is a great concern to everyone.
There is on this ballot proposals for selling marijuana in the town, two referendums — one to tax and one to sell. After reading the letter to the editor, I now know it’s marijuana that has brought the posse together. I suspect they don’t have a plan for bringing business into the town; they just don’t want pot.
Wait, that isn’t quite true. They kind of have some ideas and stuff. One of them — the former police chief — wrote a letter to the editor that was published yesterday. They want to advertise in papers all over the country that my town is a great place for people to bring their small business. And why? Mountain views, no pot, good schools. He even directs them to a (non-existent) website. But…
Business is not attracted to mountain views, no pot and good schools. Business is attracted to a market that will help them prosper. They are interested in the bottom line. Really, unless the posse can come up with a way to guarantee migrating businesses will make money here, they have nothing. And why migrating businesses? There are plenty of people HERE who would love to open a business, but there are no patrons and rents are very high in the buildings “down town.” Only 14 miles away is a Walmart superstore and a fairly viable “downtown” Alamosa. There are also Amazon and various other online sales outlets. There is also a very small population here with little disposable income.
So…the REAL problem is marijuana. They don’t want marijuana sold in our town. The irony there is that marijuana is a business. It attracts customers, and it makes money, as this article from Fortune illustrates. Not without risk, but there is no business enterprise that contains no risk. I think my town might have missed out on its chance to capitalize on this, but selling marijuana would still be something to consider seriously, IMO. And I don’t even like the stuff.
The other possibility would be a retirement community for old people like me who don’t have a lot of money. This is a great place to retire. Such a community could offer very attractive field trips to places like the Santa Fe Opera and the art galleries in Taos, not to mention the Chili Festival in Pueblo, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Wheeler Geologic Area, a play in Creede. There are decent hospitals here and an airport(like thing) not that far away. Such a community would provide jobs for people and boost the population. Old people like to eat out and it might attract some good restaurants to Monte Vista. Having legal pot dispensaries would be attractive to some of those people who have a doctor’s prescription for marijuana as a treatment for arthritis.
As it happens, the mayoral candidate of the posse is running unopposed. The two guys running with him for City Council have ONE person running against them.
I love my town and I wouldn’t be anywhere else, but I want more than nostalgia. We cannot return to the past; we live in the future, every morning we get up and we’re in the future. Most of my neighbors very publicly support this posse. My mind is not made up, and I plan to go to the candidates’ forum next week to get the whole story.
“Summer is the season of inferior sledding” - Inuit proverb 
The entire state of Massachusetts is going through this. We voted YES on marijuana three years ago and we don’t have any stores yet. All they do is pass bills that the courts knock down and argue about how it’s the GATEWAY drug (did’t that get proved wrong years ago?) and how everything will turn to pot if we sell pot. Everyone buys pot already. Just not legally.
Some of the same old boys who made getting a humane dog tethering ordinance such a big challenge for me. One of these guys has a big business outside of town with four silos. On them is emblazoned: Romney/Ryan, McCain/Palin, Bush/Cheney. There is no Trump/Pence but I don’t know if that’s a matter of politics or if he ran out of silos. I am not voting for them. I’m tired of white fuck-heads. They have a Hispanic in the posse, but I think he thinks those two white guys are his friends OR he has political ambitions and thinks they’ll help OR they think he’s their ticket to the Hispanic vote. They think everything will turn to pot if we sell it here. That’s just so dumb.
An airport(like thing)? Made me laugh, Martha.
One airline(like thing) flies out of it. “Boutique Air” very expensive. When I first moved here, United and Frontier flew out of there. Very effed up…
I grew marijuana in my garden some years ago, and no-one flinched an eye lid. I was just curious to see how it grows. My neighbour was amazed as she had never seen a cannabis plant before. My upstairs neighbour worked for the police but she said there is no problem if it was just normal content. I did not smoke it so do not know. Mr. Swiss tried putting a sprig in a cigarette, but to no avail. That was when son No. 2 gave instructions of how to do it properly – it seemed to be part of the chemistry lesson in the school at the time. Otherwise I got more male plants which are more useless, than females. Try it in you garden, you might have success. If anyone asks how much, just tell them. We are all glad for a little extra money on the side.
That’s funny! Adriano’s dad grew it in his garden in Wallisellen. 🙂 I don’t even care if we sell pot in my town, but it’s MONEY. I live in a populated ghost town.