Page 4 — The PORTLAND Daily Sun, Friday, May 31, 2013
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A real passion for teaching Over the years I’ve taught many college writing classes. Once, I was confronted by a student’s answer to an essay question that made me stop and remember how I started teaching in the first place. I had asked the class to describe a dream job and explain how high standards of writing would help them in the endeavor. Leading one of the essays was the following sentence: “I have almost completed a degree in accounting, and now I realize that my real passion is for teaching.” The answer outlined future educational plans and other details, but there was no mistaking the student’s enthusiasm as a result of that initial disclosure. Teaching is something that is difficult to put a finger on, but the excitement in getting From the through to someone with a conStacks cept, idea or a piece of knowledge is palpable and infectious. As a child, I always enjoyed explaining processes and breaking down complex thoughts into simpler parts. But I think I first caught the teaching bug in 10th grade when I signed up to student-teach a geometry class. I had taken the course as a freshman and had aced it, so my guidance counselor looked for
Telly Halkias –––––
see HALKIAS page 5
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Joints and jurisdictions They will tell you that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Or that everything is really just all the “same-old sameold” or other sayings that lull into missing history whizzing by the window. For example, drop into your time machine and visit the mid-1980s to explain that the Evil Empire Soviet Union would simply disband like one of those rock-and-roll hair bands, and that not only would Nelson Mandela achieve freedom but become a duly elected president of South Africa, and that James Bond’s carphone would soon pale by comparison to the communications system in your mom’s minivan. Or, to the point, that you would see the day when smoking a tobacco cigarette on Monument Square is not only against the law but frowned upon by polite society, while smoking a joint is not only legal (well, sorta) but virtually a protected medical treatment rolled into a manifestation of your First Amendment rights rolled into your role as a free citizen. Anyone thinking the marijuana legalization trend stalled at the approval of medical usage can wake up and smell the advocacy. Just this past Thursday, the ACLU of Maine and other advocates delivered a 3,000-signature petition to Portland City Hall, more than enough to put citywide legalization onto a November ballot. The press statement wasted little time in outlining the key talking point for the advocates: “Far too much time, money and human potential is wasted on locking people up for marijuana possession, when we should be focusing our limited resources on programs that actually make our communities safer,” said Rachel Healy, communications director for the ACLU of Maine. “We look forward to working with the people of Portland on sensible reform.”
That comes in the context of another Maine effort, this one statewide, to “tax and regulate” marijuana use, a cause championed by Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, who we should say is a longtime friend of this column and has written for The Daily Sun. She might argue that there should be a legislative approach in what is, after all, a representative democracy. And she no doubt makes the point that a legislative effort has the benefit of a process that brings in experts and blah, blah, blah adult stuff. Fair enough, and I’m sure that will all be part of the debate before delighted Portland voters approve the measure 3-to-1, but the statewide argument has also drawn more parallels to how we regulate and tax alcohol. Certainly the marijuana issue has mirrored our nation’s complex relationship with alcohol, which was locally banned for decades then nationally banned for around 13 years and then still bound in some communities — more than 100 American communities have never repealed prohibition, creating “dry” counties to this day. And the alcohol prohibition certainly offered lessons for the marijuana issue: The ban boosted criminal organizations, decreased respect for the law and created a situation where local law enforcement was sidelined and federal agents were the real enforcers. Bootleggers feared their local police much less than the dreaded “revenuers” from the federal government. All this history on fast-forward can become intoxicating, but sober questions linger. One difference in the alcohol-marijuana comparison is that nobody
Curtis Robinson ––––– Usually Reserved
see ROBINSON page 5