My American Journey » 2006

In Seattle Ernesto received a new accessory.

Bev got a nice pair of boxer briefs for the bear. Very sexy!

In this photo Ernesto has his Kipiis bib turned around because sometimes he likes to wear it as a cape. Ernesto has also received several pins.

He received a British Columbia pin and a Canadian flag pin from Jenny and Allen Smith in Vancouver, British Columbia. And he received a Washington pin from the Greenbergs in Vancouver, Washington.

WARNING: EXTREMELY CRAZY PHOTOS BELOW! READ THIS POST ONLY IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO BE SHOCKED!

My goal is to take photos of the most interesting people, in the most interesting places, all around the Americas.

So I took my friend, Bev, to Hempfest in downtown Seattle.

Hempfest is an annual festival dedicated to the celebration of the drug, marijuana. The festival promotes the growth of Counterculture through education and legalization efforts. The festival grows in popularity each year. This year they expected about 15,000 people to attend, and instead 70,000 people showed up.

It was unbelievable.

There were soooo many people!

The event was run by a well-organized volunteer staff.

This man was the security guard.

I’m not making this up.

Hempfest featured an array of events and activities. There were a variety of informational booths.

The men at the information booth were engaged in a philosophical debate.

More information was shared at discussion meetings. These meetings were held in the “Hemposium.”

Experts met to discuss legal and political issues.

Interested listeners took mental note.

A man was asleep in the corner. I took a photo of his feet.

Yeow! I know it’s a shocking photo, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you!

Nothing could have prepared me for the things I saw at Hempfest.

One time, back when I was in college, I went with my good friend, Brandon Peterson, to a Ben Harper concert.

The crowd at the Ben Harper concert really loved the song that goes, “If you don’t like my fire, then don’t come around, ‘cuz I’m gonna burn one down.”

While Ben Harper sang, “I’m gonna burn one down,” smoke started rising from the stadiums. The smoke had a distinct odor. It smelled like marijuana!

I was young and naive, and I could not believe what I was witnessing.

I tell you this only to put things in perspective. The Ben Harper concert pales in comparison to Hempfest.

Hempfest was like the Ben Harper concert, except with way more pot, and almost no music.

Instead of music, there was a guy with a microphone, yelling all sorts of incoherent propaganda at the crowd.

“We’re gonna stand up for our freedom!” the man was saying. “Our freedom is protected by the Constitution of the United States of America!!”

The crowd cheered in response.

They cheered, and they smoked marijuana.

Massive amounts of marijuana.

This is how the crowd at Hempfest celebrated the intellectual achievements of the United States Constitution.

The crowd made absolutely no efforts to be discreet.

Notice the illicit drug use, which is accentuated by the smoke billowing from the crowd.

The smoke in the air started to affect me. I began to feel weird all over. My mind was playing tricks on me.

Woah man, am I hallucinating? I thought I just saw a twenty-foot tall Jesus with sunglasses walking by.

Yes, something is definately wrong with me. I’m seeing all kinds of crazy stuff.

People are giving me strange looks. They are carrying glass pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

I’ve lost my sense of size and perspective. Everything looks bigger than normal.

What’s happening to me? Where am I?

Oh good, I think I see a doctor. Perhaps he can help me…

No, wait, he’s not a doctor, he’s an activist! A doctor activist!

Bev was freaking out too. We just needed to find a place to sit down and collect our thoughts. But there was nowhere to sit.

I think I see a good log to sit on over there.

Dang it, no! This log is occupied by a bunch of gangsters. They’re flashing their gang signs at me, a sign of hostility!

I’ll just have to push my way through the crowd.

Out of my way people! I need to find a place to sit down!

Out of my way, Mr. No-Shirt-Guy!

Let’s go, Snoop Dogg! Move it or lose it!

Out of my way, Mr. Blue-Hair-with-a-Dog-Collar-Guy! I’m looking for somewhere to sit down!

Finally we found a place where we could just chill for a minute.

The only unoccupied sitting space in the entire festival was directly in front of the police headquarters.

There were actually a lot of police there that day. A police helicopter kept flying overhead.

Festival organizers were able to make this event happen only with the cooperation of the local police.

The police agreed not to make a big deal about marijuana laws, as long as all other laws were obeyed.

At one point, two guys got into a fist fight, so the police broke it up. One guy spit in a police officer’s face.

As a result, the officer tackled the guy and kneed him in the head while handcuffing him.

In the scuffle, the guy’s glasses flew off and got broken.

I expected all the hippies and anarchists around me to protest the cruel treatment.

But instead everyone was saying, “He got what he deserved. You spit in a cop’s face, you deserve to get the sh*t beat out of you.”

Woah, man! Hippies and police agreeing with each other. I never thought I would see the day.

You have to wonder how an event like this is even possible.

It turns out that Seattle is a unqiue city, with unique legislation.

Marijuana is illegal in Seattle. However, Seattle has passed a piece of legislation which places a higher emphasis on non-marijuana-related crimes.

Thereby, marijuana possession and use remains illegal, but the police focus their time on robberies, buglaries, homicides and other crimes.

Time will tell whether this is an effective social policy.

What does the future hold? Will the hippies eventually win and legalize marijuana across the country?

I don’t think national legalization efforts will ever succeed. But if these efforts do succeed, perhaps the outcome won’t be as dire as some of us are inclined to think.

Of the many photos I took of the Seattle skyline, this is my favorite. Click on it to see the bigger version.

Thanks for visiting.

P.S. Shocking photos will be posted tomorrow night!

Introducing a contest from My American Journey.

A prize goes to the first person who can correctly guess the year, make and model of the vehicle I bought to replace my 4Runner. The prize is a copy of “The End of Poverty,” by Jeffrey Sachs. And the sense of accomplishment that comes from winning a contest.

Here’s a hint: it’s bigger than a 4Runner, but less reliable.

Make your guesses in the comments section of this post. Your guess doesn’t count if it’s made on a different post. Each person gets a maximum of one guess per day, and you’re not allowed to play if you live in British Columbia or Alaska, because if you live in one of those places you’ve probably already seen the replacement vehicle.

The contect ends two weeks from today. More hints in future posts.

Good luck!

In downtown Seattle, I got together for lunch with my old friend, Cindy Ferguson.

We ate at a Greek place called “Meditteranean Express.” The restaurant name employs a misspelling of “Mediterranean.”

I had the shrimp dish. It was flavored a bit strongly for my tastes.

Cindy wrote about our lunch meeting in her personal blog. I wonder if she finished reading “The End of Poverty” yet. Hey Cindy, did you finish reading “The End of Poverty” yet?