Democracy triumphs, on a small scale. Seattle voters overwhelmingly defeated an Espresso Tax which would've tacked on 10 cents to the prices of lattes, cappucinos, Americanos, and their iced equivalents to pay for preschool and child-care programmes. And good riddance. While preschools and child care are good things and need to be funded, the tax itself was poorly-thought-out and regressive. Think of the bookkeeping headaches it would've caused for independent coffee-shops. And it's so arbitrary; why tax espresso? Why not tax SUVs? Or gasolene? Or crack whores? Or whatever-the-hell-else that isn't espresso? Espresso is such a dominant component of Seattle's image...It's like trying to tax shotguns and pickup trucks in Nashville. How could they have imagined such a thing could conceivably pass?
I don't drink coffee or espresso anyhow, so I have no personal stake in this. So you know.
And voters have resoundingly approved Initiative 75:
A. The Seattle Police Department and City Attorney's Office shall make the investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses, where the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, the City's lowest law enforcement priority.
According to the Post-Intelligencer story, certain critics of I-75 were worried that passing the measure would send the message to young people that smoking marijuana was 'okay'. This is Seattle. That's like worrying that kids might somehow get the impression that the ocean is a bit damp. You can't swing a dead cat by the tail here without hitting someone smoking the reefer. (Not that I advocate swinging dead cats, by the tail or otherwise.) The War on Drugs is over, and drugs won. (As if there was ever any doubt.) Nothing anyone can do is going to stop people smoking marijuana, and it's time we acknowledged that and legalised it already. While it's largely symbolic, I think I-75 is a step in the right direction, a useful propaganda victory for the pro-legalisation cause. And it's still significantly less than (old news, I know) what Prime Minister Chretien has proposed for Canada.
Seattle takes pride in its liberal image; it's no wonder I love it so.
Also, and I know that, strictly speaking this isn't local, but it's at least on the same coast...Via SullyWatch, Bay Area Communists (Left Wing FC) and Anarchists (Kronstadt FC) recently faced off in an anti-imperialist soccer match on fields expropriated from the bourgeois. See their flier. Here are photos from the abortive August match, which tied 2-2. Mere days ago, the cheerleaders gave an 'A, A, A for Anarchy' and Kronstadt FC achieved the very non-hierarchial victory, 4-2. There's still time for the Communists to tie it up by taking the next match, very portentiously scheduled for some time in October; I think our valiant comrades can bring this one home. Win one for the Revolution!
Posted by aloysius at September 17, 2003 04:49 PM | TrackBack |