Tuesday’s show featured an interview with Del. Harvey Morgan, who is nearly 80 years old and has been a pharmacist for most of his professional life. He introduced a bill in this year’s General Assembly session that would have decriminalized simple marijuana and expanded the options for its medical use. These bills were the butt of several jokes on Capital Square. His legislative colleagues brought brownies to committee meetings and dismissed support for his bill with a jab that “they must have been smoking.”

But Del. Morgan’s bill is a serious attempt to align our laws with our cultural, political and fiscal realities. He’s seen the damage a marijuana possession can wreak on one’s work life; you can’t even become a nail technician in the Commonwealth with such a conviction on your record. He’s seen the millions we spend in judicial dollars every year to deal with these misdemeanors. And he’s heard from countless patients who’ve sought pain relief for conditions other than glaucoma.

Both bills went down to defeat, but I thought they were important enough, despite their resolution, to talk with Del. Morgan about his efforts. And the phones lit up. Among them, Evelyn, an 84-year old who suffers from glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease. Her grandson, who is in medical school, gets marijuana for her and it’s about the only thing that gives her relief. With tears in her voice, she talked about being afraid the police would burst in and haul her away in handcuffs and she applauded Del. Morgan’s efforts. A police officer called in later to say that no one would handcuff her if they caught her; they would simply write her a ticket.

While I very much appreciated the officer’s effort to allay her fears, I suspect Evelyn doesn’t have so much as a traffic ticket on her record to date and the thought of a summons to court over her marijuana smoking would be overwhelming.

I asked the officer what he thought about Del. Morgan’s proposal and he deftly sidestepped the question by saying that he and his colleagues were there to enforce existing law and it was up to the rest of us to figure out. I think it’s high time we do so. If you’d like to hear the conversation, log onto www.hearsay.org and you can listen to the Feb. 16, 2010 broadcast. Del. Morgan’s interview comes around 12:25 or so. After you’ve listened, let me know what you think about decriminalizing simple marijuana and expanding its medical use.

There’s nothing like a good conference to get you motivated and you’ll find none better than the National Speakers Association (www.nsaspeaker.org).  The Virginia chapter is at www.nsavirginia.org.  At NSA’s winter conference in Nashville last week, nobody came to hear a motivational speaker.  We came to live among hundreds of them for several energetic days.

Sometime near the end of the second conference day, I cry uncle and happily admit defeat to their unrelenting cheer, optimism and hopefulness. Despite what for many professional speakers has been a devastating few years (some have lost up to 80% of their business to the recession), they know the onus is on them to look at the market with compassion and see where they can be most helpful.  

I don’t know of another group of “competitors” that is more generous and honest with advice, introductions and support.  The founder of NSA, Cavett Robert, had a motto that guided his life:  “Don’t worry about how we divide up the pie, there is enough for everybody. Let’s just build a bigger pie!”

 On Saturday, I was talking with a remarkable author named Greg Bell whose book is called “Water the Bamboo.”  The title will intrigue you until you go to his website www.waterthebamboo.com where all will be revealed.  Greg and I were talking about the language of our culture, how corrosive and counterproductive it often is.  I said, “You know, we have to change the conversation.  Hey, that would make a great topic for a talk!”  He remarked that he had a chapter in his book about just that subject.  Immediately, I said, “oh, then, I certainly won’t speak about that,” wishing to honor his “stake” in that work.  “No, no,” he said, “talk about it.  It’s too important not to.” 

 Thanks, Greg.  Here’s my thesis:

 Words are important.  Language drives us and shapes us in powerful ways.  Over the past 14 years as a public radio talk show host, I’ve seen our cultural language drive us farther apart.  What we accept without challenge in ourselves and others is contributing to our polarized public conversation and stymieing our collective efforts at a time when we can ill afford such foolishness.

 Does language matter to you?  How far are you willing to go to engage purveyors of language that hurts instead of helps?