__________________
"Make your words soft and sweet, you never know when you have to eat them" Saudi Prince Bandra

"We are unknown to ourselves,
we seekers after knowledge."
Nietzsche

All I know is that the founder is Ras Astor Black. Visit his website it maybe albe to impart more info http://www.bobartsinstitute.edu/

__________________

Only thing I know is the Rastafarian Movement:
http://5x5media.com/bhp/pages/rastafari.shtml

__________________

"AMERICAN RASTAFARIAN"

.

Here is another link to better educate you on the topic: http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglis...Rastafari.html

__________________

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Njweedman I didn't know you posted here!!!! For those unfamiliar w/ the weedman, he is much more than just a pot politician. Glad to read everything went good at the Libery bell weedman!!!!

For those who don't know what he's talking about in reference to the the LIBERTY BELL see this: http://www.njweedman.com/smokeout - I have challenged BABYLON on the legality of "GANJA" for spiritual purpose's.

In America we are supposed to have FREEDOM of RELIGION! If so "freedom of religion means all religions, not just the one's the "WHITEMAN" approves of!

Anyway, on Nov 10th, 2004 a Federal Judge will either rule I was prefectly legal in my actions (smokin ganja) at the liberty bell, or rule freedom of religion doesn't apply to some religions.

keep up your fight my bredren mi deh a jamaica yah now, if there is anything a brotha can do let me know

__________________

Greetings in the name of the most high, JAH. I am the person who is holding demonstrations at the Liberty Bell with the weedman. It seems we lost our first court battle, yet we have been blessed with many new facts which were not discovered until after our prosecution. One of which is a church in New mexico called UDV,Uniao Do Vegetal, who has one the right to not only posses their sacrament, but distibute it to church members legally. Their sacrament is Auhasca, an illegal substance with the same classification as marijuana. This just opened up a small worm hole into a hole you could drive a tank through, and we're driving this tank.

On November 10th 2004, Ed “Njweedman” Forchion and myself, Patrick Duff, had our day in court to defend our religious use of the sacrament some call marijuana. On this day, we were joined by prominent civil rights attorney Michael Coard, who is working on this case pro-bono, our defense was not only based upon the first amendment, but the 1993 RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act).

This was not our first day in court though, on September 28th 2004, Njweedman and Myself went to court with the intentions on filing a motion to dismiss based on our freedom to exercise our religion of Rastafarianism. While in court on this day, we requested a T.V and VCR to show the demonstrations in which we were detained and ticketed after the park rangers stole our sacrament. The court told us they could not supply any video equipment for us to show our evidence. So we decided to go get our own T.V and VCR from my house.

Before we left to get the equipment, we handed the judge and the prosecutor our motion to dismiss. The judge did not even read half way through the motion before he said “A religious defense to marijuana, I am not going to allow this in my court room”. I then rebutted the judge saying, “ We are allowed to choose whatever defense we want in America”. We had a couple more words with each other, which were very telling in the thought process of the judge towards our religion. At this point I was very frustrated with a judge making a decision before he heard one minute of evidence, so we left to get the video equipment.

As we returned to the court, we had a chance to see the judge sentence a 80 year old women named Lillian Willabe to seven days in jail for protesting the war by blocking the doors to the federal building. The judge said “I am just following the laws as they are set forth to me”, now this is important to remember for later in the story, for the judge does just the opposite with us.

So after the judge protected society by locking up this violent 80 year old woman, it was our turn to try and have the judge rule on the law as it is set forth to him through legislation.

So as the trial started, the prosecution was allowed to call a witness who was the first arresting officer who decided it was important to search the Weedman, while my arresting officer, whom was not present in the court, decided I needed no searching. Just a quick side note, Weedman is black, while I am white. After the questioning of the officer was complete, the prosecution rested their case. It was now our turn, but the judge stopped us before we had a chance to present our case, saying that he didn’t want to handicap the prosecution and ordered the prosecution to file a written brief within 10 days of September 28th.

Our next court date was November 10th 2004, more than a month away from our last day in court. On September 28th we still did not receive a brief from the government prosecution team, so I wrote a letter to the judge explaining my feelings on the fact that we would not have enough time to file a written response which he ordered us to do so within 10 days of receiving the government brief. We received this brief at 6pm. On November 8th through E-mail from the prosecutor. This gave us less than two days to write a response to the brief, so we decided to argue the brief orally in court on the 10th.

The government had written in their brief “Under limited circumstances, the RFRA creates an affirmative defense in criminal prosecution.” Not two pages later they contradict themselves in saying “The holdings of Bauer and Guerrero are extremely limited, merely stating that the RFRA might create an affirmative defense to simple possession charges, and certainly do not make it unlawful to prosecute the defendants for possession of a controlled substance in a national park as they contend.” So I must ask you prosecutor, which quote do you stand by?

As our trial started, the government decided they did not need to call any witnesses since we did not dispute that we were using our sacrament of cannabis. So the Weedman was called first to the stand.

Michael Coard then began questioning, his direction that he took had to do with what’s called a three-prong test, which was set forth by the Guerrero case. This test is meant to establish whether one is in fact the religion they claim to be. If the three-prong test is proven, the burden than switches to the government to show a compelling interest as to why the government interfered with our religious practice.

After Michael questioned the Weedman, the prosecution began their cross-examination. During the questioning, the prosecution made a major error in the questioning of the Weedman. They mentioned his prior arrests, which in itself is grounds for appeal.

So after Weedman testified, it was my turn. Let me tell you that the Weedman was not only allowed to submit to the three-prong test, but also testified for about a half an hour. I was on the stand for a total of maybe three minutes; the judge refused Michael Coard to submit me to the three-prong test, which again are grounds for appeal.

After I was let down from the stand, the judge started his ruling. Which was rather strange to me, for he didn’t even take a couple of minutes to review the evidence set forth in the trial.

He began to chastise the Weedman and myself for holding our ceremonies, stating that there were better ways to do this. I then asked him what he would suggest, he had no suggestions nor did he attempt to offer any. Just a quick note for you judge Rapoport, I have a Father, and I need not you to chastise me for actions my Father believes and knows are noble and honest.

After a couple of minutes of listening the judge call our actions childish, he began to rule on the case. His words to me were almost incomprehensible, for he stated that if we were in the 9th circuit we would be protected, but in the 3rd circuit we had no case. He also said he was ruling on the legislation set forth to him. I then said to the judge that the RFRA was a piece of legislation which protects us from prosecution, to which he told us that the RFRA does not apply to the third circuit.

Just to let everyone know, the RFRA was passed through our congress, senate, and finally our president. Which allows for this protection in our entire great nation, including the 3rd circuit.

So after he ruled on this in what I call a haphazard way, they began to discuss a sentence, which included drug testing, probation, fines and one of the most ridiculous punishments I have ever heard in my life. They wanted a condition of the sentence that would not allow the Weedman or myself to enter Independence Park, the cradle of liberty and freedom. I was shocked, as was the Weedman and Michael Coard that they would attempt to keep us from the place where freedom of this country started. The very reason we had chosen this place was for the symbolism the area stood for, now we would not be allowed to enter the very place which we both believe to the greatest symbol of freedom in our country. This would contradict the word freedom to the utmost, and the drug tests would inhibit our religious practice

The judge himself stated that it was fine to practice religion in private, but not in public. Which is a ridiculous statement being that this world has missionaries who fly all over the world to spread the word of what they believe to be truth, and people like the Hari Krishna’s who are seen all over the world publicly practicing their chosen religion. But when it comes to being a Rasta, keep it to yourself is what I guess he was saying.

The judge not only upheld the sentence requested by the prosecution, he also added that the probation be supervised, which allows for probation officers to enter our homes or places of work anytime they wish. He also ordered that we attend a drug treatment program, which is very insulting to our religion, for one of the “DRUGS” they claim to be a controlled dangerous substance is in fact our sacrament. He also gave two different punishments to Weedman and myself, giving the Weedman more time on probation, and also the chance of more jail time than myself if he violates the probation, just another example of the racism that breeds in our injustice system.

We will be appealing to a higher court, and maybe to the highest court in the land if it needs to go that far. But we will stop at nothing to make our voices heard, so please help us in getting our voices out there. If there are any TV or radio programs that would like to have us on, please feel free to e-mail us at either iam420in@aol.com or njweedman@yahoo.com , you may also e-mail our lawyer at mc@bowserweaver.com we are ready and willing to answer any questions you may have for us.

Information is available at www.njweedman.com/smokeout along with videos of all of the protests.