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Does
a “Woman Scorned” trump the First Amendment to the Constitution?
 The
First Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States is one that protects our freedom of speech,
religion and
politics. But it seems that those rights
have been impeded upon when it comes to a woman scorned.
We are all familiar with the case of Elian
Gonzalez from back in 1999 and, recently, the case of little Sean
Goldman, who
was finally returned to his father after being abducted, by his scorned
mother,
to Brazil. Congressman Smith, who
brought Goldman back to his dad, just days ago joined legislators
calling for
the return of children who were illegally abducted to Japan by scorned
mothers. However, to date, nothing is
being done on U.S. soil to protect fathers living in America, who are
at the
mercy of scorned mothers and subsequently are being denied visitation
of their
children The
root problem is scorned mothers.
Scorned women will use anything they can to keep fathers from what they
hold
the most dearly – their children. From abductions to complete denial of
visitation, fathers around the world are losing their children. With
the rise
of women rights comes the loss of father’s parental rights. Elian
Gonzalez’s
scorned mother died trying to flee Cuba with her son without his
father’s
permission. It took months for him to
get back to Cuba and with his dad. The Gonzales and Goldman cases used
the
father’s political or religious views against them.
My case was going on at the same time as the
Elian case hit the national news and what struck me the most and
strengthened
my belief in my case, was Attorney General Janet Reno, who was quoted
as
saying, “a father’s political beliefs were no reason to disqualify the
father
of his rights.” In my case that that didn’t hold true and the sole
reason that
I was denied my child was because of my political beliefs. You
may know me as “NJweedman.com”,
because that is my self given moniker, one that I am proud of and
gladly
promote. A name that has helped me reach hundreds of thousands of
like-minded
Americans, But it only starts there. I
stand for all men and women, who believe in the rights of free speech,
political expression and religious views.
I am an individual and I stand for individualism and for
the thinking
man, I am not a conformist. Because of
these things, I have been persecuted, arrested, violated and worst of
all,
prevented from seeing my own child. For the record I have 5 children, 4
of them
I have a loving relationship with. One I am not allowed to see.
The
political issue of Marijuana
legalization has been a passion of mine not only because of its medical
benefits, but because of my disdain for the underlying racial aspects
of this
nation’s drug laws. As founder of the Legalize Marijuana Party of New
Jersey, I
have been fighting to legalize the herb for a over decade and have
always thought
of the "war on drugs" as another version of Jim Crow so I view my
fight as a civil rights struggle too. Nothing I say is legal, nothing i say is a lie. It is the Government and the do-gooders that lie about marijuana. For telling the thorth publicly this has occured. In 2008 I fled the official persecution of New
Jersey authorities, fleeing to Hollywood California, in a self-imposed
political exile, where I opened the Liberty Bell Temple. This
Rastafarian
Temple serves and operates as a medical marijuana dispensary, on
Hollywood Boulevard,
where I legally provide marijuana to medical marijuana patients with a
doctor’s
recommendation from a board certified physician - everyday. While
medical marijuana has been legal
in California since late 1996, New Jersey has recently passed (Jan
18th, 2010)
its law legalizing medical marijuana. Despite that, I was arrested this
past
April 1st, for having cannabis in the trunk of my car. I
have a
medical marijuana recommendation from California, but the new Medical
Marijuana
law in New Jersey only allows for (walking dead people), those with
severe
medical conditions, such as AIDS or cancer, to obtain a marijuana
license. But then in a contradiction to
the law, the
state still has criminal marijuana laws that state that “marijuana has
no
medicinal value.” Adding more fuel to my
fire is that far more African Americans, and minorities are arrested on
marijuana possession charges than Caucasians, who make up just as large
of a
population of marijuana users. New Jersey’s new marijuana law will not
address
this racist problem.  Aside,
from my public activism, I have
been fighting a very personal battle to gain visitation with my now 15
year old
daughter. Like Elian and Sean’s fathers, I have been denied visitation
by my
scorned ex, in my case my scorned women cites my beliefs.
My rights of freedom of speech, religion and
political expression have been eviscerated at my ex’s insistence
because I am
pro-marijuana legalization, she feels I should not be around our
daughter. Meanwhile drunks, drug addicts,
wife beaters,
Republicans/racist and those having served time for manslaughter and
murder,
are still allowed visitation with their children. A
scorned woman will use any means to hurt those
who they believe have wronged them. When
our relationship ended, my ex-Linda Holden used the only thing she
could to get
even, she took away the one thing she could, the love my child. The attempt is to be expected from a large
percentage of scorned women but for the Burlington County Family court
Judges
to oblige her request and destroy my parental relationship went to far. While my ex Linda Holden openly accepted my
beliefs on marijuana while we were together, since then she has used it
against
me for her own benefit. Though
I could denounce all my beliefs
in this world, give up my pursuit and advocacy of freedom of thought,
religion
and political expression, and end my fight for our constitutional
rights, just
to be with my daughter. I would be doing her a disservice in
presenting
such a world to her. I want for my
daughter and my other kids what is her right as a human being. I want her to be able to express herself and
have her own thoughts, spiritualism, and ideals. I
want for her not to live in a world of
contradictions, racism and political dismay.
While my beliefs may be outside the mainstream, I am
deeply spiritual
and connected to life. I respect the world
we live in and abide by the laws of our nation "except the racist
marijuana
laws". I am a peaceful proud
patriotic pothead. I work to give back to the world what is our given
right. My daughter has a right to be
with her daddy who she loves. She has a
right to learn my values and to be a strong member of society, to make
a
difference in this world and to be happy.
Denying me visitation of my daughter based on the
convoluted marijuana
laws is a sad vision of what our nation has become and will continue to
become
due to the war on drugs. My
First Amendment rights have been
taken from me in a series of events stemming from April 20th,
1998
when I formed the Legalize Marijuana Party and announced my first run
for
congress. It was then that Linda, my ex,
prevented me from seeing my child by getting Burlington County family
court
Judge Bell to revoke my visitation in September 1998 by citing local
newspaper
clips of my run for Congress under the Legalize Marijuana Party. In
2002 New Jersey officials
"unconstitutionally" locked me in the Burlington County jail for
making pro-marijuana legalization commercials. This abolishment of
my freedom
of speech made a mockery of the first amendment and was a direct
violation of
my human rights. Acting on my jailhouse
"Writ of Habeas Corpus" In 2003 U.S. Federal Judge Irenas ordered me
to be released from the BC jail based on this ruling :(see below) Ruling: The First Amendment exists so
as to promote
debate on issues of public importance. In this case, the advocacy of
the
legalization of marijuana is a legitimate political position in this
country.
The Libertarian Party, whose presidential candidate received over
380,000 votes
in the 2000 election, advocates the legalization of drugs. Libertarian
Party
website at http://www.lp.org/issues/relegalize.html
and http://www.lp.org/campaigns/pres/.
Many elected public
officials have called for a liberalization of the
nation's drug laws. Simply put, Plaintiff's place in this debate will
do
nothing to harm a public that is already itself debating the current
state of
our nation's drug laws. In
2004 in light of the above ruling
Burlington County Family Court Judge Lihotz then granted me visitation.
.
.however she also ordered me not to talk to my child about drugs during
a time
when the ONDCP was running a nationwide ad campaign asking parents to
talk to
their children about drugs. Limiting my
speech was again in direct violation of my right to freedom of speech.
The only
reason this order was made was because Judge Lihotz knew and disagreed
with my
political view on the subject of drugs - I'm a legalizer. This
did not satisfy Linda not only did
she not comply with my visitation orders in 2004 she petitioned to
change our
daughters last name (from mine to hers) because she claimed my name was
associated with marijuana, and that my runs for political office were
an
embarrassment to her!!! Burlington County Family court Judge Sweeney
agreed and
ordered my child’s name changed. "WTF - my child renamed because of my
political views"!!! When in 2005 I announced I was running for Governor
of
NJ, Burlington County Family Court Judge Morley "unconstitutionally"
took my visitation away again because I was running for office under
the
Legalize Marijuana Party expressing views he didn’t approve of.
The
next day (May 5th) my hopes were
dashed again, Burlington County Judge Call denied my visitation again,
citing
my political beliefs. In court he even falsely denied that New Jersey
had
legalized marijuana for medical use! I immediately filed a motion for a
reconsideration of the order hearing since he was so misinformed. June
9th,
2010 is the date of the reconsideration hearing. I
am once again hoping that I can use the
power and protections of the first amendment to get the visitation that
my
daughter and I both deserve as citizens of the United States of
America,
despite my being on the ballot to run for congress again. |
