- Vote in this week’s poll question below.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has always been a favorite of mine, and it still tells a relevant story today. While many movies portray the creature as a monster, in the original book the newly created being was intelligent and kind, only becoming enraged when frightened humans unjustly accused him of killing a child.
In some ways, Facebook and social media have become a modern-day analogy to what happened to Dr. Frankenstein’s misunderstood creature. Instead of a lynch mob picking up pitchforks and torches while demanding “justice” as they did more than a century ago, too many people today just fire up their computer keyboard before going on a personal attack.
That often happens when the newspaper posts articles and teasers on Facebook, as some people start chiming in with opinions before they even read the story. Happily, one post last week showed how well Facebook can work when people come to the website to discuss rather than to diss.
On May 4, the Cherokee Scout posted a teaser to last week’s front-page article with the headline “130 pounds of weed seized.” Before the print edition even hit the streets, the post already had gone semi-viral; by the end of the week, it had reached 16,718 people, 338 of them with comments to share. Even better, many responses were clever and intelligent.
“Weeding them out! I guess it will have to be hashed out in court!” Jeff Tatham wrote, tongue firmly implanted in cheek.
“Stoned folk are easier to catch,” Dianne Olansky accurately added, replenish with a sad face emoji.
“Well, it is illegal. Our police cannot pick and chose,” Angela Brown said.
That’s where it got interesting. Despite Cherokee being a rural county in the buckle of the Bible Belt, the vast majority of responses were against prosecuting people for growing a plant.
“Not a single person here is against pot,” David Bellino wrote. “That issue can unite us if there ever was one!”
“Wow, what a waste of my tax money,” Christopher Hogan said, “Get with the times, a natural herb shouldn’t be illegal.”
“It’s a shame it wasn’t 130 pounds of meth,” Billy Rose said in a comment that was echoed by dozens of other writers.
Many people expressed displeasure at the sheriff’s office for making the arrests, but they were only doing their job, and Sheriff Derrick Palmer’s priorities have long been focused on illegal drugs that kill. Some were displeased that the Scout was even reporting on the matter, but we, too, are only doing our job by telling you about it, not making a statement on whether it’s good or bad.
What these comments tell me is the time is nigh (high?) for a statewide referendum on whether to make marijuana legal for all reasons, legal for just medical purposes or remain illegal.
“75 percent of North Carolinians want weed legalized,” Denise ONeil chipped in, “but will our representatives listen?”
That’s a good question, and I’m clearly not the only person curious as to how that vote would go.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or Twitter @daviddBstroh.