He Lifted Me

Because it was there, man...

On this first true wintery day, it lifted my spirits to read something good about the teenagers of this fair nation. One young Alaskan is set to join battle with the forces of irrational conservatism and order, the foe of all restive, imaginative youth--the local school board. All because he chose to exercise his divinely dispensed freedom to make an artistic statement in public.

He draped his school in a billboard reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus", taking maximum advantage of the free publicity of the passing Olympic Torch.

A lower state appeals court gave him the high sign, treating this as a matter of freedom of speech. Yet now he is being pursued by the board and lawmonger-for-hire Ken Starr in the highest court in the land.

I'd like to think that some high-minded principles lay behind his hoisting of such a hempen Hello. Apparently even the kid himself said it was just for the contact high of 15 seconds of press proximity. Still, why treat this as some high crime against the state?

Had he known his one brief, inspired act would force some very stodgy barristers and functionaries to have to say those four magic words repeatedly in open court, that would only have iced the cake. On those grounds alone, I salute you, young sir.