How the Jefferson Foundation Betrayed Thomas Jefferson
letter to Sites of Conscience
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
May 26, 2023
The following letter was emailed today to the Sites of Conscience organization, asking them to revoke the S-O-C status of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation until such time as they acknowledge the 1987 DEA raid on Monticello.
Dear Sir or Madam:
In 1987, the DEA stomped onto Monticello and confiscated Thomas Jefferson's poppy plants in violation of the natural law upon which he had founded America. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation quickly caved to all demands and even burnt t-shirts that showed pictures of the poppy, without even having been asked to do so. Of course, they were under legal duress at the time and employees could have even been jailed for not playing ball with the DEA. However, that does not excuse the fact that, since that time, the Foundation has never told the story of that raid to the public. They have pretended that the raid never even happened.
This is a betrayal of Jefferson's legacy. It is a coverup.
The Jefferson Foundation should tell that story to its visitors and donors.
The failure to do so, I strongly believe, should deny the Foundation its privilege of being classified as a "Site of Conscience." Surely, the least that can be expected of such a site is that its representatives speak up against injustice. Instead, they have pretended that the injustice did not even happen.
The hallowed ground of Monticello is no longer hallowed and will not be, until the Foundation starts defending those principles that Thomas Jefferson stood for: natural law and what John Locke himself called our right to the use of the earth "and all that lies therein."
I believe that if the title of "Sites of Conscience" is to remain meaningful, you must insist that the Jefferson Foundation acknowledge the raid and disclose all relevant details to the public.
What You Can Do
Write to the Jefferson Foundation and ask them to start telling the public and their donors about the 1987 DEA raid.
If they are no help, then ask S-O-C to revoke their listing of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation as a "Site of Conscience."
According to Wikipedia...
The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience is a global network of historic sites, museums, and memorials that are dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights across the world. The Coalition is registered as a non-profit association in the United States.
Note
By its coverup of the DEA raid of 1987, The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has shown that it is more than happy to ignore the most fundamental of human rights when pressured to do so by the government, thereby betraying their mission to protect the legacy of Jefferson himself.
Author's Follow-up: May 27, 2023
Hey, guys, guess who's thinking seriously about putting an advertisement in The Cavalier Daily of the University of Virginia to bring the students' attention to the outrage perpetrated on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Something like: "Attention, UVA Students: Speak up for the legacy of your school's founder. Demand that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation acknowledge and protest the DEA raid of 1987!" Stay tuned to see if and when I follow through on this threat. It could happen any day now when the slightly unpredictable Senate of my mind finally approves the necessary expenditure, for which my superego is arguing vigorously even as I type.
Author's Follow-up: May 28, 2023
I was just reminded on Twitter that Monticello has also caved on hemp in order not to incur the wrath of the feds. It's funny, I was just reading Hogshire's book on the poppy. It tells us how the DEA does not crack down on garden poppies because it would be embarrassing to arrest and hassle old white women. This may at first sound humorous, and it is, but it's also more proof of the racist nature of the Drug War.
Author's Follow-up: September 11, 2023
Remember that ad I was going to put in the Cavalier Daily back in May, to remind UVA students about the DEA raid on Monticello? The Cavalier Daily ad team stopped communicating with me the moment they heard about the subject matter of the ad that I wanted to post. In America, one must not challenge the national religion of the War on Drugs. But then the ad team has been programmed from birth to hate drugs -- watching TV shows that were tweaked by the White House itself to carry anti-drug messages, in conformance with the drug-hating Christian Science religion of Mary Baker-Eddy.
Monticello Sells Out Thomas Jefferson
In 1987, the jackbooted DEA stomped onto Thomas Jefferson's estate of Monticello and confiscated the founding father's poppy plants in violation of everything that he stood for politically speaking. And yet the Thomas Jefferson Foundation pretends to this day that the raid never took place. They give no explanation to their visitors as to why the Foundation sold out the man whom they were meant to be honoring. And so all their visitors get a sanitized version of history, designed to let Americans feel that everything's fine, that there is no drug war, and life goes on. What an absolute disgrace, this so-called Thomas Jefferson Foundation. They should remove all the signs in Albemarle County that read "Hallowed Ground" -- because those grounds have been dishonored by the Foundation itself. THEY SOLD OUT THOMAS JEFFERSON -- and are now so pusillanimous and cowardly that they will not even admit that the raid ever took place -- a raid to confiscate flowers, for god's sake.
I wrote a letter to the head of Guest Services at Monticello and he responded: "I'm sorry you do not think that we are doing enough to explain the DEA raid." I responded in turn: "But you are doing NOTHING to explain the raid! You are pretending it never happened!" I then asked the director of guest services to correct me if I was wrong -- and he had nothing further to say. What absolute schmucks! Jefferson is spinning right now in his thoroughly dishonored grave.
That's why we damage the brains of the depressed with shock therapy rather than let them use coca or opium. That's why many regions allow folks to kill themselves but not to take drugs that would make them want to live. The Drug War is a perversion of social priorities.
Yeah. That's why it's so pretentious and presumptuous of People magazine to "fight for justice" on behalf of Matthew Perry, as if Perry would have wanted that.
If any master's candidates are looking for a thesis topic, consider the following: "The Drug War versus Religion: how the policy of substance prohibition outlaws the attainment of spiritual states described by William James in 'The Varieties of Religious Experience.'"
Thanks to the Drug War, folks are forced to become amateur chemists to profit from DMT, a drug that occurs naturally in most living things. This is the same Drug War that is killing American young people wholesale by refusing to teach safe use and regulate drug supply.
The benefits of entheogens read like the ultimate wish-list for psychiatrists. It's a shame that so many of them are still mounting a rear guard action to defend their psychiatric pill mill -- which demoralizes clients by turning them into lifetime patients.
When we outlaw drugs, we are outlawing far more than drugs. We are suppressing freedom of religion and academic research.
Imagine if we held sports to the same safety standard as drugs. There would be no sports at all. And yet even free climbing is legal. Why? Because with sports, we recognize the benefits and not just the downsides.
The so-called "herbs" that witches used were drugs, in the same way that "meds" are drugs. If academics made that connection, the study of witchcraft would shed a lot of light on the fearmongering of modern prohibitionists.
I hope that scientists will eventually find the prohibition gene so that we can eradicate this superstitious way of thinking from humankind. "Ug! Drugs bad! Drugs not good for anyone, anywhere, at any dose, for any reason, ever! Ug!"
I'm looking for a United Healthcare doctor now that I'm 66 years old. When I searched my zip code and typed "alternative medicine," I got one single solitary return... for a chiropractor, no less. Some choice. Guess everyone else wants me to "keep taking my meds."
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, How the Jefferson Foundation Betrayed Thomas Jefferson: letter to Sites of Conscience, published on May 26, 2023 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
You have been reading an article entitled, How the Jefferson Foundation Betrayed Thomas Jefferson: letter to Sites of Conscience, published on May 26, 2023 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)