Dr. King called on America, not to change its ideals, but to live by them.

His great gift to us was to inspire us to do this non-violently. Freedom is the American blessing, but violence is our curse. Slavery was a form of state violence that denied freedom to Africans.

The founders knew that slavery was wrong, but truly did not know what to do about it. They did not excuse themselves from responsibility for it.

Jefferson wrote, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever…"

When His justice did awake, we could end the truly naked violence of slavery only in an orgy of internecine bloodletting in a great Civil War.

But the end of slavery was not the end of injustice for African Americans. The greatness of Dr. King let us escape from much of the consequence of the injustice of racism without another civil war, the sort that we tasted after his assassination.

However, there is still much institutionalized violence, and God’s justice is will not sleep forever and the blood-dimmed tide is rising once again.

Within the next few weeks we will see a terrible public exercise of state violence against the most vulnerable members of our society, the sick, dying and disabled who use medical cannabis, with the forced closing of the Cannabis Buyer's Clubs in California. What has long been done one by one in private will be done brazenly in public. Marijuana prohibition cannot survive without the suppression of medical cannabis. So this must be done at all costs. And what a cost it will be.

No, I am not predicting a "civil war." In a few places – such as San Francisco -- this may be met with some violence in the streets, but not enough to disturb the sleep of man’s "justice." Nothing otherwise very dramatic is going to happen.

This is about the banality of evil, not the Gotterdammerung. It will be an easy victory for the forces of evil.

The most obvious victims will be the most immediate, the patients themselves. But we will all be victims. After this happens every American will be significantly less free. The political message is that "if we can get away with persecuting cripples on national television, we can get away with anything. No one is safe. We own your body. Understand. UNDERSTAND!"

Say, "yes sir," and go quietly about your business.

The farmers voted to be able to grow tobacco, but not even to study hemp. The doctors humbly asked to be allowed to discuss medical marijuana, but do not protest the arrest of their patients. The business lobbies acquiesce to the seizure of property without cause. The unions let their members lose control of their bodily functions.

The argument will be whether majorities and/or "science" or minorities and/or "public good" can determine right and wrong, when in fact none can. Nothing can make it right to persecute the sick and dying for their choice of medications.

Jefferson’s voice was but one of many among the founders who said that slavery was a mortal sin and mortal threat to America.

Now listen carefully.

Do you hear any voices among our leaders today who say such things about the persecution of the sick and dying? Oh, some demur demurely, but none will cry out. None will stand in solidarity with those who cannot stand. But this does not mean that evil will win.

The triumph of the human spirit in this century has not come by violence but by the quiet courage embodied by Dr. King. The end of this tyranny will come because of the courage of the weakest. I do NOT tremble for my country, because I know that God’s justice will not sleep forever.

It is high noon in the garden of good and evil.

We know the truth, and it is time to wake our leaders.