Yet as far as we know Mr Tanczos was never investigated for thus flagrantly transgressing well-known law, much less prosecuted for such. And so, as best we can surmise, he kept right on breaking the law [which declares marijuana an illegal substance and ipso facto the smoking, let alone possession thereof an illegal act], thus effectively declaring his contempt for the very law (in a general sense) that as a member of Parliament he was elected to - change, yes, if at all possible and advisable, but - first and foremost to uphold and affirm. And therefore legislation - as all the rest - Mr Tanczos, like the next person, could quite justifiably be expected to observe; indeed, law implicitly demanding the allegiance and obedience of all New Zealand's citizens, utterly irrespective of whether they voted Nandor (c/o his Green party list) into office or not. However, as again is well-known, or at least openly on the public record, Mr Tanczos was notorious for holding such an "Up yours!" attitude and approach - in relation to the orthodox establishment, that is - and this for me was only re-confirmed by two quite unrelated by equally pertinent - if wholly anecdotal - sources: one, an unofficial representative of a major and generally respected institution of our land (at least in times gone by); the other, involving a member of our extended family, or rather, as I prefer to put it, at present one of our various 'outlaws' (as opposed to in-laws). But of course I exaggerate.
If my memory serves me aright - and it usually does, whatever other multitudinous faults I'm evidently more than guilty of - the first occasion was either 'on the grapevine', as a matter of fairly general knowledge, or - much more likely - conveyed to me c/o Jim Mora's much-esteemed 4-5 p.m. weekday Panel on RNZ National - formerly National Radio - by a well-known New Zealander with pertinent connections in either our education and/or justice system. Whatever, so 'rumour' had it that NZ secondary school principals up and down our fair land were especially pissed off - not to put too fine a point upon it! - by Mr Tanczos' seeming open flouting of the dope-smoking law of the land; both by partaking of the nasty weed, and even more worryingly, by thus manifesting open contempt for and willingness, nay readiness to openly violate the very laws that he, as an elected member of Parliament, was elected to uphold. In the process setting a terrible and lamentable 'example' for school children throughout the length and breadth of our fair land to take up the habit, and moreover in school time and on school grounds, "and stuff the law and the cops"!
My 'out-law''s comment, on the other hand, was seemingly comparatively minor, and related to his apparently overhearing - alongside some others apparently during some 'gig' he was staging/hosting in our city (i.e.Dunedin) on a city street a good decade-and-a-half ago now - Mr Tanczos making a highly dismissive and disparaging remark about 'the cops'., the specific details of which I regretfully cannot recall. Which although clearly no hanging offence, nevertheless evinced the worrisome fact that he evidently did not hold 'the boys [and girls] in blue' in the sort of regard one might hope our elected representatives might; or at least - if they didn't - they might (hopefully) be far more discreet about or even simply keep to themselves. (Having long ago now left a phone message for him to confirm as much, one can only assume that that seems to also be his own recollection of what he once shared with me.)
The - logical - upshot of all this to the long-time push - in certain quarters - for the legalization or at least decriminalization of cannabis? Or, rather, in this instance, to the medical marijuana debate, reignited over recent weeks in various ways such as by the likes of Helen Kelly and Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne, and followed by discussion thereof by RNZ National in particular; but much more significantly two Sundays ago now on TV1's Sunday, where a full half-hour programme-length coverage was provided by host Maherangi Forbes, a show in which a former kiwi now residing in Colorado, America, was interviewed extensively about the situation now pertaining there, specifically with regards to the implications for New Zealand if we followed suit.
Before I - very shortly - do (elaborate upon the connection), let me lastly introduce yet another (very) 'high-profiler', if long (a half century almost) dead 'celebrity'/'mover and shaker' - and all the rest. Someone usually s/elected either by so-called experts or ye average citizenry (of especially the Western world) amidst the top handful of world-moving figures - for good (or ill, for that matter) - of the previous century. Who today ranks - alongside one of his mentors, India's nonviolence independence campaigner Mohammes (popularly known as Mahatma) Gandhi - as one of the 20th Century's foremost, indeed history's most highly regarded and respected political activists. The individual is of course none other than American 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King, a man who faced - and openly agitated against - a literal plethora of unjust and oppressive laws of his beloved U S of A. And who always argued ever so eloquently - by pen, speech and much more significantly by literally laying his life on the line over and over again regarding, before finally laying it down by losing it in the cause - against each and every one of those laws that he found so intolerable and even abhorrent.
But - and here the chasm draws yawningly wide and deep between himself and the two political activists (Nandor Tanczos and Helen Kelly, that is) I've particularly singled in on - I'm too small-fry, for sure, to try to take on the eminent and venerable Helen Clark! - unlike those two (or so it appears, but may Ms Kelly prove an exception if it comes to that, which undoubtedly it won't) MLK was only too willing (and prepared), and of course saw this realized, as alluded to already, on various occasions such as his imprisonment in Alabama and the later firebombing of his Atlanta home - to be treated to and with the full force of the law if need be, for the inviolable principles he adamantly and unflinchingly stood for. Principles he ever saw as light years ahead of the laws of the land which then almost sacredly enshrined segregation and discrimination.
Mr King believed that, in the final analysis, if one's cause be right and just, one must - just as the One he so admired and loved and ever sought to emulate, Jesus Christ Himself - be willing to suffer and even, if need be, die for those things one really, truly believes in. Much less suffer incarceration for the same. That, however unjust the law may well be, it is the law nonetheless, and so wields legitimate sway over the citizenry in a democratic land, however flawed. Even while 'doing despite' to said, selfsame law out of admirable nonconformity and noncompliance. Yet ever willing and prepared to suffer the consequences of said noncompliance - whatever these may well be.
And so I would contend that Ms Kelly (as Mr Tanczos in times past) has every reason to 'rail against' whatever laws such may entirely justifiably have every reason to consider unjust. But unless such are also ultimately willing to 'come under' selfsame laws' temporal jurisdiction - in all their manifold ramifications - then they are merely echoing the sentiments of the original transgressor of all divine law, the archrebel Lucifer himself (or more aptly itself, for as CS Lewis ever so ably and eloquently argues, it's awfully hard to assign a gender to a .............- whatever he wrote!); yes, the sentiments and the motivating, actuating principles of 'the great dragon, that ancient serpent, called the devil, and Satan'. And thereby are holding all earthly laws likewise up to ridicule and contempt, and thus show they deserve no special favour/s from said law, the relevant legal authorities involved - and moreover its enforcers - whatsoever. However originally or ultimately 'just' their cause may well be.
Or, as someone - perhaps Aesop - once put it, 'what's good for the goose is (likewise) good (enough) for the gander'. Rather than the popular sentiment apparently ever growing in adherence - which sentiment incidentally was the title of an opinion piece on NZ's then - and arguably still present - culture of 'golden handshakes' to ex-/former-CEOs: 'if the government and cops are all crooks, you might as well be one too'!
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