One person can make a difference. On my behalf, 158 people (so far) are trying. (Pardon me campaign) [View All]

[Fly by night]

Good evening, all y'all. This is a brief update on how things are going here in my Tennessee deep hollow home as I prepare to send my application in to the US Department of Justice to apply for a Presidential pardon for my medical cannabis conviction.

As you will see, it has been a busy few weeks. (Boy howdy.)

Yesterday was to be the deadline for receiving support letters/affidavits to accompany my Presidential pardon application. However, the letters are still coming in so fast and furious that I have decided to keep accepting them into next week.

As of this Saturday afternoon, I have 158 original, notarized support letters/affidavits in hand. Neighbors are continuing to bring letters to my house and -- based on emails -- I expect another 15-30 support letters/affidavits from friends and colleagues around the country to arrive in the next few days. (As I have mentioned here before, I am only required to submit three support letters.)

So far, I have letters/affidavits from 12 TN legislators (Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, and am expecting more), 1 former (Republican) governor of Delaware, 1 current and 1 former Assistant US Attorney, the former director of the US Probation Office for middle Tennessee, 1 former (Democratic) US Senate candidate, 2 TN/NAACP officials, 1 former head of the TN Democratic party, state officials from 5 other states, dozens and dozens and dozens of friends, neighbors, professional colleagues, other government officials, election integrity and medical marijuana activists, 5 cancer/HIV survivors I helped and/or kinfolk of same and a few very nice surprises (including 1 Grammy winner, 1 Emmy winner and 1 Oscar nominee.) At least four of the letter-writers could make a direct call to offices near the Oval Office in the White House and have their calls answered.

I know all of these people personaly. Not bad for an ole hermit/felon.

I am collecting quotes from the letters to use in a briefing packet and I will post another thread sometime next week of those quotes. There are many, many notable ones. Earlier this week, I received a letter from a Professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech (with whom I have worked on the verifiable voting issue.) That letter opened this way: "Mr. President, I am writing to request that you pardon Bernie Ellis for the "crime" of growing medical marijuana and giving it away free to four terminally ill neighbors. It would be more appropriate for me to be writing you to nominate Bernie for a Presidential Medal of Freedom."

(BTW, I'd be happy to pick up the pardon and the medal at the same time, at least in my dreams.)

Among the letters yesterday was from a local friend who asked where all the supposed "evidence" against me went to between the raid on my farm and the assessment of the evidence at the state lab. The letter writer said "Maybe the Federal agents took some to help their own very sick
friends. Or, more likely, maybe they never found the amount of marijuana they initially alleged on Bernie's farm to begin with."

Another new friend (who I've known only a short time) said: "Mr. President, look at the caliber of people who are writing on Bernie's behalf. We are not couch-potato stoners; we are productive, tax-paying, patriotic Americans." Indeed.

With that last letter, I can now say that I have letters from 11 people who have known me more than 40 years and 1 person who's known me less than 40 days. I have a letter from someone I've known since she was 4 (she says I am her only memory of that year), and from folks I met for the first time in their 70s. Nice time spans, those.

The longest letter (7 pages) is from the MD/PhD who had a pivotal role in convincing the American Medical Association to reverse its medical marijuana policy. The shortest affidavit is from a country neighbor who simply printed (on his notarized form), "Bernie is a good neighbor and friend."

One letter is from the longest surviving federally approved (and provisioned) medical marijuana patient, who wrote that he has been given 10-12 free joints PER DAY by the federal government for the past 28 years (which shows, among many other things, that the feds don't know how to grow good pot.) That letter writer said: "Mr. President, this case has cost Bernie nine years of his life and over $1 million for less usable marijuana than you provide me free each and every year. And Bernie was sharing it free with four very sick people, none of whom lived a year after the raid on his farm. As an investment broker, this just doesn't compute."

Eight DUers wrote articulate, well-reasoned, passionate, even witty letters. Of course, I wouldn't expect anythng different from this community.

These letters and affidavits help me remember the days when I could actually be of service in my profession, in my communities and in my country; rather than be just another punching bag for the federal "drug worriers" in their senseless war on "some" drugs.

If I receive the pardon, maybe those productive days will soon come again.

One person can make a difference .... Thanks, all y'all, for trying.

Your favorite felon, FBN