Reply #43: A Mid-Sunday anecdote [View All]

[Fly by night]

I went around to several stores to pick up a few more signed affidavits and to collect my "Pardon me" posters and any remaining blank forms.

Two of the store owners wanted to keep their posters (the Fly General Store and the Santa Fe Diner). Both are framing the posters to remain permanently on their walls and they asked me to sign them. (Fortunately, my big forehead provided plenty of canvas.)

The Fly General Store owner (Wilson Fly, the ninth generation in his family to operate the store/trading post, back to before the Trail of Tears) said that if anyone comes to his store (from out of town) who also wrote a support letter, he'd have them sign it too.

Here is Wilson's support letter. It feels very good -- they all do.
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February 22, 2011

Dear President Obama,

I am writing you to ask that you pardon Bernie Ellis for the crime of growing medical marijuana for himself and four terminally ill neighbors of ours. If anyone deserves a pardon, Bernie does.

As a neighbor and friend of Bernie's for the past forty years, I know him to be a good, hardworking, honest and up-front man. I have seen Bernie almost every day for the past 30 years, either on his farm where I hunt, in my store or in the community. In all that time, I have never seen him high on drugs or marijuana. I have never seen him mistreat a man or a dog.

In the communities of Fly, Bethel and Santa Fe, Bernie has been creative in his ideas and the work that he has given freely to these communities many times over the years. I am happy to join many other neighbors and friends of Bernie in asking that you treat him with the justice and mercy that has been missing in his case all along.

In the past two years, I have dealt with cancer, the May 1-2, 2011 flood and being robbed twice by hard drug users. I see the good and the bad. In Bernie Ellis, I see the good. When I was about to lose my stomach to cancer, Bernie was the only person who offered to try to find me some marijuana to help me through the surgery and chemotherapy. I didn't take him up on his offer (in part because I was afraid it would get Bernie in trouble again), but I really appreciated the offer.

Now it is time for me to move forward in life. I ask that my government move forward also, in granting Bernie Ellis a pardon and in allowing seriously ill people to be able to use medical marijuana once again in this country. Thank you for reading this. Please pardon Bernie Ellis.

Sincerely,


B. Wilson Fly