Bernie Ellis has sent in his pardon request

[Tucker]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x715003

Fly by night  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-22-11 11:08 AM
Original message
My Presidential pardon application is finally on its way. (Thanks, all y'all)
 Edited on Tue Mar-22-11 11:14 AM by Fly by night
This morning, I went to Kinko's and found a big enough box to hold my pardon application and assorted supplemental material, including my published paper, "Mobilizing communities to reduce substance abuse in Indian Country" and a copy of the documentary, "UNCOUNTED: The New(DUmmy) Math of American Elections". It took a second box to hold the 170 original, signed, notarized character references I have received from professional colleagues, government officials (including 14 TN legislators -- House and Senate, Republican and Democratic; as well as officials from Delaware, Illinois and Wyoming), neighbors, friends, election integrity and medical marijuana activists and a dozen homegrown DUers.

Last week, I sent ten of the strongest support letters on ahead to be hand-delivered to the Oval Office, the V-P and a former DNC Chair. The Office of the Pardon Attorney has responded to my technical questions about the application very promptly, for which I am grateful. I was also thankful to be allowed to submit extra pages to explain my crime, my life-long relationship with "illegal smiles" and my reasons for requesting a pardon. If any of y'all want to read those essays, let me know and I'll PM them to you.

Now it is time to get back to editing my book on all this -- "My Hollow Tale: Reflections On A(n Interrupted) Life". I have one publisher wanting to sign a contract but I want to speak with a few more before doing that.

And there is always the Garden. Found an incredible pile of aged mule/horse/goat manure a few miles from home that is there for the taking (and the loading and the hauling and the unloading.) My Garden rows and ridge-top of blueberries will benefit from a day's work by me -- and I will too.

Thanks, guys, for your support over the past month and the past seven+ years. Now keep your fingers (and toes) crossed. It is long past time for a medical marijuana convict to be pardoned. If 170 people have anything to say about it, it might just be me.

Y'all come. Peace out.

 

Fly by night  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-22-11 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
2. All the support letters were much appreciated. This one will remain in the small of my heart forever
 Edited on Tue Mar-22-11 11:28 AM by Fly by night
This letter is from a Navajo friend, who called at the last minute to ask if she could still submit a letter. I told her I would stop anything to wait for her. Because I did, I got letters from two high-ranking Illinois officials (who are the reason letters are being hand-delivered to the Oval Office), from someone I worked with closely during my days locked in the federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house AND from the TN House Democratic Caucus chair. Good things come in bunches.
-----
March 7, 2011

Dear President Obama,

I write this letter for my good friend and relative, Bernard H. Ellis who I would like to see pardon from you, Mr. President. I have taken the time to write this letter on behalf of Mr. Ellis because I cannot conjure up a reason why he should not be pardon.

As I sit here and write this letter all that comes to mind instantly are the endless humane qualities of my friend, Bernie. I first became acquainted with my friend when I was hired as a college intern in the summer of 1991 for the New Mexico DOH State Epidemiology research project. Mr. Ellis was the Principal Investigator for Treatment Outcomes Study with the New Mexico State Substance Abuse Treatment facilities.

What I remember distinctly to this day is the fact that I had the most empowering mentor to oversee my internship with the study at hand with two counties set in vast Indian Country serving majority of Navajo clients for substance abuse treatment.

He empowered my knowledge of the people, the Indian country and cultural ways of the people for my success with the project. Bernie appreciates people for who they are. He has a way of using their distinct cultural diversity and their unique strengths that result in positive personal change and for societal changes.

There are many more accounts of goodness I can personally account for Bernard H. Ellis where he has contributed to community initiatives and positive societal changes.

In the State of Wyoming, Bernie’s collaborative efforts brought the people and agencies of the County of Fremont and the Wind River Reservation Tribes together.

For years, substance abuse and violence run rampant where cultural misunderstandings and differences maintained unhealthy community norms around the abuse of alcohol and drugs. Bernie had a huge hand in collaborative efforts where a community was able to get beyond their differences and become a community of healing.

I am proud to say I was among the delegates who trekked to the Wind River to attest to positive changes that can bring healing to a nation where difference and ignorance had prevailed from our own community organizing in NW New Mexico.

Furthermore, I recall his ability to improve upon situations did not cease with his incarceration and transitional living experiences in the State of Tennessee. Bernie’s knack for organic gardening was put to raising crops for the inmates, those in need and for anyone who wanted to learn the trade of productive organic gardening.

Need I say more to make a strong stand for my friend Bernie for his pardon as there is more good about his character with plenty more potential from whence came only goodness.

The good Lord willing, I hope you will pardon my friend Bernard H. Ellis so he can continue to provide for himself adequately through self-employment and to mentor many more interns who can make a positive difference in their community and nation.

Sincerely,



(Dooyash -- means "little bluebird" in Dine')
Navajo Woman Devoted to Community Healing

 

Fly by night  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-22-11 05:25 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. Yes, dooyash, I have kept them all. They all mean a great deal, from the ...
 ... seven page letter written by Sunil Aggarwal, the MD/PhD who led the effort to reverse the AMA's policy on medical marijuana; to the seven word affidavit of an old neighbor who wrote: "Bernie is a good neighbor and friend."  

I wonder if this is one of the several neighbors whom are all medical pot smokers?

Fly by night  (1000+ posts)      Wed Mar-23-11 07:30 AM
Response to Reply #2
37. Here's another support letter that means a lot.
 It helps me remembe

[Ralph Wiggum]

I suggest that the "support" letters came from the following luminaries:

Will Pitt
undergroundpanther
bobbolink
Nadin
Nance Greggs
Raging in Miami
Ben Burch
Distressed American
EFerrari
Hugo Chavez

[GOBUCKS]

Everyone within driving distance of Bernie is terminally ill, and depends on Bernie's weed and meth to get through the day. When you hear him describe it, you come to the realization that his entire county is a big hospice.

[jukin]

If Bernie were black or muslim, preferably both, the Department of Injustice would be filing the pardon for him.