Tuesday, February 28, 2017

An Unexpected Surprise, and more Lobbying for Senate Bill 269



 Veterans gathered with Senator Menendez before we take the petition to the Governor and spread out to lobby for the day.







February 22, 2017  was Veterans Lobby Day at the Texas State Capitol. It started out with a huge surprise to me, followed by a press conference and the culmination of the first trip to the Govenors office with the 1,314 signatures from Texas veterans supporting a whole plant medical bill here in TX, SB269.  



I was given this award, much to my incredible surprise.  Here are some pics, and what they wrote.






And I got to be a team leader, so here are pics of my list and the offices we went to. We had excellent response from all the offices we went to.




Some pics from the press conference, going into the Governors office and pics from lobbying.



 Fellow veteran Jav carrying our petition


The Governors clerk receives our petition.

 Proud to be in the company of these amazing fellow
canna warriors.

Cliff Duvall... ground zero for Texas Veterans. 
The First of us to get involved publicly in the cannabis movement here in Texas.










That moment you walk out of the Govenors office and are surrounded by amazing fellow veterans! 

A video of the day
https://www.facebook.com/eric.espinoza.589/videos/10211926270694532/





Until next time....

Friday, February 17, 2017

Manya's triggering letter

Greeting Friends and Readers,

At the end of my last post I had planned to come back then and write about her. But it was more then I could handle at the time, so I have delayed it to now. Sick in bed with a nasty cold, and having had a good session with Crystal, it is time to move this out of me to share with ya'll.

Manya and I have been friends since we were 19 and based on NTTC Corry Station in Pensacola Fl. We were 'suite' mates. We shared a living room with 3 rooms with 3 ladies off of it in the enlisted barracks.  We saved each others lives several times over the decades.

As this blog has related, I finally came forward and have been getting treatment for the things that happened, but Manya hasn't.  She has only gotten more isolated from any sort of relationship,  I have been talking to her about stepping forward and getting treatment for her PTSD. She has lost all trust in humanity.  I can certainly understand why. After you read this letter, you will see into the pain of an untreated MST survivor.  Her own words can say more then I can.  She has been dealing with this alone (except for myself and 2 other friends). Now, she is finally contemplating coming forward and getting the help that she so desperately needs.

She has finally told her mother what happened. But she is still afraid of treatment. I continue to pray for her and talk with her weekly.  She writes me a couple of times a week and I generally call her back.  This letter triggered me terribly.  I needed a session with Crystal to deal with it, and to continue to help my friend. I asked her if I could post this letter here and she said yes as no one would ever know that it was her.  So, here it is..

WARNING, EXPLICIT, UNCENSORED, UNTREATED MST RAGE AHEAD
TRIGGER, EXPLICIT RAPE, BEATINGS






















Heartbreaking. Her rage is deafening.
I love my friend, and I ask for prayers for her...

Over and out,
Myst

Friday, February 10, 2017

Texas Legislature back in Session



Hello Friends and Readers,

It has been a busy time since I last wrote. I went to the Veteran's March in Austin. We had a even bigger crowd then the year before!

The new year is over a month in, and we now have less then 4 months to try and change the laws here in Texas.  I have been busy in the off season though!  In December I was elected to be Deputy Director of Houston NORML, and I joined Montgomery Country NORML, and became the Veteran's Outreach Director there. It has keeps me busy going to meetings and preparing fellow citizens for this 
session,

The above graphic is from a article that came out in the Dallas Observer. It was on the cover!  The article was called "Onward Cannabis Soldiers" and interviews some of my veteran friends.

During the fall, Madesyn Mueller tracked me around to several events I was at, and also spoke with other members of the Texas cannabis moment. Her documentary about Operation Trapped is called The Texas Fight. Please take a few minutes to watch it. She did a super job!

Earlier this week I went to Austin for the Constituent Advocacy Day. Numbers of attendees is between 350-375. Last year was 300.  There are some excellent bills that have been introduced as well. Especially SB369, a full medical cannabis bill, that has PTSD and chronic pain as two of the qualifiers.

Here is some helpful info and links to news reports: