Somebody probably should have been double-checking calendars or wristwatches last night when the quite gray-haired ladies and gentlemen of the Culver City Democratic Club overwhelmingly endorsed Prop. 19 on the November ballot in California, which would legalize possession of marijuana.
Mary Jane no longer is an age thing, if it ever was. Ask the entertainer Willie Nelson, the embodiment of Prop. 19 at the ripe age of 75 years old.
Evidently, the onetime popular scourge of the 1960s is on the brink of a huge comeback.
Could the Culver City vote have been a bellwether for Election Day on Nov. 2?
If many people in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium see the age of 55 again, it will look familiar because it will be at least their second trip.
Five of the 10 ballot propositions were reviewed in detail, and in each case, the Democratic Club’s verdict was lopsidedly clear:
• Yes on Prop. 19, legalizing marijuana for persons 21 and older.
• No on Prop.20, which would shift redistricting responsibility for Congressional voting from the Legislature to the Citizens Redistricting Commission.
• No on Prop. 23, which would hold the state’s greenhouse gas reduction law in abeyance until the California unemployment rate has been 5.5 percent or lower for four consecutive quarters.
• Yes on Prop. 27, which would repeal the Citizens Redistricting Commission created two years ago by Prop. 11 and return to the Legislature the responsibility of designing districts for state legislative races as well as the state Board of Equalization.
Further, the Democratic Club endorsed people, too, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for lieutenant governor, San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris for attorney general and Tom Torlakson for state superintendent.
Young people of America, take notice. Your elders not only have spoken, favorably, but in stentorian voices.
Not a hedgesitter was in the room, save club treasurer Eric Fine who suggested that lawless elements who grow the tempting weed now may be loathe to cede hard-fought territory to slightly more legitimate citizens.
This was democracy in action for the mature set.
Following a scholarly advocacy presentation by the Culver City attorney Hanna Dershowitz, the crowd in the room steadily built upon layers of decades of sympathy for Prop. 19, rising to a near crescendo at the end.
It’s the Culture
For a half dozen reasons, the monthly meetings of the Democratic Club are a lively social assembly.
Many have been members since their hair was a different color, although as the club approaches its 60th anniversary, founding members no longer are around.
Lively Lee Welinsky, at 82 one of the serious elders, was born before most members if not all of them.
Going into the meeting, hardly anyone knew Mr. Torlakson from Larry Aceves, both low-profile Northern Californians whose race generated more yawns than passion.
Striding briskly to the front of the room, the spirited Ms. Welinsky read a strong declaration of support for Mr. Torlakson, and that cinched his endorsement.
Later, during the debate over Prop. 19, David Weisman practically danced to the front of the room for an assent on what others had been saying.
Invoking a favorite ‘60s phrase, “The times they are a-changin’,” he said in the act of reeling off several slippery dance steps.
