Old paper

Went for an explore under the house on Sunday, and uncovered some delights.
A radio gram.
A set of drawers.
A tiny box containing three silver cake forks.
Drawers full of manilla folders.

Our flat is really old.
Like, probably well over 100 years old.
I've often thought how amazing it would be to have a sort of guest book for it. For all the lives that pass in and out these doors. All the adventures, dinner parties, laughter and mishaps that have taken place here.

There's something splendid about catching a glimmer of someone else's life.
The manilla folders contained this.

A huge stack of typed up newsletters and flyers is now sitting on my ironing board, after I had a good old look through them today.
Most of them being material from the New Zealand Marijuana Party from around 1978-1980.

A lot of it is a good laugh.
Tips for not getting busted trading in a pub. The fact that the police can legally tap phone lines.
Advise about hiding any supplies and ensuring that you don't leave finger prints on bags.

But the opening comment of the January 1980 newsletter got me thinking.
It reads:

1980 has arrived and still found us living under repressive laws. We must continue our struggle for basic human rights...this campaign is not just simply about marijuana but it is a campaign against the ever increasing encroachment of human rights

Really?

Human rights confuse me. Water? Shelter? Freedom from violence? Freedom of association?
Where does the line get drawn?

Apparently for these guys the line is drawn just on the other side of the legalisation of weed.

Choice. Freedom. Law. Rights applicable to all people.
-Can these things ever be worked out?

I don't think they can be.
Though I don't really give a toss about marijuana's legalisation, I do really care about people getting what they need, and having agency.

So to this end, the fact that the people living in my flat some 30 years ago were passionate about challenging the status quo, about revision of what is a 'right', inspires me.

Maybe things need to be challenged? Even if they are to be again proven right, perhaps this process of critique is what allows us to continue to engage with what it means to be human, to be free and to live together as a people.