Dangerous Nation

Man is busy scanning the universe for another inhabitable planet on which to live. India has recently ( just over forty-eight hours ago) sent its first space probe to circle Mars in attempt to see if the red planet may be able to accommodate life. Man simply wants to escape this danger zone called planet earth. Earth is a dangerous place on which to live. The moment we find a more peaceful place we are gone.
 As I watched the movie "Gravity" a few days ago, what caught my attention more than anything else was the peace and quiet that exist just a few miles outside this planet. The irony is that man is a destructive creature who will destroy things anywhere he goes. Woe be unto Mars or anywhere else in this universe if  man finds ways to establish residence there.
 The Caribbean, on its own, is not dangerous to anything or anyone. Of course there are some Caribbean island where the ground is ripped apart for its mineral resources through which the consequent pollution of our seas and rivers result, but it would have been another zillion or so years before we would have been able to commit such environmental violation on our own. We needed outside help to do this sort of damage. What I fear most is another type of danger, and it is the danger that occurs when nations think the way to solve problems is to incarcerate people for foolishness. There are thousands of young, talented, generally peaceful, quiet, sensible, caring, productive men locked away in prisons across the region for  being in possession of a joint of weed, and I use the word "weed"  deliberately, because that is what it is, weed; a piece of plant that springs naturally from the ground. Alcohol, which has brought an immeasurable amount of societal chaos, is legal, and is consumed widely in public, but a piece of plant could get a Caribbean man sent to jail and have his life absolutely ruined. We are waiting on the rest of the world, (primarily the U.S.A.) to tell us this is not a good thing to do to our potentially most productive people, and for all practical purposes, our most valuable resource. If nobody tells us it is time to stop locking up our people for nonsense, we won't be able to stop locking up our people for nonsense.
 I shudder to think also, that it appears increasingly possible to be locked away for talking. Powerful, moneyed people in the region seem to be acquiring an increasing intolerance for the pointing out of wrong. I hope I am not witnessing the nucleus of a trend in which people are warned, threatened, harassed or even incarcerated for speaking their minds.Certainly it is wrong to slander, malign and sully any person's reputation, but I am not sure imprisoning people for talking is the right thing to do. When  people begin to feel the need for concern about being picked up and sent to prison for expressing opinions which someone in authority might not appreciate, it is at this point at which such a nation begins its decent into becoming a dangerous place in which to live.