MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. Later in the broadcast, we look at the all but ignored role of women in the civil rights movement. There's a new book out. It's called "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC," that's the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIBut first, it's your turn. You can start calling now, 800-433-8850 or go onto our website kojoshow.org to discuss issues in the news or whatever is on your mind, whether it's the suicide of Tyler Clemente, the student who killed himself after his roommate Dharum Ravi and a friend, Molly Wei, used video of him that was taken by a webcam that was placed in his room. They used video of him to send it online so that the world could see him in his most intimate moments with another individual and Tyler Clemente eventually committed suicide.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIIf you'd like to comment on that, you can call us at 800-433-8850. There was the arrest of a CBS radio correspondent who apparently neighbors reported was growing marijuana in his back yard. The police, acting on that tip, decided to go to the home and arrest Mr. Arenstein and his wife. What do you think? And the comments in the Post article on the Post website -- two comments on that article caught my eye.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIOne of them said, "I'm disappointed to read some of these comments, especially those that mock police enforcement. Domestic production, trade and promotion of the marijuana culture is providing cover, funds and addicts for the Mexican drug trade that is costing people endless lives. When you celebrate marijuana, subsidize the industry and encourage more customers, funds and expanded trade and security networks go back to these Mexican rebels to continue their kidnapping, maiming, killing and terrorizing of innocent people."

MR. KOJO NNAMDIAnd then, there was this on the website. "Thank heavens they caught them with their marijuana plants before they could use them to gun down innocent people in the street. D.C. police on the J-O-B." What do you think? Good use of taxpayer money or not? 800-433-8850. There's a White House summit today on the future of community colleges. President Obama wants them to play a bigger role in retraining workers and boosting the number of Americans who earn a college degree.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIEnrollment at community colleges is surging, but these two-year schools are facing big hurdles. Their dropout rates are high. Support from state budgets is drying up in the weak economy. And many of their students need remedial help before they're ready for college-level classes. At the same time, for-profit colleges, something of a competitor, are launching an advertising blitz to defeat proposed rules that could cut off federal aid to their students.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIIn July, the Education Department proposed rules that would cut off federal aid to for-profit college programs if too many of their students default on loans or don't earn enough after graduation. If you'd like to weigh in, it's your turn, 800-433-8850.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIJill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is in charge of today's summit. She teaches reading and writing at Northern Virginia Community College and is a longtime community college teacher. President Obama wants the U.S. to produce an additional eight million college graduates by 2020 and wants the nation's nearly 1200 community colleges to turn out five million of those degree holders.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIYou can call us about any of those topics, anything else on your mind, anything else in the news or you can call us about our upcoming trip to Haiti. We'll be going to Haiti next month in November. And if there are issues having to do with Haiti that you feel have not received any or sufficient coverage in the media, you can call us and tell us what those issues are, that you'd like to see covered when we go to Haiti for a few days. 800433-8850. You can go to our website kojoshow.org, join the conversation there or send us a tweet at kojoshow or an e-mail to kojo@wamu.org.

MR. KOJO NNAMDILet's start with Robert in Herndon, Va. Robert, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

ROBERTI just, you know, listened to this and I read the story yesterday. And I thought, you know, in D.C., they've legalized, at this point, medical marijuana and now they're arresting people for two plants. And it just seems kind of a waste of resources that -- you know, they're probably going to put these people in jail at some point or -- I'm not sure how they handle it legally, but it just seems like a crazy world where we've got 14 states with legalized medical marijuana and they're still arresting people for using that.

NNAMDIIn most situations in the district, simple possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor. The fact that they had plants growing in their backyard and had an amount of marijuana that may be beyond the weight for simple possession, I don't exactly know how they're going to be charged or whether they're going to be prosecuted. The question I was raising is whether this is a good use by the police department of taxpayer dollars. Apparently neighbors, unnamed neighbors, anonymous neighbors did call to indicate that the couple had marijuana in their home. The police acted on that information. If you put yourself in the position of the police, do you simply ignore it?

ROBERTWell, obviously, I think the police can't ignore it because, you know, it would be still illegal to grow plants. But it just seems -- it seems really, you know, like, just a waste of the citizen. I just think to myself, you know, they're not shooting people. They're not doing bad things, you know. Why spend the resources? Why not change some of the laws to reflect a little bit more -- basically what I think is, you know, society's views are changing.

NNAMDIYou know, we had the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia here yesterday. I omitted to ask him about that case...

ROBERTI heard.

NNAMDI...but I probably should have asked him about that case and whether that's the kind of case that he would prosecute if it were brought before him given, as you said, the District...

ROBERTYeah...

NNAMDI...of Columbia has already passed laws approving medical marijuana. There's an initiative on the ballot in California that would legalize the use of marijuana. And nevertheless, the police still seem to be fairly aggressively or assertively arresting and maybe charging people who have marijuana in their homes.

ROBERTI think ruining people's lives, too, for something that I would consider to be fairly benign, really, in this day and age.

NNAMDIIt's your turn. Robert, thank you very much for your call.

ROBERTThank you.

NNAMDIYou, too, can call us at 800-33-8850 or you can send an e-mail to kojo@wamu.org. Here is Jane in Montgomery County, Md. Jane, you are on the air. Go ahead, please.

JANEOh, thanks a lot, Kojo. I'm an old gal by now, but -- and I don't remember Dorothy Day from the time of the 1930s, but she was one of the first civil rights leaders in the United States and she was a very courageous woman. And I did encounter her in the '60s during the part of the civil rights movement that we know, you know, from the '60s on...

NNAMDIYes.

JANE...and the march on Washington and that era on. And I actually joined her. And by that time, she was with the -- she had been a communist early in her life. She became a Catholic. And as a matter of fact, strange as it may seem, some hopeful band of Catholics have nominated her for sainthood. I don't know how that's proceeding because there aren't that many communists in the Catholic sainthood, I guess. But if there ever was one, she was a great, great leader.

JANEAnd until the day she died, I think, even though you may not have grown up in the United States, nobody could have grown up in the United States in the '30s and '40s and '50s and '60s without knowing Dorothy Day. She's -- there's none other. There's never been more like her.

JANEJane, I would certainly advise you to listen to the later part of our broadcast when we'll be talking with some of the contributors to the book, "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC" because you will find that one of our guests got involved with SNCC after being involved with a group called Young Christian Students. But thank you very much for your call.

NNAMDIWe move on to Katherine in Weston, Md. Katherine, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

KATHERINEHi, I just want to weigh in on this marijuana thing. I agree with your earlier caller and I just want to add that I think that this smacks of Orwellian goings-on. I mean, I just -- what is the neighbor doing, sneaking around looking in their window? I just think it's time that we realize that marijuana is a lot less dangerous and I don't think will ever be as dangerous as drinking alcohol and driving. So what's the big deal? Why do people feel that they have the right to waste taxpayer money going after people who are raising pot plants, smoking pot in their homes? They're obviously not (word?) and, you know, that they think that they're (word?). They better look at their own closets and see what they're hiding before they start snitching on other people.

NNAMDIYou're breaking up on me, Katherine. But do you think that the police have a responsibility to investigate once the complaint has been made by the anonymous neighbor?

KATHERINEI think they can -- yeah, I think they really do if they want to keep the law, to uphold the law, but I don't -- as far as what you were saying, you don't know if it's going to be prosecuted or not. I think we need to look at the seriousness of something. To me, this is trivial, absolutely trivial. I see no reason for them not to go and check on it if they think there's a problem, if they think they may be dealing with (word?) crack house. But I don't think that's what they're dealing with. So, you know, I would think on a scale of prioritizing things, this probably should have fallen a lot lower than a number of other things they probably received phone calls about, such as crack houses.

NNAMDIAnd the problem is that, I guess -- and the reason it received any attention in the news media at all is because the persons who were arrested are not only in the news media themselves, but happen to work for a network, CBS News. And I guess some people would say, well, a lot of anonymous, poor and minority are arrested for possession of marijuana. They should also arrest people who are powerful or people who are seen as being powerful and their name should be in the paper for what they did.

NNAMDIBut as others have pointed out, this could be a major career setback in the lives of these individuals. And you've just to wonder how prudent it was for the police -- not only for the neighbors to do that, for the police to do what they did, but there are others who will say how prudent it was for them, knowing the dangers, to be growing marijuana in their backyard? But that's why we're here and that's why it's your turn. Thank you very much for your calls. We move on to Lorraine in Upper Marlboro, Md. Lorraine, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

LORRAINEHello, Kojo, you have a wonderful show. I am calling about Haiti and my understanding that it is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. And that it has a debt owed to France from the emancipation, the war to emancipate the slaves. France is charging Haiti for the lives and the lost revenue of those slaves and that's why it has this huge debt that is -- most of it is, I guess, DDP goes to paying off that debt. Are you aware of that?

NNAMDIYes, I am aware of that. I am not as clear on the issue as I will be in the upcoming weeks. But if that's one of the issues that you would like for us to look at in our series while we're visiting Haiti or leading up to visiting Haiti, we are taking it, as they say, under advisement. Ingalisa Schrobsdorff is busy typing away that we'll be looking at this in the future. So Lorraine, thank you very much for your call and for your suggestion.

NNAMDIWe move on now to Nick in Reston, Va. Nick, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

NICKHey, Kojo, thanks for having me. I'm a long-time listener. I wanted to weigh in on this, the medical marijuana -- I'm sorry, not the medical marijuana, but the arrest for the marijuana plants.

NNAMDISure.

NICKAnd you had mentioned early on at the beginning of the segment about, I guess, a comment on a website where someone had said that, you know, they're appalled that -- how people are, you know, getting on the polices' case over arresting them and that, you know, that -- the marijuana trade in Mexico with the rebels and all that. But I think if you're, you know, someone who's really educated on the topic of marijuana right now in the world and what's going on, you know, with everything would understand that if we legalized marijuana in the United States just across the board and produced it here -- 'cause it's not going to go away. It's not.

NICKIt's not going away. And it does have plenty of, you know, medical uses as well. And, you know, people are going to use it just for their own, you know, personal uses as well. I mean, it's not going to change anytime in our lifetime or our children's lifetimes. So, you know, we need to be responsible about it. And if you really want to get at these, you know, Mexican rebels or whatever, then why don't we just make it ourselves. 'Cause if they're -- if they can't -- if they're not supplying the marijuana, then what use do we have for them and -- you know.

NICKI just think it's -- I think that -- and to comment more specifically on your question about if it's a good use of the resources of the Washington D.C. police, you know, you can't fault them really because, I mean, if it's against the law right now, it's against the law. But I do disagree with the law itself on marijuana right now in our country.

NNAMDIThank you very much for your call, Nick. We move onto Bruce in Harpers Ferry, W.V. Bruce, your turn.

BRUCEHi, I wanted to agree with the last caller and also just add the -- that we should then tax it. I tend to agree with Ralph Nader, who said that the things that we don't like in our society, such as derivatives and so on, we just tax them and then we'll solve some of our financial problems as well. But that's not what I called about. I called about education. And I am so glad that President Obama is putting forth some educational programs. But there are some fundamental problems that I don't think anybody is looking at.

NNAMDISuch as.

BRUCEAnd now, these are anecdotal. But I've been told by teachers in Frederick County, Md., that most new teachers coming in cannot afford to live in Frederick County, Md. so they live in West Virginia and they live in Pennsylvania and so on. To me, that's absurd. And the second thing is...

NNAMDIWell, let me talk about that for a second. Because, you know, school reform as it's being practiced or implemented around the country has proven to be fairly controversial. One of the tenants of school reform is being able to pay teacher increased salaries for increased student performance and those increased salaries can go as high as a $125,000 a year. In some jurisdictions, it is felt that that can be an encouragement for A, more people in general to get into the profession and B, for more really talented people, to get into the profession. But you seem to be adding a third, getting people who will be able to live in the jurisdictions in which they teach.

BRUCEYes. If the teaching salaries are not up to the standards of the local community, basically is what I’m saying. And another anecdote is they've done away with Euclidean geometry, which in my view is the basis of logic and critical thinking and the dumbing down of our society. And I spoke to several teachers about why they've done this and their simple answer was that there aren’t enough people available that understand it well enough to teach it. And the reason for that, they say, is because if they understand enough math, they go into the private sector and not into teaching because the money is not in teaching.

NNAMDIYep, Bruce, you've got it exactly right. Thank you very much for your call. We move onto Mia in Baltimore, Md. Mia, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MIAHi, actually, I'm kind of echoing one of the previous callers. I think it's kind of disingenuous, the person's argument that, oh, well, you know, these people are supporting Mexican cartels and this is just, you know, another example of people causing, you know, these horrible criminal activities to occur. They were growing it in their backyard. They weren't buying it from a criminal cartel.

MIAIt's so -- obviously, this is -- it's a sad case of somebody doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing, probably. But they weren't really necessarily harming anyone but themselves. And I really feel like the previous caller hit the nail right on the head. They should just legalize it and, you know, put a high tax on it and (unintelligible) get out of some of the debt that we're in.

NNAMDIOkay. Thank you very much for your call, Mia. By the way, the earlier caller about Haiti, Haiti's debt was cancelled entirely in April of this year under a world bank program. Almost half of that debt was incurred by the Duvalier's corrupt regime, Papa Doc Duvalier and later Baby Doc Duvalier, both Haitian dictators. Apparently, most of the debt was incurred during that regime.

NNAMDIIt's something that we'll be looking at, however, when we go to Haiti next month. We're going to take a short break. Thank you very much for your participation in Your Turn. When we come back, we'll being looking at Women in the Civil Rights Movement, personal accounts by women in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC. I’m Kojo Nnamdi.