Picking, Politicking, and Pontificating (How an Ex-Cop Legalized Cannabis While Fighting Corruption)

Wisdom finds us through regular introspection as we reflect on our life experience while searching for our purpose. In October 2013, Mike Ball was about to enter his 12th year as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives when he was driven to his knees by a series of moral and ethical dilemmas. An active participant in the Republican takeover of the Alabama Legislature after 136 years of Democratic Party domination, a series of ethical failures across the highest echelons of political power in Alabama created a storm of corruption that he recognized as a threat to its constitutional system of governance. Picking, Politicking, and Pontificating is the product of the introspection and reflection that helped Mike realize the touch of an Unseen Hand that had discreetly and deliberately steered him into the center of the storm and safely out of it. Recognizing corruption that other political leaders ignored and his sense of duty to expose it added urgency to his perpetual quest for truth, wisdom, and moral fulfilment. It is the story of an improbable journey through childhood tragedy and into a half-century of public service as a marine, state trooper, criminal investigator, and a legislator while providing an inside view of the political and the legislative process from the perspective of a veteran legislator whose political instincts could not overpower his moral compass.