Sacramento, California: The Audacity of Homelessneess

Yesterday, the Sacramento Bee reporter, Ed Fletcher, described the forced eviction of a number of homeless people who were living in tents they called home along the American River: "Homeless forced out along river."  There were 150 people living there before Sacramento police removed them under threat of arrest.  The camp had been supported by the advocacy group Safe Ground Sacramento,  http://www.safegroundsac.org/.  Sacramento city officials said that the removal was necessary in order to protect the environment along the American River Bike Trail as well as to appease property owners.  Moreover, the decampment served to enforce, evenly, the City of Sacramento's strict anti-camping ordinance.   One homeless person who identified himself as "Brother Eli", was arrested when he refused to leave compliantly.  He reported that God had told him to live in the camp and added that he did not know where he was going to go.  He had been a carpenter.  He lost his house several years ago, and since then, has had no space or place of his own.  Brother Eli's  dispossession highlights the thin line that separates the category "property owner" from "homeless person." 

Three things are clear from the Sacramento Bee narrative.  First, homeless people are viewed as a threat to the environment.  Secondly, property rights trump human rights.  And finally, law is instituted to protect the propertied from the property-less.  A corollary to this is: The police are there to prevent the homeless from becoming a visible reminder of one of the many contradictions inherent within the mode of capitalist accumulation. Thus, the police are assigned the task of removing this visible impediment to our ability to believe that the market economy is democratic and just.

Why are there homeless people in our State capital?  The capitalist narrative informs us that we will always have the homeless with us and, of course, it will always be their fault.  Marx called the unemployed, "the industrial reserve army." They are there to remind those who have applied successfully to a job creator for the privilege of selling their labor power that they too can become homeless.  However, this year the suffering has become even worse. For the first time in memory, the City of Sacramento eliminated the funding of $700,000 or more that had been slated for winter shelters.  The trickle-down economics from the Wall Street melt down is now reaching the most vulnerable people.  While profits are up, the homeless are down and out in the cold.  Presumably this is their contribution to the "recovery."  But even more sinister is the ruling ideology of personal responsibility.  Or, as summarized by former Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, "If you don't have a job and you are not rich, it's your fault."  Blame the victim and remove them from sight.

The Truth of Green Technology: Conservatives are Dead On

I just read an article in the Nation by Naomi Cline.  We had the distinction of being arrested on the same day at the Keystone XL Pipeline action at the White House this summer.  The article points out, among other things, that conservatives actually have a more realistic view of the coming fossil fuel collapse than do we environmentalists. We have tended to dwell in a world of denial that features living a personal green life style of recycling, installing energy efficient light bulbs and bringing our own bags to the super market.  These little adjustments, to an otherwise energy intensive life style, have always given a modicum of relief from the reality we have been escaping.  For example, I could tell myself, "See.  We're really saving the planet."  Unfortunately we're not.  We're destroying it.  Some of us cling to the fantasy that a newly discovered energy source will be made available through our science and technology.  My sister-in-law,for example, paves the bumpy road of diminishing fossil fuel with the hope that some scientist somewhere will find the answer to perpetual green energy and our culture of consumption will be able then to move on to new glories. 

The conservatives, most notably, the "drill baby drill" crowd are dead on.  The planet has run out of easily accessible fossil fuels.  The remaining supplies are more difficult and expensive to extract.  Irrespective of any meaningful time frame, we are running out and our economy will collapse no matter what we do.  But, to make things worse, if that were possible, the extractive practices now being employed to extend our destructive carbon economy for a few more years, such as deep water drilling and tar sands mining for oil, mountain top removal for coal, and horizontal hydraulic fracking for natural gas, are inflicting irreparable damage on our environment, our life support system.  These desperate extractive practices are called "extreme energy" for a reason. The worst news, however, is that by burning these fossil fuels to get that last gasp of energy, we may be hastening our own literal last gasp.  Let's face it.  If we continue to burn fossil fuels at there current rate, it will spell the end of any climate compatible with life as we know it on earth.  We are losing 200 species per day.  This is planet death.

The civilization we are living in presently and the capitalist economy that has allowed developed nations such as ours to enjoy cars, planes and all manor or power devices that make our lives easier, is about to end.  No matter what we do, it is ending.  Fossil fuels in the form of oil, natural gas and coal, are in finite supply on on our shrinking little blue ball.  These energy sources are the most powerful concentrations of pure energy that we have.  There is no alternative that we can turn to for relief.  I repeat: Our whole economy depends upon them.  There is no such thing as green energy.

I'm writing these thoughts right now while sitting  at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento where my partner of twenty-one years is recovering from a complex surgery.  It was a life saving procedure.  However, in order to get here we had to drive over two-hundred miles down the Interstate 5 freeway that runs the length of the west coast of the US.  The medical center itself in checker boarded with parking lots, massive garages and a network of connecting roads.  The entire complex is designed around the automobile.  And I can visualize a time coming ... no cars.

Moreover, the buildings that comprise the massive medical complex are fed by electrical power and heating centrally delivered from a sub-complex known as Plant Services.  When I walk to the Kiwanis Family House past this hub of energy distribution with its steaming cauldrons wafting vapors into the evening sky, I am struck by a feeling of tentativeness.  It's the same feeling I get toward the end fall, before the first few snow flakes sprinkle the forest with sparkles.  The daylight changes and the shadows lengthen.  It is a feeling like "this is going to end." 
We have a choice.  What we don't have is time.  We must pull the plug on the carbon culture now.  By any means possible.  It is going to end one way or another.  It will be an end that ends us or it will be a controlled end that allows for life to continue and sustainable cultures to thrive once again.  Every place on earth where civilization and capitalism have invaded, sustainable cultures that have endured millenia are obliterated for the privileged entitlement of the capitalistic monster.  The climate is capitalism's greatest market failure.  The cost of polluting does not appear in the ledgers or the bottom lines.  The cost of environmental degradation is considered an external.  The cost is being factored in by the relentless consistency of planetary physics.

UN Climate Change Talks in Durban, South Africa

Beginning last week and continuing through this Friday, the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa are being held.  http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/.  Ostensibly, the purpose for the Conference of Parties, known also as "COP 17", is to address global warming caused by emissions of CO2 through the burning of fossil fuels.   In reality the Conference of Parties delegates are meeting among themselves, with themselves, and by themselves. Science is being ignored, despite the overwhelming evidence compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://www.ipcc.ch/.  These representatives of the 1% are merely staging this event that they would have us believe is an earnest effort to solve the climate crisis.  However, in reality they are seeking creative ways in which they can manipulate markets with off sets, or whatever, in order to continue unabated fossil fuel extraction and burning.  Meanwhile, outside, in the streets of Durban, being ignored by the ruling elites, are the climate conscious citizens of the planet.  They are busy organizing and planning for actions to counter the inaction by the Conference of Parties.  The governments of the world are being held hostage by the fossil fuel industry.  The money involved is in the trillions.  On the other side of the scale the earth's atmosphere is in the balance.  It is near the oft-mentioned tipping point.  It cannot continue to absorb CO2.  We have altered the atmosphere of the planet to such a degree that it will take millions of years for it to return to the stable state in which human civilization evolved. Meanwhile, the US media, conveying  the ideology of the ruling elites, has devoted only slight attention to the Durban conference, relaying the impression that climate change is a trivial matter.  The greatest of all capitalist market failures is the climate.  Costs related to climate and pollution are externalized and not recorded in balance sheets or in stock holders' meetings.  The US delegate, Todd Stern is shamelessly denying the truth that it is the United States that is sabotaging the the entire process and seeking to delay any significant reductions in CO2 emissions until 2020.  The science says that we will be 2 degrees Celsius warmer by then.

We don't have much time.  The collapse of the fossil fuel economy has already begun.  Fewer people are driving, teenagers are finding it impossible to afford the luxury of individual transportation.  Ironically, the high speed rail system approved by voters in California just three years ago, is now threatened by voter turn around.  This is exactly the wrong time to abandon alternative transportation systems that have the potential of reducing automobile use.  By listening to the ruling elites representing themselves at the "Conference of Polluters", one would be prompted to believe that they are not living on the same planet as we.  It is time to bring down the carbon economy while we still have a climate that resembles the one in which all life on earth evolved. 



I just read a great piece by Noami Cline in the November 28th edition of The Nation.  We shared the privilege of being arrested on the same day at the White House during the Keystone XL Pipeline action this summer.  She points out that climate deniers, so called, have a more realistic view of what the end of the carbon economy will look like.  And it is sobering for them.  The climate change deniers are not comforted by the false viewpoint that our world economy will experience a soft landing if we move gradually and painlessly toward renewable energy options, toward sustainable culture.  All cultures encountered by Western European colonialism were originally sustainable.  Capitalism must destroy sustainability.  Capitalism by its very nature is not sustainable; it is always reaching beyond itself toward what it presumes to be inexhaustible planetary resources.  In order for us to survive as a planet, let alone as a species, we must face the reality that fossil fuel based energy sources contain concentrations of power that will never be available to us through alternative means.  These reserves are being depleted and energy companies are stretching technology and bludgeoning the earth to extract what remains ... extreme energy.  This is "fracking", to extract natural gas from shale, deep water drilling, tar sands mining ... basically the destruction of the earth in order to keep the fossil fuel economy grinding on.  The point is that if we continue to burn this stuff, life for those who survive on earth will be impossible.

In Durban, South Africa this week the 1% are doing nothing to prevent catastrophe.  It is up to us, the citizens of the planet, to stop them.  We must occupy, act and stop the madness.  Explore the Deep Green Resistance, a strategy to save the planet.  http://deepgreenresistance.org/

Letter to a Friend who Introduced Me to Bill Whittle

My friend Frank sent me a Bill Whittle video, or at least the link: 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/OAOrT0OcHh0?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showi

He just passed it along and added: "Folks, here's another good one....please watch."   I had never heard of Bill Whittle.  So I checked Wikipedia.  The article had been deleted.

Dear Frank:

You have to know that I am part of the 99%.  I went to Washington twice in the last several months to keep the planet safe from the 1%.  This is the 1%:  They control 40% of the wealth in our country including the government.  They take in 90% of the income.  This 1% also owns and controls the media … Fox News.  Kids are not stupid or lazy.  They just see a better economic system can come into being.  The way it is working now, 25 million people want full-time employment.   Our system does not provide that.  That is a failure of capitalism.  Our nation accounts for 5% of the world’s population but warehouses 25% of the world’s prisoners.  Do you think we cannot do better? 

This is a revolution.  It cannot be stopped.

New York City to California ... Tahrir Square ... The Empire Strikes Back

In New York the police are hemming in protesters with one of the several tools of repression that empire has always turned to ... military force in the form of police action.  Meanwhile at the University of California, Davis, similar exhibitions of empire's desperation were on display as peaceful student protesters were "pepper-sprayed" in shock video fashion.  Bloomberg in New York is claiming victory.  UC officials are claiming they are merely promoting order.  The order of empire is maintained by violence, whether it be the poverty of many so that the ruling elites may preserve "their share", or whether it be the economic system held on track in order to reward the few while disciplining the labor force  to expect less and less and in the process, teaching workers to blame themselves for their plight.   One candidate for President asserts boldly, "It is your fault if you do not have a job."  Don't believe the lies of empire.

Meanwhile the media owned and controlled by the ruling elites continues its mission of repression with characterizations of "Occupy" that are now going beyond ridicule to outright maligning with lies.  I visited Occupy DC.  I did not see, as Bill O'reilly reported, public masturbation, drug use and rape.  Rather, I witnessed a community coming together in order to meet the needs of the homeless and those in need of food.  The established community, maintained by violence, is not able to provide these basic needs.  There was a free library there too, similar to the one at Occupy Wall Street that Mayor Bloomberg incinerated.  And this bibilocide occurred after thirteen public libraries in New York were closed and 300 library personnel were liberated from employment by the Mayor.  The Occupy library stood as the only resource for books in the neighborhood available to parents who wanted materials for their children.  Moreover, the local Borders was no longer there.  Empire decided that the free library had to go ... another bonfire of the vanities.

Occupy ... the antidote to asset stripping

Yesterday marked two long months since the "Occupy Wall Street" movement kicked off.  We have witnessed the stages of reaction from the ruling elites as expressed within the corporate media.  In the beginning, Occupy was ignored.  Then came pundit ridicule.  Now we are witnessing the stage of active resistance in which police forces in cities across the nation are hemming in demonstrators, incinerating their personal belongings and otherwise being utilized to make Occupy go away.  Each attempt only results in demonstrators' adaptation and in increasing numbers of socially conscious people who "get it."  The contradictions between the capitalist class and the rest of us have reached a level in which stability through the anesthesia of personal peace and affluence as promulgated by the corporate media is wearing off.  When one percent of our citizens control 40% of the wealth and 90% of the shared income, the center cannot hold.  This is a revolution.  We may not be hearing strains of the "Internationale" but this impulse of correction has its own anthems of rap and drums and chants. 

Washington DC Keystone XL Pipe Line Protest and Occupy DC

I just returned from DC where I rallied with more than 10,000 activists as we surrounded the White House to force President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipe Line. This project out of hell would transport Alberta, Canada Tar Sands oil to a Texas Gulf port for sale overseas.  At the time that I wrote a letter to the editor of several local newspapers, there were only 4,000 activists signed up to take part in this follow-up of the Tar Sands Action. Back in August and early September 1,253 of us were arrested at the White House in civil disobedience action.  This time thousands showed up along with a strong contingent from Occupy DC.     

The event began in Lafayette Park directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.  The President, we were given to understand, was golfing with several members of the White House staff.  There were speakers including James Hansen, Obama's chief climate scientist, Melonie Cline, the Canadian journalist and several others including the president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and the leader of the spiritual group The Sojourners.  And of course there was Bill Mckibben, the founder of 350.org, the organizer of the Tar Sands Action at the White House.  I couldn't get over the number of cameras and video journalists who were documenting the largest climate activist even of the century.

There were several bands.  One played before the surrounding; the other entertained and engaged us after the surrounding of the White House.  A band playing and singing, "Now is The Time", greeted us as we reconvened in Lafayette Park following the White House surrounding.

We were broken up in to three groups. We were instructed to march behind the orange flag, the brown flag and the red flag.  Thus arranged, we broke off east and west to completely encircle the White House.  Activists/artists  had prepared a large black balloon pipe line that they carried as a float that encircled the White House.  One marcher was costumed as a polar bear.  Activists carried blue signs that displayed environment messages gleaned from President Obama's 2008 campaign.  "The oceans would stop rising and the earth would begin to heal."

I also had a chance to visit Theo, a friend at Occupy DC.  We had cups of coffee and then went on patrol picking up debris from the walk ways.  There were artists and drummers during the evening. 

Letter the Editor - Stop the Keystone XL Pipe LIne

This Sunday 4000  or more people will be surrounding the White House in an action to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline from being built.  I was one of the 1253 citizens arrested in the Tar Sands Action that took place earlier in DC.  Now I’m returning Sunday, November 6^th, exactly one year to the day before the election next year, to take part in this follow-up action.  Why would someone living in Mt. Shasta, where heaven meets earth, bother?  Because stopping the pipe line is crucial for the climate.  The President can stop this off-loading of sludge from the Alberta, Canada Tar Sands.  This is because the pipe line, that TransCanada is pushing to build, crosses our international border.  Thus, it is an issue for the State Department to decide.  The President who told us that under his leadership the oceans would stop rising and the US would kick its dependency on oil, now has an opportunity to act on what he promised.  The Keystone XL Pipe Line, if built, will carry Tar Sands oil 1700 miles across the US to Gulf Coast refineries.  Never mind that it will leak as it crosses some of America’s most sensitive aquifers that millions of us depend upon for drinking and agriculture.   Once this sludge is refined there is no guarantee that it will be available for US consumers.  It will be sold tax free to the highest bidder.  But burning it will be the ultimate disaster for the earth’s climate.

Tear Gas ... Bean Bag Rounds ... Iraq War Vet critically Injured by Police

Yesterday and last evening saw police actions targeting occupy communities on both coasts.  In Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed, in his succumbing to the wishes of the ruling elites, withdrew his executive order allowing Occupy Atlanta to continue in Woodruff Park.  He used the pretext of a the dangers stemming from a misguided and misrepresented rap concert that was advertised on Georgia's most listened to radio station, to eliminate the Atlanta Occupy Community.  He said the trust between he and the Occupy Atlanta Community had been broken.  He didn't use the ruse of "weapons of mass destruction" to justify his police action.  It has already been taken. The occupy folks in Atlanta had been peacefully maintaining their vigil in the new American Revolution.  This vigil involved, among other things, the feeding homeless people, something that the outside community has not been able to do.  The mayor did not suggest that the Occupy Atlanta Community would be welcome in other venues.

Meanwhile, yesterday morning police in riot gear from many communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, cleared out the Occupy Oakland Community in the matter of a few minutes, lingering long enough to arrest over 97 residents and destroy their personal belongings.  Later in the evening, in front of Oakland City Hall, demonstrators, supporting the Occupy Oakland residents, gathered to demonstrate.  They were warned that they represented an "unlawful assembly."  On three separate occasions they were attacked with tear gas and bean bag rounds.  I watched all of this on the "Global Revolution live stream.   I saw one bloody demonstrator who had bean hit just above his right eye.  As it turns out, his name is Scott Olsen.  The Huffington Post reports that he is 24 and an Iraq War Veteran.  His room mate,  Keith Shannon also reported to the Huffington Post that Scott is sedated and on a reparator at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience.  This is the action that is flowing outward much like penicillin in a petri dish, destroying the diseased  culture of exploitation surrounding it.  This is the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon.  What is occurring is the basic taking and remaking of the commons, places where an alternative system of democracy is being germinated.  The world economic system, nominally headed by the United States but, in reality, owned and managed by financial and corporate ruling elites, will not respond to anything less than direct, persistent and full spectrum civil disruption and disobedience.  I am describing the beginning of the end of capitalism represented as it is by its perverted ideology: the accumulation of personal wealth.  Like a sponge soaking up the last sources of public wealth, the neoliberal economics of privatization is sucking up public education, social security, Medicare, publicly owned land trusts, and the very air we breath.  People are finally waking up to the reality of the destruction that capitalism has brought to our little blue marble of a planet.

Occupy Wall Street

The critical comments of people responding to the "Occupy Wall Street" events separate into two different categories.  One, we don't recognize responsible leaders, (meaning, I suppose,  the ruling elites are not in charge.)  Two, they contend that we lack credibility because we do not present coherent demands.  We don't formulate demands. Such activity would necessarily imply that we want the ruling elites to fulfill them while remaining in power.  No.  That is no longer possible.  It is time for them to go.  We have goals but not demands.  Demands imply that there are responsible parities out there who can accede to such requests.  This is obviously not the case, be it Wall Street or political parties.  There is no such beast.  It has gone beyond liberal negotiation and educational efforts.  Radical action is called for.  This is a revolution and in it leadership is flowing from the bottom up, not the top down.  And ... I am just speaking for myself.

Blame the Victims, Says Cain in Defending Neo-feudalism

"Cain said Wednesday to the Associated Press during a book signing event, 'Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!'" So when the economic system breaks down, it has absolutely nothing to do with neo-feudalism.  Twenty-five million Americans who would prefer full time work just decided simultaneously to quit working and go on extended vacation so that some of them could become full-time anarchists. 

Eric Cantor calls us "Mobs"

Eric Cantor is portraying us as “mobs” because he recognizes the threat to his power and his base, the ruling elites.  People have given up on political parties responsive only to the corporations and Wall Street.  It must be finally reaching the level of threat to the entrenched elites as they are responding in the most predictable fashion.  People, rather than trying again and again to address a nonresponsive government along with the "for the privileged only” economic system, have moved on to model and create a new world.  The power is shifting.  What took us so long?  Rather than make demands of power, and thus imply that we want the current system to remain, we are building something new.  This is called “Revolution.”  The American Revolution continues.  It is not a once and for all deal. 

The Sound of Fossil Fuel - SF and Beyond

We are enjoying our last evening in San Francisco.  If you can say one thing about San Francisco, you can say that it is noisy here.  Sundays are quieter.  There is constant traffic noise along with mixed mechanical background activity; not to mention the sounds from the Bay shipping and the Pacific Ocean traffic.  I finally ran my first red light this afternoon after being so cautious during the visit.  A motorist sharing the road with us at the time relayed her displeasure with my behind the wheel skills.  If she only knew.

So far we have been to the de Young Museum and The Palace of the Legion of Honor.  On Friday evening we attended the San Francisco Symphony with guest soloist, Yo Yo Ma.  We were sitting near a husband and wife.  The husband is an investment broker.  He warned about the shock wave to come this coming week when the US stands to cast the sole "No" to Palestinian statehood in the UN Security Council.  The US loves to spread democracy.  The concert was magic as music in Davies Symphony Hall has always seemed to me.  As movement followed movement, I couldn't keep stop thinking of the Palestinians.  I wear a Tee shirt that reads, "We Are All Palestinians."  The US says that statehood should be negotiated between the two parties.  This assertion actually depends upon maintaining the folly that there will be a territory remaining for the Palestinians while Israeli occupation and settlement thrusts ahead.

This morning we walked to Grace Cathedral for mass.  From our hotel, we needed to walk up a steep stretch of hill.  Once we got to the top the Cathedral was just suddenly there.  On the way up the Cathedral, we happened upon a TV set that someone had abandoned on the sidewalk.  It struck us as humorous because it had been intentionally demolished as we had symbolically done in our home by cutting all cable and satellite services.  Even the fractious disorder of SF streets can not compare to the noise of corporate yammering that streams through the cables and down from the satellites.  In the photo shot above John waved his hand above the remains of the TV as if he had just done to it what everyone should do to their TV's.

We were supposed to be going to the California Academy of Sciences today back in Golden Gate Park.  However, when we got to the parking garage the ruby red  "Full" sign greeted us.  So, as we learned from 12-Steps, you adapt and make another choice.  Our choice brought us all the way west on Geary to the Ocean.  We had lunch in an cash-only restaurant that is family owned.  We wanted to sit at the counter and were willing to wait as it was cleared of the previous diner's plates and silver ware.  This we were told was impossible.  So we would have to wait outside.  I headed toward a door with a ledge overlooking the ocean as it slammed against the cliffs below.  A young waitress rushed out after to me and explained that I could not stand out there as it was an emergency entrance only.  I tried to relieve the tension that I sensed she was experiencing by saying, "Thank goodness you caught me in time.  I was going to commit suicide."  She didn't laugh.  I said, "That was I joke."  She looked at me and said, "I know."  So ...  after our little lunch we explored the Coast Trail above the Sutro Baths.   If you think that San Francisco is just tall buildings and nothing else, you need to spend some time in Golden Gate Park and Land's End where we were this afternoon.  There were thousands of people, locals and tourists, walking, biking, jogging, running and moving about on the trails through forest and along steep cliffs that terminate in rocky-crashing waves.  Someone wanted to know about my 350.org T-Shirt.  I told him it was a web.  "No kidding."  Then I told him it referred to the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere in parts per million.  "We're going to hit 500 for sure," he shouted back to me.  I wanted to tell him about my White House arrest.  But he was gone.

Meanwhile, my thoughts dance around the streets and highways of San Francisco.  A picture of fossil fuel's domination can been seen in the cars, trucks, buses and emergency vehicles which flow like red blood cells through the arteries of the body.  But the body, built upon fossil fuels is aging.  The fuel is becoming more expensive to retrieve from where it has lain in the earth over the millions of years of evolution.  The blood is becoming more expensive to pump.  The heart of capitalism is beginning to fail.  Will it happen all at once and just cease; or will it die in pieces of time with one recession after another where recovery never returns to the previous levels.  Tar sands oils are now within range for exploitation due to the increased price of a barrel of oil.  I kept asking myself, "What will it be like when it all stops?"  It's happening now as the capitalist economy begins to eat its own body to provide the energy for the growth the capitalism requires. 

The sky was blue.  So was the Pacific Ocean.  The air was cool and refreshed by breezes.  But in my mind I knew that the atmosphere I was moving in and having my being was not the same stuff that my ancestors labored and earned their living in.  The differences are measurable.  And, looking out across the ocean and the San Francisco Bay, I also knew that the water has now become irreversibly acidic due to CO2 absorption.  This is what Bill McKibben describes as "The End of Nature."

Why I Got Arrested at the White House

On Friday, September 2, 2011, as I stood with 160 or more climate activists in front of the White House, I was arrested, handcuffed and placed in a police van with twelve other activists.  The people waiting for their turn to be cuffed clapped and cheered as each of us was led from our place in front of the White House to an area where we were frisked and photographed.  Supporters in Lafayette Park across

Pennsylvania Avenue

from us chimed in, "Thank you.  Stop the pipeline."  We received training in peaceful civil disobedience from The Ruckus Society the evening before at a DC church.  Our trainers were professionals and I learned more than I ever dreamed I would about civil disobedience.  I had always thought my reading of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience made me an expert in the area.  The training prevented us from performing inadvertent actions that could have detracted from our mission.  We had a great vegan meal and some of us slept in the church over night.

As was anticipated I was placed in a police van.  What happened next was mind blowing.  I was with twelve other men, six on each side of a separating partition.  We had a chance to share.  Jim Driscoll, the executive director of The National Institute for Peer Support, was seated next to me. He guided us into what turned out to be an hour-long climate activists' support group right in the police van.  We each shared about ourselves and why we had come to DC to risk arrest.  At one point when Jim was sharing, he broke into deep sobs as he visualized the world as it will be if we are unable to turn the tide on global warming.  He reminded me of Jeremiah, "The Weeping Prophet", who being able to peer into the future, experienced the pain and sorrow of what was to come.  I think Jim could see that we could fail.  Two-hundred species a day are being lost in what is now being described as the "Holocene extinction."  We are actually forcing the earth into a new geological epoch.  I contributed the quote that I had always attributed to the Marxists, "Try again. Fail again.  Fail better." As it turns out, seated on my other side was a former editor of Nation Books, who now has his own publishing firm.  He corrected my Marxist attribution by informing us that it was actually Samuel Becket who wrote that.  I had no idea you could learn so much in a police van.

At the police station we were guided into a room separated by wall-like barrier made of metal handcuffs.  We waited in a line on one side while one-by-one we were directed to officers on the other side who wrote our citations and collected our $100.  We were asked, “Pay or stay?”  As instructed by our trainers, we replied, “Pay” and handed over our cash. 

While we were waiting to be processed, one of our fellow arrestees began to sing, “Trouble the Waters.”  At the same time all of us were observing the young officer who was cutting off our plastic flex handcuffs.  Some were white plastic; some were black.  They were being tossed casually in a garbage container.  I finally blurted out, “I wonder if they’re planning on recycling all of those.”  Everyone laughed.  We were all thinking the same thing.

Why in the world, you may ask, would a retired senior citizen living in Mt. Shasta, a place where heaven meets earth, deliberately take part in civil disobedience that would surely provoke arrest?  Actually, there were many people of all ages from the fifty states and Canada at the White House to urge President Obama to stand up to big oil, to stop the Keystone XL Pipe Line and thus stave off an environmental disaster of mammoth proportions.  That was enough reason for me.  My personal call came as a result of listening to daily reports from Democracy Now regarding the Tar Sands Action.  I remember the exact moment when I knew I couldn't stand it any longer.  My partner John and I were hiking with our Irish Wolf Hound, Patrick.  It just suddenly dawned on me.  I told John, "I have to be there."  He told me, "Go.  You need to be there." 

It didn’t take me long to arrange air travel to DC and accommodations near the Capital Mall.  I told people about the trip I was planning and the fact that I would be risking arrest.  People were generally supportive, but expressed concern about what might happen.  However, the most supportive response I received occurred when I shared during the “Joys and Sorrows” time at the Rouge Valley Unitarian Universalist Church where we are members in Ashland, Oregon.  The congregation cheered and clapped.  One member even slipped me some travel money.

As it turns out, I was just one of 1,253 activists who were arrested in Washington DC in the Tar Sands action from August 20th to September 3rd in the largest ever instance of climate related civil disobedience in the US.  The White House action was chosen as President Obama on his own can stop the Keystone XL pipeline without Congress.  The pipe line, if approved,  would cross international boundaries.  Therefore it falls under the aegis of the US State Department.  Why is it so vital for us to stop the pipe line?   First off, the XL Pipe Line, if built, would extend 1,700 miles through the middle of our country.  It would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada across some of our most important water aquifers, the sources of water for agriculture and drinking for millions of Americans, to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas.  There will be spills:  There is no question about that given the history of these pipelines.  But there is more.  This filthy tar sands oil is being off-loaded in the United States by TransCanada.  It is oil that is not for our own consumption.  It will be shipped tax free from our Gulf Coast to Europe and South America.

However, the ugliest part of this story takes place in the indigenous lands that are being destroyed forever.  Alberta, Canada contains the second largest pool of carbon on the planet, second only to the oil fields in Saudi, Arabia.  This oil is contained in sand that is accessed by mining.  Once mined, it has to be heated using large amounts of natural gas.  Then it must be further treated with massive amounts of fresh water.  The resulting sludge has to be stored in huge seeping pools that can be seen from outer space.  If all of this isn't bad enough, just to reach the tar sands oil a large swath of North American forest the size of the Florida must be removed forever.  The people who have been living there for thousands of years, the First Nation Peoples, are already experiencing grossly disproportionate increases in all kinds of strange cancers from their polluted water and from the diseased animals that they depend upon for nourishment.  Their life of hunting, fishing and just plain living is being destroyed.  Native people from Canada reported this destruction and illness first hand when we were arrested together.  The day I was arrested just happened to be chosen as the one to focus specifically on indigenous people's oppression as a result of resource extraction.

But the story gets even worse.   James Hansen, NASA's leading climate scientist has said that opening up the Keystone XL Pipe Line to the tar sands oil would be like lighting a fuse to a massive carbon bomb.  It would be "game over" for the climate.  At this moment, the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is 391 parts per million.  Before people began burning coal and oil, the CO2 measure was 280.  James Hansen, who was incidentally arrested with us at the White House, and fellow climate scientists have concluded that CO2 in our atmosphere must be reduced to a minimum of 350 parts per million in order to maintain any semblance of life as we now experience it on earth.  The earth is no longer the one we were born on.  As a follow-up, a great source for keeping up to date on climate change issues is also http://www.350.org/.

So what does all this mean for us?  What if the tar sands oil remains in the ground where it belongs?  It will buy us some precious time to adapt to more sustainable energy sources that do not add carbon dioxide to our atmosphere.  As it stands our whole economy and very way of life is carbon dependent.  We even use it to fertilize our crops.  I'm part of this problem.  I've bought into oil.  I own cars and I just flew across the US on a passenger jet to Washington, DC so I could take part in the climate action at the White House.  I am not standing on the outside saying that others will have change.  We must all choose to do this together; to be a part of the solution.  That means no more cheap energy.  Our way of life is coming to an end no matter what we do.  The millions of cars, the brightly lit nights, the coal fired electrical plants ... this is all going to stop.  I was in San Francisco recently and I just had an epiphany: I saw all the cars and noise stopping.  This is the world we are entering.  We can stop on our own by changing our civilization, our economic system and our government or we will be stopped by the laws of physics.  Capitalism is killing the earth.  If we intend to survive we are going to have to get off carbon fuels and transfer our energy systems to solar and wind as well as other sustainable energy sources.  This will never, ever be enough to allow us to live the life we had that was enabled by exploitation of cheap carbon. 

When I returned from DC I wanted to share with our UU congregation about my adventures at the White House.  Blurry-eyed from the flight, I went to the microphone and reported that I was arrested.  There was loud cheering and clapping. And, perhaps, over the long haul, more of us will need to risk arrest or whatever form of resistance we can contribute. 

Tar Sands Pipeline action at the White House

I am at home now, back in Mount Shasta, California, recovering from the excitement of being with the XL Pipeline action at the White House in Washington, DC.  As I write I still have the green band on my right wrist, placed there by the police, that displays the number "99."  I was the 99th activist arrested on Friday, September 3rd in front of the White House.  My citation places the location of my arrest at "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."   It was the largest civil disobedience action in the U.S. this century.  There were many native Americans and First Nation People from Canada standing in protest.  Their very presence made the reality of what we were all there for more vital.  They sang Native American symphonies as they were waiting to be arrested.  First Nation People across the street from us in Lafayette Park were singing the American Indian National anthem.  The message for me was beyond the sacred words that I could not know.  Nonetheless, it insinuated itself into the deepest part of my being.  I felt at one. 

The Canadian writer of "The Shock Doctrine", Naomi Cline, was arrested along with us.  We clapped for her as we did for each arrestee.  The crowds in Franklin Park clapped with us and added, "Thank you."  The sun shone, the crowds in Lafayette Park chanted responsively as in church to our chants as the energy of democracy and human dignity played our voices like a symphony.  "You say climate, I say justice."  "Climate!"  "Justice!"  You say indigenous, I say rights."  "Indigenous!" "Rights!"  "This is what democracy looks like."  All along drums were beating and young people were chanting with the rhythm, "Stop the pipeline, Stop the pipeline."  Next to me was a clergyman from The United Church of Christ.  Near by were activists from the Rainforest Action Network.  Many of us were senior citizens peppered in among the young people awakened to the somber reality of the climate crisis in which our little blue marble of a planet has entered.

Letter to the Editor prior to my departure to join the XL Pipeline protest at the White House

Americans are sitting-in at the White House right now to draw attention to the damage our climate will suffer if the US approves the 1,700 mile long Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to US Gulf Coast oil refineries.  The tar sands oil extraction is taking place on Native lands.  A huge swath of lush boreal forest the size the British Isles is being removed in order to mine the oil.  Extracting the oil takes massive amounts of fresh water and natural gas to separate it from the sand and clay in which it is embedded.  The oil itself is so polluting that transport via pipeline is a threat to any environment through which it flows.  However, burning this oil will be, in the words of James Hansen, NASA’s leading climate scientist, “Game over for the climate.”   We must persuade the President to exert his leadership.  The US can be the world leader in converting to sustainable energy or others will have to take this role.  The organization 350.org is leading the action at the White House.  The number, 350, is vital because it describes the highest level of carbon dioxide in parts per million that our atmosphere can contain and still maintain life and civilization as we know it.   When people began burning coal and oil, the measure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 275.  Today the measure is 391.  I will be joining the sit-in at the White House this week.

The Mount Shasta Tea Party: My Impressions

In continuing to describe the evening I recently spent attending our local Tea Party Patriots meeting here in Mount Shasta, I need to share about what I learned in the newcomers group that convened directly after the "general session."   I was joined where I was sitting in my pew by Ron who was in charge for the evening.  The two of us were in turn joined by the other newcomers who happened to be seated just across the aisle from me.  Right away I shared with Ron my dissatisfaction with the energy involved in the efforts to overturn SB 48, the nondiscrimination legislation designed to inform students in California schools about the achievements of GLBT people in building California.  The teaching of such facts, I explained to him, has been found to have a positive effect upon acceptance of people with nonconforming sexual orientations.  This acceptance has been measured in a decrease of harassment and violence directed toward GLBT students in schools.  I told Ron about my own near suicidal experiences when I was in high school and how I often times hated having to go to school.  He did seem uncomfortable with that aspect of the meeting.

The husband and wife who were in our small circle of discussion  had been quite vocal during the general session, offering many comments pertaining to social networking as well as the injustices of government regulation.  They were younger than the rest of us.  The husband reported problems with government regulations that were compounded  by difficulties arising from his personal physical problems. These issues, he felt, combined together in preventing him from earning the income that he needed.  I think he was a logger.  He was extremely over weight for a man of his age ...perhaps in his late 40's to early 50's ... and he had a extra large sized waistline.  I could envision him being stuck in a hula hoop just like a ring jammed on a finger.  He had to lean himself over the pew in front of him in order to deal with his body balance issues and probably to keep breathing.  He seemed to be in physical distress at any rate.  I was concerned that he might get too excited in the discussion we were having.  I hope is alright.

 His wife was strident as well as  misinformed about the issues she addressed.  She told me, for example, that President Obama was a socialist.  To which I responded, "I have the same reaction to the idea that Obama is a socialist that I have when I see the TV commercial for erectile dysfunction.  'If you have an erection that lasts for more than four hours, consult your physician' ... if only."  To which she replied "Ah Ha."  She had found a live one ... a Commie in the crowd.  She also reported that President Obama had personally funded the ship, "The Audacity of Hope" that was part of a flotilla of vessels, held in Greek ports and thereby being prevented from embarking upon their intended voyage to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.  I wondered aloud how the President got that one by Mitch McConnell as he is facing intense resistance to everything else he was trying to pass.  She affirmed,"I support Israel."

At this point in the conversation the wife and I engaged in a heated discussion.  Ron was obviously uncomfortable with the way the group was moving.  It was out of his control.  The wife complained that the government had basically destroyed their lives.  Her house was "underwater" so to speak.  And this was the fault of big government and particularly of Obama.   As her husband had earlier broached the subject of his health issues, I probed: "How much do you pay for health insurance?"  She replied, "None of your business."  And, of course, she was correct. It was none of my business.  However I did take it by her response to my probe that both she and here husband  were among the 50 million or so uninsured Americans.  They feel they are victims of "big government."  They never thought to question the role of the economic system, unbridled capitalism.  I pointed out that 25 million people would jump at the opportunity of landing a full-time job.  I got the impression that she thought that 25 million people had just gotten fed up with work and simultaneously left the job market.  That's one coordinated effort if I've ever seen one.  Our economic system had nothing to do with it.  Wall Street was not complicit.  It is all, therefore, a matter of personal responsibility.  Those 25 million lazy people.

As I was about to gather up my water bottle and notes and head out the door I was approached where I was sitting by a younger man who handed me two documents.  He informed me that he had filed lawsuits pertaining to the information that he was sharing with me.  Earlier he had been in the back of the sanctuary mouthing the mantra, "No teachers unions.  No public employee unions."  The documents had to do the with residents in Mt. Shasta and Lake Shastina and described them as having been "Hoodwinked."  The two-page single-spaced handouts dealt with water and sewer connection and maintenance fees that were assessed by the respective local government entities in order to fund current and future needs.  Walter, I believe that was his name, had obviously spent a good deal of time collecting and crunching data.  The documents were filled with computations and extrapolations describing current and future costs to residents in Mt. Shasta and Lake Shastina.  What intrigued me the most however, aside from the fact that the gentleman never introduced himself to me, was a phrase that appeared identically in both documents.  After asserting that he had filed formal complaints with both civic entities he complains that he has not received a response.  The reason, "...because they are Govt, (sic) and we are the peasants."  He portrays himself as a victim of government.

My overall impression coming away from my evening with the Siskiyou Tea Party is this:  the members were mostly if not all retired white people who were genuinely aware that their way of life is coming to an end.  They view themselves as victims of persecution.  This point was emphasized during the meeting where various references were made to the Tea Party members being labeled "terrorists." 

They are sensing a real change.  They are intelligent people who know something has gone terribly wrong.  However their populist energies have been hijacked by the very people who have caused our problem.  The Tea Party is a top down creation of the ruling elites.  They blame government spending, government regulation and immigrants for what they are experiencing as the decline of their country.  I believe what is actually happening is capitalism coming to its final stage.   The economic system is coming unglued.  It may very well be the end of capitalism.  Capitalism, in order to survive, must continue to expand and grow.  What we are experiencing is the reaching of the limits of growth.  Up until now governments have intervened in order to forestall  the inevitable collapse of capitalism.  The New Deal enabled a mixed capitalist economic system to thrive.  Since then state banks have manipulated the economic system through the creation of interim bubble economies.  But this is no longer working.  The capitalist economy is collapsing.  Their answer is to take their country back ... way back to some golden age that never existed. However, their populist energies have been cleverly hijacked by the ruling elites in our country who have benefited inordinately from the financialization of our economy. 

I saw people who were for the first time in their lives experiencing the phenomenon of marginalization  themselves.  They are now in the minority.  Until recently, white middle class people have been in the majority in the US.  Anyone not conforming to this "American" image of  was marginalized.  I'm referring to people with disabilities, people of color, native Americans, people with non-conforming sexual identities, poor people, immigrants and ... and that time is over.  It is a different world now, and we can make an even better world by realizing that we are one. 

A post too hot for the Huff?

Bill McKibben, the founder of http://www.350.org/ was arrested over the weekend  along with a hundred or so other demonstrators in front of the White House.  They are part of a several week long vigil to draw attention to the environmental risks involved in moving ahead with the Keystone XL Pipeline project that would bring tar sand oil from  Alberta, Canada  to US Gulf Coast oil refineries.  The tar sands extraction project in Alberta is taking place on First Nation lands. The tribal members, with whom I spoke in Detroit at the US Social Forum in June 2010, felt that their land was being exploited.  Moreover, a huge swath of lush North American forest the size of one of our New England states has been removed to mine the tar sands.  The process of extracting the tar sands oil requires huge amounts of fresh water and more energy expenditure through natural gas than is retrieved in oil.  The resulting oil itself is so polluting that transport via pipeline or whatever means is a threat to any environment through which it flows.  Aside from the obvious contributions to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere merely from removing forests and cooking the tar sands, the product itself is extremely toxic.  Unless we can persuade the ruling elites to chart another course, this is what will be occurring in fossil fuel extraction as the “easy to access sources” are exploited.  This would be a great time to convert on a national scale to renewable, sustainable energy.  That is what, in a nut shell, the protests are aiming to accomplish.  We are at the turning point.  Convert now to sustainable energy systems or become a second rate civilization.

What I Learned at aTea Party: Or Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Mt. Shasta

Some weeks ago I was invited to attend a Tea Party meeting here in Mt. Shasta.  I've been tied up doing other things; but this last Thursday evening rolled around and I found myself both free and in the mood for adventure.  I brought a pen and a small binder with me so that I could take notes.  I also wore one of my several, "Legalize Gay" tee shirts that I acquired in the aftermath of the overturning of marriage equality here in California by the passage of Proposition 8.  I had some idea where the local Tea Party members might stand on GLBT issues, but I wasn't quite certain.  Upon my arrival at the Abundant Life Church of the Nazarene, I received immediate clarification on this issue.

When I walked through the front door of the sanctuary, to my left I noted a counter that I would have taken for a bar in settings other than a church.  Behind the counter were several people who were advising members on signing a petition.  It was quite busy.  I discovered that the cause at hand was the Fair Education Act - SB 48.  The act, passed by the California Legislature this July and signed by Governor Jerry Brown, would add LGBT people to the list of other underrepresented cultural and ethnic groups who have contributed historically to political, economic and social evolution here in California.  LGBT people, according to the Act will be represented in curricula as well as other instructional materials including text books.  The petition was for a referendum to be placed on the ballot in June of 2012:  REFERENDUM TO OVERTURN NON-DISCRIMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR SCHOOL INSTRUCTION.  And as we were settling in and scattering about on pews in the sanctuary, the main bar tender left her station and began marching about with a petition-laden clip board to make sure no one would miss their chance to take a stand against "NON-DISCRIMINATION."  With her gray hair and her bejeweled glasses she reminded me of a elementary school teacher on yard duty. 

The meeting rolled to order and someone I knew named Ron was evidently in charge.  Meanwhile, a gentleman named Andy who seemed to know what was going on in the church had purloined an electric guitar from the front of the church where it was arranged with drums and other musical instruments.  Andy settled down on a front pew with the instrument that was energized at this point as he demonstrated several times.  As it turned out, Andy was in charge of issuing a loud twang when speakers overstayed their allotted time or when they drifted into topics he adjudged to be "negative."  As the meeting progressed I was honestly expecting a lot more twangs than were actually produced.  Ron spoke only briefly and then Andy, whom I assumed to be the pastor of the church, rose to lead a prayer that was addressed to the Father in the name of Jesus.  Andy then christened the evening by adding that "this is a church thing."  I was beginning to see that Christian fundamentalism was one the underpinning beliefs in this Tea Party assembly.  Then came "The Pledge of Allegiance."  I couldn't help wondering, while we were all standing with our right hands on our hearts, how many of the members gathered this evening knew that "The Pledge" had socialist origins in the person of Edward Bellamy who wrote it in 1898.   I mean, I believe that's how "Justice for all" found its way into this socialist ritual.

I said earlier that the woman tending the clip board full of "No on Non-discrimination" petitions was gray-haired.  No.  Her hair was obviously tinted/colored blond.  And she wasn't having more fun.  Her hair style resembled a wide-bell shaped mushroom with an enlarged lip at the bottom that made me think of rolls of cookie dough.  I couldn't help wondering why she didn't just let it remain gray.  At her age she surely should have overcome the internalized oppression of ageism that is so rampant in our culture.

The older woman, absorbed in getting her quota of signed petitions for the evening, was not the only senior citizen present.  In fact, with the exception of perhaps three people in the meeting, all of the white attendees were senior citizens.  The irony that kept occurring to me about this all white, all senior assemblage was that they were all beneficiaries of "entitlement" programs, Social Security, Medicare and possibly Medicaid.  I kept asking myself, "How in the world do you convince people to vote against their own self interest?"  They are against government ... except for defense spending.  I can't help thinking what will most likely happen after the 2012 election.  A Tea Party Congress and a Tea Party President will surely press ahead with Congressman Paul Ryan's dismantling of Medicare.  I can just see the looks on the faces of all of us seniors when we exchange Medicare for a voucher with which we will be able to shop for private health insurance.  From what I understood of the Ryan plan that our own Congress Member, Wally Herger voted for, Medicare will be replaced by a voucher worth one-third of the current cost of our Medicare.  And, lest it be forgotten, Obama Care will be abolished along with the provision that private insurers will not be able to deny coverage due to prior medical conditions.  Medical care will be rationed according to your ability to afford it and your good fortune of not having prior conditions.  Each of us seniors will be just one major medical event away from losing our homes and what's left of our 401 K's.

At any rate, getting back to the Tea Party meeting, I noted that the petition lady appeared to have me under surveillance as though she expected me to attack the other kids on the playground.  However, this was a church setting.  This vigil , in which the petition lady was pivoted around in her pew so as to keep me in her line of sight, reminded me of the time I was curious about why a local church  had literally garrisoned their property with "Yes On Proposition 8" signs.  The church still runs an ad in the Mount Shasta Herald every Wednesday declaring that "Everyone is Welcome."  Somehow I didn't feel that was sincere.

In an effort to find out more about the church, I looked them up on the Internet.  I found an email link to the pastors so I fired off a question: "What do your gay and lesbian parishioners think of your attempt to withdraw marriage equality rights from them?"  I never received an answer.  But before I left their web, I came upon their church constitution.  Appended to the document was  an  amendment detailing their clearly stated policy on homosexuality.  It said, in essence, that anyone found to be homosexual could not be a member of the church or be employed as staff or volunteer.  That explained the silence of the gay and lesbian members of the congregation regarding the church's outspoken stance against marriage equality.  Those members definitely do not tell.  I found reading on a little further, that homosexuals were welcome to attend worship services "providing they conduct themselves in a manner that is not disruptive or disrespectful of our services." http://www.snowcrest.net/efc/Constitution%20&%20By-Laws2.pdf.
The last time I caused a notable disturbance in church, I’m told, was when I was an infant.  My Mom was burping me on her shoulder over cloth diaper (remember those?).  To make a long story short, when I did finally release the offending gas, I over shot the mark a bit and barfed full force on Frances Hardcastle who was unfortunate enough to be sitting within range.  I ruined her dress.  I haven't been nearly so disruptive in church since then.

Getting back to the Tea Party meeting, Ron, speaking over the church sound system with his notes arranged on a music stand, reviewed the three underpinning principles of the Mount Shasta Tea Party: 1) Limited Government, 2) Fiscal Responsibility 3) Adherence to the Constitution.  I noted that principle "3" in this Tea Party gathering differed from the one I found on the Internet where it is replaced by "Free Markets."  This enumeration of the principles led directly into the passing of the tea pot in order to cover lights, heat and air.  Ron outlined the evening as falling into two main sections: the general session for the first hour followed after a short break by the convening of the separate action groups that would be meeting in various corners of the sanctuary.  The new people, (that's me) were going to meet with Ron.

Ron introduced Matt who came to the microphone carrying a well worn olive green copy of The Rape of Justice, written by Eustace Mullins.  According to the Wikipedia article I reviewed, Eustace has the reputation of being an anti-Semite.  Moreover, he is regarded as a very influential author in the genre of conspiricism.   Matt, himself, was well-versed in the specifics of the tome.  He had obviously spent long hours reviewing the degradation of common law that devolved into merchant law. Matt wore his pants high up on his belly and this gave him the overall appearance of a character who might have been paired with Cousin Minnie Pearl on the Old Time Opry.  I got the impression also that Matt was often a speaker in these general sessions.  There was the specter of an anticipatory "twang" that hung in the air.  He had a lot of dates, facts and historical personages to address in the short time allotted to him.

At this point the specific chairs of action groups were given the opportunity to report on their individual activities.  The lady in charge of gathering anti-nondiscrimination signatures to prevent the teaching of homosexuality in California schools as "normal” pointed out that she had problems doing petitions on line, as she was waving her clipboard, and that 504,000 signatures were needed to place the initiative on the June 2012 primary election ballot.  Chris, in charge of  local politics, focused on the upcoming Siskiyou County Fair.  He had sign-ups ready for anyone who wanted to join with the Yreka group to man the Tea Party Booth.  They plan to give out copies of the Constitution.

Andy, who is in charge of preparedness issues, summarized for the meeting the important aspects of being ready for what is coming.  In terms of financial issues, Andy urged the purchase of precious metals, specifically silver.  In homes water and food should be stored.  Self-protection should be covered with hand guns, martial arts and the like.  Spiritual preparedness should also be a focus - where will you go if you die.  Medicinal needs should be looked at and Andy pointed to the bouquet of weeds he had gathered that were on display in the entry way to the sanctuary.  He would be delighted to go over each species of weed in regard to its medicinal and nutritional value.  There were allusions to the environmental and emigrations groups, but no reports were offered.

Next to speak was the chair person who appeared to be in charge of monitoring legislation in California.  I did not catch his name, but he alluded to a total of six Assembly or Senate Bills that he was following: They were all bills pertaining to guns:  AB 809, SB 819, SB 124, SB 427, AB 144 and, SB 798.  The specifics of all of the bills, aside from dealing directly with fire arms, had to do with the possible restriction of or otherwise regulation of guns.  This information I gathered from the legislative summaries available on the California Legislature's web. 

A member named Sam next described a proposal he had developed for a Border Patrol.  He was excited to report that our Congress Member, Wally Herger had said, "Yes, and get it to me."

Ron, who was still functioning as the moderator for the evening, pointed to the need he sensed for getting the membership up in this Tea Party group.  Lorenzo volunteered to pursue this.  In addition, it was pointed out that Steve, the editor of the Mt. Shasta Herald had been invited but was not present this evening.  Another woman, younger by far than the rest of us, signaled her interest in spreading the word by social media such as FaceBook.  Both she and her husband were new comers as it turned out and were a part of the new comers group headed by Ron during the Action Groups section that followed this general session.  It was shared that the Redding Tea Party was actually having teaching sessions in which a technically savvy member was enabling Tea Partiers to use this tool.

At this point in the meeting, the flow of events seemed to break up into snippets or even sound bites.  For example, one member offered the warning that the Republican Party may be faced with a split in candidates such as happened when Theodore Roosevelt ran as a Bull Moose against the nominated Republican in 1916 thus paving the way for Woodrow Wilson to win a second term.  This was seen as a conspiratorial tactic that must be anticipated. 

Other warnings were issued:  Ron pointed out the danger of "Agenda 21."  This is a United Nations initiative designed to assist emerging nations with sustainable economic development.  The very word "sustainable" appears to be problematic for Tea Party members.  It kind of resonates with environmental regulation which is seen as a threat to jobs and America.

At this, Walter, sitting all the way in the rear of the sanctuary gathering ejaculated, "No teacher unions, no public employee unions."  Other comments included the guidance that "letters to the editor" be signed "Concerned Citizen."  Someone else, whom I did not identify added that George Soros was picking radicals in both parties.  To this observation, Ron added that both parties were "going left."  Still another member pointed out that the Federal Reserve was "owned by the Queen."  This thought brought up the idea once again that we need "fiscal responsibility."

Ron then began a litany of scary world organizations who were seeking a one-world order.  These included the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the United Nations along with the Federal Reserve.  Another member was stimulated at this point to suggest that the Mt. Shasta Tea Party Patriots sponsor the erection of a topical sign reading, "End the Fed."

The discussion then drifted into the materials to be offered to people inquiring at the Tea Party booth at the Siskiyou County Fair.  The Constitution was named as the number one choice of items to offer as "kids don't know what the Constitution is about."  There should also be sheets against "sustainability" and removal of the damns on the Klamath River.  This fair booth activity should dovetail into the social networking that the members need to maintain during the next election cycle.

Andy, the pastor, then urged members to see the DVD, Agenda.  The film depicts how progressives are planning to take over the country and then having done that, to move on to the world.  The film, it was reported, demonstrates how this will all be accomplished in collusion with the Communist Party of America.  Fifteen to twenty-year-olds are a particular target.  A personal note here: I am aware of the Communist Party of the US, but not of the one spoken of in the Tea Party meeting.  My curiosity got the best of me so I investigated the background of the film, Agenda.  I learned that it is definitely structured around an Evangelical Christian perspective.

In the closing moments of the general session of the Mt. Shasta Tea Party there were exhortations to have more clip boards and signs available so that people in the community could know to become involved.  It was pointed out that Steve is a professional sign painter and could help with this.  Ron was a little discouraged by the lack of involvement locally.  He observed that Mount Shasta and Siskiyou County are "so socialist and communist that people don't want to get involved."  An example of this lethargic attitude was seen in the past election with Measure A having to do with privatization of local water.  Although Measure A was written by members of the community, various legal and extra legal means were employed to prevent it from actually appearing on the ballot.  The measure dealt with cloud seeding and bottled water.  And finally one member offered to have a sign of any size mounted on his property that fronts Interstate 5 just south of the Shasta Abbey.  It would say something about the Tea Party.

I Miss the Soviet Union

I miss the Soviet Union.  Ever since I was a young boy I have enjoyed listening to short wave radio.  As a teenager I was even an amateur radio operator ... WA6KJV.  I let my license expire when I was in the Air Force during the Vietnamese War.  I remember listening to Radio Moscow.  I was inspired by the universal employment, health care and housing that the commentators described in programs such as "What is Communism?"  Everyone in the USSR could have a education.  Many women were doctors.  I still listen to short wave international broadcasters occasionally and I can still send and receive Morse code.  However the alternative is no longer there.  In its place is a rather bland "Voice of Russia."  The Voice of America signals used to plow through the short waves like huge sailing ships.  The Voice of American theme music, "Hail Columbia the Gem of the Ocean", was breaking ashore over short waves twenty-four hours a day. It's no longer dominant as VOA's signals are delivered in sanitised form by satellite these days.  The world was more black and white in those days.  But what does all of this have to do with my having a feeling of nostalgia regarding the Soviet Union?  When the Soviet Union collapsed, the world capitalist system was free to move ahead on steroids.  Even Communist China began following a path of hyper capitalism, thus demonstrating that democracy and capitalism are not the synonymous.  Capitalism does not necessarily promote democracy.  In the US it has evolved into an oligarchical state controlled economy with a concentration of wealth that is staggering. 

Even as a young man I knew that there was great inequality in the world.  I understood also from an early age that my life was far easier than that of children born in less developed parts of the world.   I came to understand that there was the "Free World" and the "Communist World."  The developing world was designated the "Third World", being neither free nor communist.  Gradually I became awakened to my own predisposed beliefs about race and culture here in the US.  I can only describe the evolution of my thinking as the development of "class consciousness." 

In the US we have have had Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  I believe these were possible only because there was an alternative to capitalism behind the so called "Iron Curtain" that Winston Churchill described in his famous speech when he was visiting the United States following the end of World  War II.  That communist option evaporated almost without warning when the Soviet Empire collapsed.  Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain and President Ronald Reagan began implementing neoliberal economic policies.  Margaret Thatcher described neoliberalism, the economic belief that everything public should be privatised, as "TINA", there is no alternative.  Indeed, with the demise of the "Evil Empire" there was no longer any viable alternative to unbridled, deregulated capitalism.  Thus we see today the actual discussions between American political parities regarding the gutting of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  I thought I would never live to see the day when such thinking would be implemented as public policy.  Raising the debt ceiling of the US Treasury had been transformed into a contrived crisis that is being used to eliminate our social services network.  Welcome America to the third world.