2011 Dignity and Land

 The lone tree sitter at Oscar Grant Park in Downtown Oakland expresses that which resonates with me the strongest. Let that lone wolf look for his mate. Leave the wolves and the mustangs alone! Get the garbage out of the water and leave the water in the aquifers for recharge of surface waters. Stop destroying the forests, the wetlands, the public spaces... plant non-GMO gardens and make room for all creatures to share in the bounty. Public Lands like this little park can house the homeless. The existing housing stock could better house the homeless.
I drove Orien to the BART and picked up 200$ worth of biodiesel...enough to run us 1600 miles plus attended this rally called by Egyptian women to stop the violence of the military against civilians, especially women.  (202-224-3121 Cut Military Aid To Egypt -- I want to say cut all Military...)

 It was a gray day, only about 50 people were there and the park was soggy and deserted except for some residual Occupy/homeless and an Interfaith tent. The media was there so the police weren't. They'd arrested a number of people at the site earlier in the day. It was hard to listen to the stories of rape, beatings and incarceration by the small cadre of Egyptian women, knowing that military is financed by the U.S.

 It's been about a year since Tahrir Square began. Since the Arab Spring erupted and inflamed the world with hope, since Wikileaks pried open the lies of empire and enraged the Middle East. Finally in October Occupy sprang up against the caste system in the U.S. and the criminality of the 1% who robbed the country blind. All of us were forced to face the issues of homelessness and the brutality of the homeland security armed police forces.

For me there is still huge hope. Like these hopes hanging from this tree in Chico. I'm becoming like a smooth stone and I'm becoming like a mind, caught in a tangled tattered sky. One minute the one, the next the other. I lean toward the suckers on this cut tree, the tree that Park Commissioner Mark Herrera chained himself to. We can rebuild from our own deep roots in community, from our own skills and from our own vision of a world where the earth and the people are respected.

In Harmony with all that is best for each of you, for me and for our planet in 2012. Occupy Namaste'.