Wrong Again

Everyone hates a pessimist.

Despite my predictions, the Eugene City Council deadlocked 4-4 on whether to extend the permit for the Occupy camp until January 8.  The mayor broke the tie in favor of Occupy, and she is taking much heat in the local MSM, because of funds that will be used to help people, people who actually need the help, and not some whiner making six figures...the official poverty level reached 50 million and half of all Americans are officially poor.

Divide and Conquer still applies. 

Eugene continues to be one of the only cities where an Occupy camp is still up and running. But the practical folks, the folks who say Hey, but you promised us roads, make me want to down a hemlock nightcap and drive up into the mountains until convulsions toss me into an abyss--

More meetings have been called for next week, and I have a fair amount of analysis to do before then.

This type of activity makes it difficult to write, as the recent dearth of posts indicates--but I will get the next bit from this string posted soon--

Also--now seems a good time to repost one from last year, If I Disappear:

4.16.2010

If I Disappear...

...it could be because I went Mad for the Gale and Refused to Come In, and now I can't whine as my body slams against the cliffs in the towering Big Sur surf that drove Kerouac over, bits of brain and kelp and bone matter roiling about me in pinkish sea-foam...

Or maybe I got a little too close to The Man this time, right before they blew him to flaming bits, DMT or Salvinorin A or maybe the multiple concussions I sustained as a lad cutting off all access to any decent pre-frontal lobe sense of self-preservation--

Or perhaps I was stabbed and robbed whilst in an opium/hashish stupor in a thatched hut deep in a misty Myanmar jungle, strange animal and human cries falling dead and muffled as if on snow--

Or maybe--and this is my favorite, I think-- I was ripped to death by bear, by just being stupid, camping yet again in an off-limits section of Cascadia, getting stoned while I tossed out a pad and my bag and another pad for the dog, careful to stay above the incoming tide and build a small fire downwind, then just forgetting and sleeping next to nearly a pound of smoked salmon...

The point is, the scenarios above describe arguably unsavory and untimely ways to die.

But I'll take any of them over being tortured to death or hunted for sport on another human's say-so.

With a Whimper, I'm Afraid

Ah.  This will be how it ends.

For the first time since the Occupation kicked off here in Eugene, I contacted a local grizzled activist attorney. He's pretty much a dead-ringer for Jack Herer, and identically aligned.  We first met a decade ago in a face-off when he represented the organizer of the local Hemp Fest in a suit against various governments. Yesterday when I caught up with him he was on his way to hearings where, after the arguments against some hapless government lawyer, law enforcement personnel would be ordered by a judge to return the pot they'd illegally seized. 

Indeed--and I'm just remembering this now--being on the cop side of that Hemp Fest lawsuit is what finally pushed me over the edge in 2002.  The stark contrast between my heart and the way my head was ethically obligated to think was too much. And we'll return to that story in a minute.

The immediate point is that I occasionally call for his opinion because I've learned to trust it.  Representing The Rainbow Gathering in its various freedom-of-assembly disputes around the country, including Eugene, he was well-versed on the Eugene Sign Ordinance.

It's unconstitutional, both state and federal, he said without hesitation.  He detailed why with rapid-fire bullet points. Then--

But listen, Gurn, why are you even worried about the signs?  If you ask me, you are being set up to fail.

For the Dec 15th hearing?

Yeah.  I mean, c'mon, they won't grant an extension for the Occupy camp, not because of any hassles with signs--even if those are legit--but because of sanitation and safety issues.

Yeah, I've pointed that out several times, but as a legal committee day-tripper, it tends to fall on deaf ears.

Well, the sign issue won't matter when the camp is taken down.  Sanitation.  Safety.  It's the "national security" excuse for the new millennium.

So the inside word about building a permanent camp with a full-on kitchen, power, showers, restrooms and the rest is bullshit?

Yes, he said.  It's complete bullshit.  It has to be.

---------------------------------

Well.

That certainly took the wind out.  I'll still write the letter, in the event it's needed, but I feel like I have to sound the alarm, yet again, on the real issue. I will, when the other people working on this wake up...in about an hour.

Next--the Suit-and-Tied-to-Occupy narrative continues.

Tale of Two Cities Redux

If you believe the local MSM, Occupy Eugene faces a critical deadline on December 15, and two critical city councilor votes are oh-so-close to saying the Hell with it--

But at the internal Occupy meetings, word is that architects, contractors, permaculturalists and so on are coming forward and insisting to the City that a permanent encampment with full-time kitchen, showers and restrooms be erected on Skinner Butte.

In the meantime, certain First Amendment issues must be addressed, as the Eugene police keep threatening to cite protesters for putting up political signs and/or fining them $100 a pop--

So most of my work in the past several days has been completely behind the scenes, which is just as well.  Setting up this camp is a radical act--as is growing your own food.

Activism will continue, probably expanding into Occupy Foreclosed Homes and the like--

More, soon.

Peace.