Ed & Russel, a new friend named Lexington and I wandered out from the CD discussion, into the night to catch the bus, debating whether or not each of us were still willing to get arrested. Lexington was just a freshman at some progressive school, and even went to a progressive high school where everyone walked out to protest the war. I said I only know one progressive person at my high school like that. Ed seemed to be unsure whether he was going to do it. Russel said his goal was to take pictures so if he had to cross police lines, he would risk arrest for good pictures.
We merged with a bigger crowd at the bus stop and Jassie was there. She wanted to sing songs with us so Lexington clanged on her jar full of tea. I took the cap off my water bottle and clanged that. One person played harmonica and there were some other noises. We had a good groove going at the bus stop. Then we crowded the bus. There I met this long haired dude from Knoxville, named Knox. Jassie had a Beehive Collective poster sticking out of her backpack.
Because Jassie had offered to keep my stuff safe in her jeep, she took it out for me when we got back and I sat on the steps in front of the church playing my guitar with two people I had met in New York, a couple that did some political theatre against Carbon Trading in the Financial District. They both had wild, black hair. I played for them a couple songs I had written. Then the one guy asked to play a song he wrote and it was so good and his girlfriend sang along. He wailed, singing in the night, and later someone said people were sleeping across the street.
A bunch of people crashed at the church because they had been locked out of this other place a few blocks away, including Knox. So I walked with them, just because I ended up with them, back to that place at 7AM. Still it was locked so I went to the store to get change and came back. Knox said he was going to walk with his friend. Only one other person was ready to take the bus so I took the bus with him, this blonde haired guy from I think Portland who lived in Kentucky doing some Sustainable Agriculture camp job or something. He said he'd never been to New York and we talked about how when you get off in the Village a sign says, "Welcome to the Gay and Lesbian Community," or other.
We did get to breakfast on time and someone was playing a song on, I think a cello and singing. He sung a song about wanting to change the world. When my friend left I found Knox. He said the walk felt good. I said I'd do it later. He said he was a Journalism major. He said his assignment was to report on some Republican speaker somewhere and he hated everything the guy said, so he wrote up the quotes that he found the most racist, classist, and backwards.
We weren't allowed to leave our stuff in the Church on Sunday so I had all my stuff. I left it against the wall in the lunch room except for my guitar and side-tote. At the opening plenary we watched Al's movie, and it made me cry. When the lights went on I saw some women crying. It probably didn't have that affect on me the first time. It was only maybe a 30 minute film. So then after some talks there were workshops and you stayed if you were going to be in the action the next day. Sam had to leave later that day but she said she wanted to stay in the room anyway. Maybe 500 or more people stayed in the room. We moved the chairs all to the side and made 4 long lines or 2 with partners. My partner was a skinny guy with glasses from Appalachia. The facilitators were the woman with the strait, gray hair and her friend with red hair, both in their 40s or so. They told us to reach across the gap and hold one hand with the other person. Our objective, they said, was going to be to switch sides with that person. When they said go we all struggled to pull the person across. My partner and I just didn't go anywhere. Then they had one partnernship demonstrate how they did it. They simply cooperated with each other and swung about. Then we broke into 4 big groups.
My new partner ended up being this big, friendly dude. He looked more like an athlete than an activist. First, I was role playing the activist and he a pro-Coal person on the offensive. He shouted stuff at me like, "You're trying to take our jobs away! Coal is my life! I'm an American!" I said, "I'm also an American and I believe in Sustainability." Later he said he thought that was a good point. Then I had to be a police officer and he an activist. So I said, "Those people have brainwashed you. They talked you into doing something you don't want to do." But he said stuff like, "MTR is killing the people in Appalachia."
Then our whole group had to be police guarding the White House while the some 4 or 5 hundred other people came marching at us with banners. They looked so peaceful it seemed crazy to arrest them but we did anyway. Then on the second go, they sat down before us, locked arms and legs. We simply couldn't pull them apart. Two cops would carry one person by all limbs. We hardly arrested anyone. Then the two women showed us some careful places where the police could easily knock us out like under our chins or on the sides of our knecks, just things good to know.
Before lunch I tried to fill out a jail support form, but I wasn't sure who to put down for an emergency contact. They said I had until 8:30PM to return the form. So I went with it to lunch, talking to someone about their 10/10/10 plan on the phone, not informing them about what was going on. I realized also, that on Tuesday, I was supposed to lead a discussion about Climate Justice somewhere at 6:30. The line for lunch went all the way through the lunch room, which was a school gym really, up the stairs, and around the corner of the school, which was a sort of arts elementary school. Ned was the last person on line. I asked him if he knew anyone in New York that could maybe lead the discussion for me. He gave me a number and I left a message with that person. Then I called this guy named R. Jeremy. He said he maybe could do it. Then I forgot about it for a while, made a friend named Jamie that lived in Mass, and we talked to this older guy from Northern West Virginia. He said, and I forget why but, "You never know who you're talking to."
Someone called a Northeat meet-up. There were about twenty of us, including Jassie. Going around everyone said their name, where they were from and their favorite part so far of the conference, but I just said my name, where I was from and that I that I felt we not only needed to be in Soidarity as the Northeast but more so as the Fracking Movement. I got everyone's contact to get them involved in Fracking. Some people also said they just learned about Fracking there and couldn't believe how bad it was. So afterwards a bunch of people wanted to talk to me about Fracking. I ended up missing something called, "Know Your Rights." Then I talked to this organizer for a while from Connecticut and we found Kitty in a Rising Tide group, planning another CD action. I wasn't interested in getting involved, it was getting too complex for me but I wanted to meet Rising Tide people. So I walked back with people from Rising Tide asking them a million questions.
Back at the conference center, I went to a room specifically for people risking arrest. Someone was explaining to Ed that the citation is like a speeding ticket, and that most likely the emergency contact won't be contacted. I called someone at WE ACT for Justice and left a message asking if they could do Tuesday. Then it started. There were a hundred people. They asked us what our concerns were. One person said their things. They said to leave all things with someone else or with them. If we weren't willing to let go of our cellphones, just take out numbers that we don't want called, or something like that. If we weren't willing to let go of our cameras, delete footage or organizers speaking at the summit. I think this was only in case of a worse case scenerio and there would be investigation. Someone said money, so they told us to raise our hands if we were still on the fence because of money. I raised my hand and so did fifty people. They said that it most likely would be a hundred dollars flat but they could fundraise to pay us back. One guy said that he worked with an organization that raised money for activists, that one they raised 300,000 in ten days or something, or ten hours, and he could probably raise 10,000. The woman with gray hair said, "So that's it. Money's not a problem." Someone asked about minors. She said, "If you are a minor, do it."
Then we broke into three groups. One was for people from Appalachia. The two others had decide if they wanted to be behind the Clean Water Now banner of Safe Jobs in Appalachia. I knew I should go to Water, since I'm in the Frack Movement, but I felt more inspired to go to Safe Jobs in Appalachia. There were thirty of us in the circle. We had to make decisions about things to bring to the larger group. We decided to sit, not stand on the sidewalk, after the time was right. We decided to lock arms in long lines, not make circles and lock legs. We decided to let the people from Appalachia decide if we'd go limp when arrested. We decided to maybe square dance, after considerable time. We decided only maybe 10 I think or more of us were willing to do Jail Solidarity, so we'd see how many more later. This didn't include me. So then the Water group made almost the exact same decisions and we left much up to the Appalachia group. They wanted us to basically not go limp and din't seem to have an opinion about square dancing after considerable time.
Back on the long line at dinner I called my friend Ojo in New York. He said I could put him down for an emergency contact. Talking it out, I realized I could put Betty, my Frack and Youth organizer friend in New York down for the second. I got off line and walked all the way back to give in my form. I came back and got some soup, and met a girl who was from the town next to mine on Long Island, only she lived in Florida. Seeds for Peace had to move the tables so I said I'd meet her outside and I sat on the concrete outside and she never found me. This girl from Appalachia said she wasn't totally against Coal all together because her father was a miner and he'd lose his job. I thought to myself, if I were her, I would just have very radical demands for Just Transition, but it occurred to me that only if I were her could I have such a Socialist view, which confused me.
Then I went back into the lunch room and sat on the floor for a discussion with Appalachia Rising's law expert person. There were really only 60 or us sitting around. Honestly, I don't remember anything that he said other than that he was an Anarchist, or at least I think he said that. He repeated things we heard, like don't touch a cop's horse. He explained the different sections of police in DC and we'd probably face the park police.
I ended up walking back with some guy I just met, all the way back. He worked in DC he said, he had just graduated. He said he put his father as an emergency contact. He said, "I'll just say, I'm twenty-three years old. I can make my own decisions." We stopped at an ATM to get extra cash even though I had exactly 100 bucks on me. His stop was much sooner and he said I didn't have to walk far, only I really did have to walk far. I talked to my friend Lin from NY and told her to send out a Fb blast to our EJ group saying to go to the meeting I might not make, and explained the CD thing. I got lost and she actually gave me directions. But still it was a long way and by the time I got there I felt extremely energized, as soon as I put my things down.
The night ended as I talked to two young girls from a school in Connecticut about Student Activism, talkig to your classes and how to get attention, how to message. People kept telling us to quite down because they were sleeping. We whispered in front of the stage. I told them the same thing I told Kristin, that we can't be fighting for Climate legislation just yet, not anymore. We have to fight for Environmental Justice, knocking out the worst of the worst, like Fracking, Offshore Drilling and MTR. We need to fight for Justice for people that live along the Gulf, who live in most toxic areas, like moving or shutting down the Incinerator in Detroit, for example. Maybe we can get legislation encompassing all of those things. But that's like kicking a monster in the knees, eventually the whole thing will fall down. But most importantly, we create a mental shift, so that in general consciousness, we're not fighting for our surroundings, we're fighting for the people, which is true, and people will be able to equate that with the severe destruction happening abroad, and then we'll win Climate Justice, by breaking the bridge. Their names were Ronda and Luisa. It turned out they were travelling with Ed & Russel and the political theatre couple. Ed said I could ride back with them and in the morning I could put my things in his car.
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