Notes From The Field #2

The date is August 27. Today i am writing from a public library in Portland, we traveled from Bellingham, to Tacoma, to Olympia, onto Portland, and later in the day we will be leaving for Nest. A ground troop of forest activists located somewhere east of Albany, OR. If the past few days are any indication i believe this journey could prove to be quite the roller coaster. Olympia for example, was full of more surprises than a B class movie trying desperately to keep you on the edge of your seat. Within the first hour we were swimming in the deschutes river, scaling, then leaping off log jams and of course taking in the drunken stuper of some men barely able to stand. Next we decided a good frolic in a field was necessary. What we didn't know was that the owner of zed field wasn't quite so warm and fuzzy about the prospect of social dissidents tromping through his grass. We were able however to eat a quick dinner and lose a wallet before we took off thanks to the friendly warning of a passing nieghbor. Later that evening the missing wallet forced us to return to the field where we were promptly met by the sound of a roaring quad and an elitist prick who is so concerned with keeping people on the other side of his 4 foot fence that he began filming us immediately, so as to report us later. After a brief exchange and some "fuck you's" we thought it prudent to leave as quickly as we had come. the rest of our evening was filled with parkour, wine, and the typical dubious activities that follow wine. All and all it was a damn good day.

As for Portland, the same thing tends to happen to me every time i show up here. Militant veganism. Apart from our hosts who themselves are vegan and extremely giving and caring people. we met numerous individuals who began preaching the tenants of veganism- it may as well have been the bible. Before i get too far let me clarify, i have nothing wrong with veganism, vegetarianism, or meat eaters. I animatley oppose factory farming, i am in complete agreement that we should free those animals and abolish that form of farming. However, if i choose to respectfully raise a cow, on ample amounts of free range grassland, and never take from that animal more than i need, i have no problem with this. human are omnivores we have historically eaten meat for our entire existence. It becomes important to realize that we are animals, there are other species of animals who indeed eat more animals. this is called the food chain. The problems today are not the we kill animals, It is that we raise them in incarceration, then slaughter them. There is nothing natural about this. It would be like conflating killing during war time operations or out of sport, with killing for survival and necessity. So my only problem with veganism is that is becomes yet another means for people to gain the elusive 'moral high ground'. i have no interest being proselytized to, i could just as easily pick apart aspects of their lives, but that would not grow the kind of unified movement we need. Thus i will end with this, all of us need to further our respect for the land and the creatures that inhabit it.

Notes From The Field #1

Today is a day of anticipation, exhilaration, fear and utter release. I set out on a journey with no definitive end or time line. I know only this much, the road ahead will hold many lessons and many more memories. I am traveling with a group of trusted friends whose passion and drive to affect the world around them, goes unmatched. I am a man whose reserved skepticism sometime gets the best of him, but i refuse to stop fighting and simply accept the status quo. The apathetic trends of this culture have gone too far and they will not win this battle, not for this man.

The date is August 25. I sit in a upper middle class home in the heart of Tacoma. We are staying at one of my traveling compadres parents home. I will likely not be exposed to such luxury for some time. We leave here at noon, heading south, Olympia is to be our next stop. From there Portland, and by Friday we will be east of Albany; meeting with a group of forest defenders. They climb trees all day in search of the elusive red tree vole; an endangered species whose habitat is rapidly being raped and exploited so that we may enjoy three ply toilet paper for our delicate asses. Needless to say i am not in favor of the logging. I am not i favor of any form of modern day resource extraction, in which we take from the land far more than we could ever use responsibly. Humans of course need resources, what we do not need is clear cuts, strip mines, oil extraction and spills so large we could never even attempt to truly "clean" them up. What we need is a change of mind, realizing we do not own the land, we are part of it, without it we die. From here i can only hope our actions will change.

Have to cut this short, no time. Tune in at some point in the near future for more updates from the field. Until then...pick up a brick!