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Snoozing
with Nature The idea came from backpacking and from our son Zeke, whose biological clock was permanently set for waking at 4:30 am. My husband, O'B, and I liked sleeping outdoors, and we didn't like waking before six. So, 20 years ago O'B took the wall off the north side of the garage and half of both ends. He built a wall down the length of the garage in the middle, screened the north half of the garage, and we've slept there ever since. I hope I sleep the rest of my life like this. First of all, the 13 panels of the screen walls are a tapestry of the seasons. Dawn comes through the eastern two panels at varying times. Every spring morning, the Indian plum and bigleaf maple leaves have grown larger. In summer, a dark, heavy canopy rustles in the breeze. Eight screen panels turn maple red in autumn, and all are starkly etched by branches in winter. Springtime frogs sing us to sleep, and different bird songs mark different mornings. One summer, bees settled into the bird house under the eaves, and would startle and buzz loudly when we passed by them on our way to bed. Occasionally some small being's last call pierces the night when a predator has found it. When I'm lucky, I am wakened by the tentative beginnings of a rain. It's hard to tell when rain finishes, as it morphs into drippings off the leaves and branches. When the wind blows, the trees whirl wildly, but the screen sifts the wind into a light breeze across our faces. One winter night when I stepped outside, every icy blade of grass was reflecting a full moon. No winter night has defeated the warmth of down. One time we found that fine snow had sifted onto the bed through the screen. We shook the cover quilt, the snow flew away, and we slept warm. Spider webs drape the garage roof beams, but I can't recall being bitten by a spider in the 20 years we've been sleeping there.
Now there was the Time of the Opossums. At first there was just one. She (he?) would come into the other side of the garage around 3 am, after a night of foraging. We would hear her shuffle around a bit, but she'd settle down when we knocked on the dividing wall. One night when I was out of town, the opossum was keeping O'B awake, so he wanted her out. He walked over to the other side of the garage, lifted the garage door, hollered at the opossum, and smacked the metal garbage can with a stick. The opossum shot out, and O'B went back to sleep. Twenty minutes later a police officer was shining a flashlight into his eyes from outside the screen. "Mr. O'Brien?" "Hmm?" O'B answered. "A neighbor has reported an argument and a gun shot from over here." "No," O'B answered tentatively. Then he remembered – sort of. "Oh, yes. There was a ... you know … one of those animals that get run over by cars." "You mean an opossum?" the officer offered. "Yes!" O'B answered cheerfully, everything coming back. "Well, have a good night, Mr. O'Brien." "You, too." Shortly after that, a baby opossum bit O'B's thumb draped over the edge of the bed. That was it for the opossums, who were now clearly plural. We borrowed a live trap, set it up on the other side of the garage, put an apple inside and went to bed. Ten minutes later, a clank and a bunch of scuffling. O'B put the trap in the car, turned music on, drove a calm opossum five minutes away near a bridge, and let it go. Another apple, a few minutes more, and it started all over again. Four opossums that night; three the next night; two the next; and the last night, O'B carried away a very large matriarch. Ten opposums had set up home across the wall. None have ever returned. I suppose (especially after the opossum stories) I'll never convince many people to forsake their walled bedrooms. But the truth remains for me: Every time I walk into the night to go to bed, it feels like I'm coming home. Mary O'Brien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist since 1981. She can be reached at mob@efn.org
The
Kucinich Factor Dear Kerry supporters in Oregon, I have a message for you from progressives and Greens both within and outside the Democratic party. The best way you can help elect John Kerry President in November is: Vote for Dennis Kucinich in the May 18th Oregon primary. Huh, you say? Well, listen carefully. This is truly one of the most divisive and crucial elections in modern U.S. history. George Bush and his henchmen have given us a brutal unjustified war and an unparalleled assault on the environment, the constitution, everything. One can only shudder to imagine Bush truly set loose once he can operate without concern for re-election. It is almost a given that we all understand that. However, Kerry has some significant baggage and problems with the left. He is a member of the centrist DLC, albeit perhaps its most liberal member. He is pro NAFTA/WTO. He voted for the initial authorization for Bush to go to war in Iraq. Now he must run to the center to pick up those crucial swing votes, as all presidential candidates must do in the fall. Nader and/or the Green Party (it's a little complicated as Nader is not likely the GP nominee this year but there will be one) are already polling at 6 percent, and if you were listening to the left the way we are, you would be worried. You would see there are plenty of people who are as adamantly opposed to the two-party system now as there were in 2000. Here in Oregon, Gore squeaked by with just 6,000 last minute votes (0.44 percent)! If you are not alarmed at the prospect of a repeat of 2000, you are not paying attention. So why Kucinich? Besides the wonderful things he stands for, peace, justice, liberty — all the good things the Democratic party supposedly represents — there is one key thing you must understand: Only Dennis Kucinich can hold together the left. Kucinich's campaign has been a breath of fresh air to us weary progressives and Greens, and he has drawn an amazing amount of support from staunch Green Party activists. However, the progressive/Green left is already splintering, just as it did in 2000, and for the same reasons. John Kerry must play to the center to garner the swing vote of the moderate middle. This is diminishing his ability to also instill belief in the progressive/Green left that he will be significantly different from a Republican president. If the Democratic party cannot somehow assure progressives and Greens that their concerns will be part of a Kerry presidency, it will be a disaster for all who want to see Bush gone. If the left splits off to third parties, we will be facing, again, an electorate almost equally split among the major parties that the Republicans will find all too easy to steal. If we in Oregon, a state that has often led the country in adopting environmental and progressive standards, vote strongly for Kucinich in the primary, we send a very important message — and messenger — to the Democratic National Convention without in any way diminishing Kerry's ability to gain the nomination. We send the message that environmental and socially progressive issues must, once again, be an important part of the Democratic Party platform that John Kerry will then be empowered to address in the remaining campaign. Kucinich could very well be the one person who can hold the left for Kerry, thus helping to do the most important thing — get Bush and his gang of thieves out of power. Giving Kucinich the delegates to take to the convention may be the only way to keep progressive/Green votes from hemorrhaging over to a Nader candidacy. So, if you love this country and hate what's happening to it, if you want John Kerry to win the White House and send Bush and his minions packing, vote for Dennis Kucinich in the Oregon primary and then go out afterwards and work like the dickens for the Democratic nominee. Don St.Clair and Fiora Starchild are founders/directors of the Green Democratic Alliance, http://www.greendemocraticalliance.org
Coercive
Injustice Mother's Day greetings were delivered early this year to three local moms — with love from the federal government. In lieu of cards, FBI agents hand-delivered subpoenas — demanding that the women comply with the most coercive of judicial investigations: the grand jury. Jennifer Woodruff and Twiga May-Whittier have been subpoenaed as part of an ongoing investigation into the Romania auto arson that brought Carla Martinez and other activists before the grand jury more than two years ago (see EW archives 1/17/02). Heather Whitney, the mother of a newborn, has been subpoenaed to testify as a witness in Seattle as part of an investigation the Washington US Attorney vaguely referred to as crimes committed in the name of animal rights and/or environmentalism. When a District Attorney lacks evidence to indict an individual for a specific crime, or when they have no idea who might have been involved in a case they want to prosecute, they can convene a grand jury. A grand jury creates the opportunity for federal agents to turn their guesswork into possible evidence with the goal of securing an indictment — even if the evidence is flimsy and circumstantial. The side effect is what activists have referred to as a political fishing expedition; through questioning of witnesses, federal agents are able to uncover a road map of personal relationships within a targeted community for future use. But, according to Assistant US Attorney Kirk Engdall, activists misunderstand the role of the grand jury. "I think that they are misinformed. They don't know the history or the purpose of the grand jury. They misunderstand the process," he claims. He defines the grand jury as "a secret proceeding that avails itself to investigate criminal conduct with the interest of protecting those who are subjects of the grand jury." He adds the secrecy is "to protect the innocent." When questioned by a grand jury, one's Fifth Amendment right becomes null and void. In its place, the court can grant a special form of "immunity" under which a prosecutor is not supposed to use a person's testimony against them. Immunity then compels a person to continue answering questions, and if they choose to continue to plead the Fifth, they can be jailed for an indefinite amount of time. "Grand juries have a history of targeting who they perceive as the most vulnerable to coercive interrogation," says Steven Heslin, Copwatch activist and media liaison for the mothers who've been subpoenaed. "Simply put, they have two options: They can resist the grand jury and risk being jailed and separated from their children or they can comply with a modern day witch hunt that compromises their values and at least six constitutional rights." But, according to government attorney Engdall, whether a person is a mother is "irrelevent. The grand jury doesn't target people based on their economic or social status. It invites people to come and present documentation or testimony concerning a criminal investigation," he says. Those subpoenaed would disagree. "I lose the right to make the decision to not participate in the process because it is directly detrimental to the health of my baby," says Whitney. "If I can't breastfeed my child, she'll be denied vital nutrients she can't get from formula — so, no matter what, she's the one at the highest risk in this process." "I can only wonder why they would call single mothers to testify," questions Woodruff. "I feel as though it is because we have so much more at stake and that is one of the dirtiest, most unethical things that a government can do to its own people." Lisa Igoe is a freelance writer, a member of Cascadia Media Collective and a frequent contributor to Eugene Weekly.
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