Mayberry

"Your old enough to remember President Reagan, arent you?" i asked Leiutenant Porter.
"He was my favorite president."
"Great. When Reagan was negotiating with the Soviets he often used the phrase 'Trust but verify' - do you remember this?"
"I do." replied the commander of Louisa's Special Operations Unit, who had been assigned to watch the protestors at the Climate Convergence
"So that is the policy we are going to use with you. You say you are going to pull back the police cars as a show of good faith and we believe you. And we are going to watch these two intersections and see if you stay pulled out."
"I am fine with that." responded Lt. Porter


I've delt with a lot of police over the years. Turns out my local police are the best i've ever worked with. No unnecessary violence, minimal power trips, no threats.

Sadly for Lt Porter, the graveyard shift supervisor did not get the memo and my first call this morning is that there was a sheriffs car stopping people at the interesections which were agreed to be clear. Porter is apologenic. Major Lowe (Porter's boss) is furious. He looks bad for not being in control of his force. When i first talked with Major Lowe, just before the convergence, he said he wanted Louisa to be live Mayberry (the ficticious sleepy village in the old Andy Griffeth show where there was no crime).

So the safest stretch to avoid police in Louisa county for the next couple of days, is right in front of the climate convergence on Yanceyville road. Strange how things work sometimes.

Breaking daddy out of jail

“You’ve done this twice before, I have problems also with Dominion’s nuclear stuff, but why do you have to break the rules?” the magistrate from Orange County was angry, referring to my two prior US trespassing offenses at the Exelon Headquarters outside of Chicago and Vermont Yankee reactor complex.

“This is not the only thing I do to try to stop this reactor. I am a Dominion stock holder, I go to every shareholders meeting and talk with senior management about the problems with this proposal. I write letters to the editor, I lobby the county supervisors, I work with organizations which lobby in Washington…”

“Good, so why do you have to break the rules?” He interrupts exasperated.

“Because these things are not effective enough. It is like Martin Luther King fighting for civil rights.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.” He dismissed

“You asked me why, I’m telling you.”

6 hours, $1000 bail and two different county jail cells later I was released. Along with 5 other climate heroes, including my dear friends Spot - who i played Magic with for hours until they confiscated our cards.

Angie and Caroline had ended up taking care of Willow for far longer than expected. Most of the activists involved in taking over Dominions “Information Center” at North Anna had estimated we would be released by the early evening. We were quite wrong.

Willow refused to stay home. Angie had warned him that it would likely be quite late before I was released and that he would be more comfortable if he stayed home. He was having none of it, he was going to be there when I got released. Caroline reported that he was incredibly well behaved on the long ride out to the Orange County jail only asking once when they were going to get there and mostly just reading to himself on Angie’s $5 reading lamp.

He finally fell asleep about half an hour before my 2 AM release. On the way home I positioned him so he was laying in my lap while he slept. I got into this work, because it is the right thing to do. But looking down at his sleeping face and tangled blond curls as we drove home exhausted, I know now that I stay in it for him. My determined 6 year old, who is going to wait for daddy to get busted out of jail if it takes all night.