"Corruption never has been compulsory..."

I've kept returning to this poem — ever since I first came to this coast. And in our days now, days of protest and corruption, I find myself asking: what do the mountains say?

____________________

Shine, Perishing Republic

By Robinson Jeffers   

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly

A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

________________________

Robinson Jeffers, "Shine, Perishing Republic" from The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, edited by Tim Hunt.  Copyright © 1938 by Robinson Jeffers, renewed 1966 and ©  Jeffers Literary Properties.  With the permission of Stanford University Press, www.sup.org.

Source: The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers (Stanford University Press, 2001)

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Occupy Monterey — Press Conference

 

At Saturday's press conference for Occupy Monterey, Rose Aguilar from Your Call radio (KUSP, M-F, 10 am) asked this good question: "What does the Occupy Movement mean in a smaller town like Monterey?"

"It means we've started more slowly," she was told. "It means we've had a chance to watch and learn from what's happened elsewhere."

Very interestingly, unlike elsewhere, Occupy Monterey is beginning as a partnership with the City of Monterey. Occupy Monterey will have a permitted tent and table area at Colton Hall — but the encampment, also permitted, will be at Veterans Park. Veterans Park isn't as visible (or as confrontational) an encampment site — but the permit provides "a framework for partnership with the City and a legitimate context within which the City currently has agreed to waive local rules and city code...[and the permit] establishes a meaningful starting point for our relationship with our City partner."

For instance, currently the City has waived permit fees for the group campsite at Veterans Park — and "The eight-person (density) limitation is not applicable to area(s) within the group campsite."

A sign will be posted at the encampment that lists both the park's rules and Occupy Monterey's own "Code of Conduct." The intention is that an Occupy Monterey liaison should be available both at Colton Hall and at Veterans Park to meet City officials whenever such a need might occur.

Occupy Monterey retains the prerogative to move in another direction should its own integrity and the City's intentions diverge — but as the Occupy Movement matures and explores the ways in which it will need to evolve, it will be exciting to follow this local cooperative model between Occupy Monterey and the City of Monterey.

The rest of the text of this journal-post is better told by the signs themselves — and by the faces of participants.

Student activist Derek Bausek from CSUMB.

Helen Davis and poet Elliot Rokowitz from the Northern California chapter of the ACLU.

Chris Fitz of Unite Here Local 483.

Assembymember Bill Monning.

Occupy Monterey

In case you haven't heard, here's a transcription of the most recent notice from the Peace Coalition of Monterey County...

 

THE CALL GOES OUT! THE OCCUPATION OF MONTEREY BEGINS WITH AN ASSEMBLY AND A PRESS CONFERENCE

Join the Assembly at Noon this Saturday, November 5th at Colton Hall... Then rally at the press conference which will take place at 12:30 P.M.

The occupation of Monterey will formally be announced at the press conference to take place at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday, November 5th, 2011 in front of Colton Hall. Taking part in the press conference will be participants in the Occupy Monterey Initiative including a coalition of community leaders representing a variety of local organizations all of which stand together as part of the 99% of Americans who are rising up against corporate social irresponsibility, greed and corruption. Participants at the press conference include Cesar Lara, Director of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Nick Tomb of Global Majority, Steve Rease, Esq. representing the National Lawyers Guild, Chris Fitz of Unite Here Local 483, Helen Davis and Elliot Roberts Rukowitz of the ACLU Northern California, Phillip Crawford of The Monterey Peace and Justice Center and  Derek Bausek, a CSUMB student activist and other Montereyans and community organizers.
 
What:   Occupy Monterey Assembly and Press Conference
When:  Assemble at Noon and Press Conference at 12:30 P.M. November 5th, 2011
Where: In front of Colton Hall, 570 Pacific Street, Monterey
 
Occupy Monterey is a peaceful, all-inclusive group acting in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the 1000+ movements in affiliated cities worldwide.

Note:  It has been arranged for Occupiers to camp at Veterans’ Memorial Park, a Monterey City park.  After the initial meeting at Colton Hall, campers will go up the hill to Veterans’ Memorial Park to establish their camp.  (See Tuesday, November 1, Peace Calendar).

In addition, note that mindful training sessions are scheduled for earlier Saturday morning...

 The schedule for trainings has been changed:  Both begin at 9:00 am sharp!

The Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is offering two valuable trainings to Occupy Wall Street Activists.

These trainings will be offered at Monterey College of Law, 100 Colonel Durham Street, Seaside, CA, BEGINNING AT 9:00AM SHARP. 

Training 1:  Know Your Rights
This training covers all of the basic legal information for interactions with police. Topics range from questioning to searches to safety. The interactive format allows participants to explore their options in realistic settings.

Training 2:  Legal Observer/Media Witness
This training was designed to prepare Legal Observers for mass actions. The focus is on collecting information that will be useful in criminal defense of activists or in civil prosecution of police and government.

These trainings are free.  However, space is limited.  You MUST pre-register for these trainings by sending an email to phillipjcrawford831@gmail.com no later than 5:00 pm, Friday, November 4.

The email must contain your name and phone number.  Your registration is complete when you receive a confirmation e-mail.

Only people who have pre-registered will be admitted.

Please direct any questions to Phillip Crawford of the National Lawyers Guild at 831-869-2834  or phillipjcrawford831@gmail.com

More Information:

http://www.occupymontereypeninsula.org

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=275630515802320&notif_t=event_update

If you can't occupy...then surround

On Sunday, I heard Bill McKibben speak at a lively, full-house gathering in San Luis Obispo. Two big ideas I walked away with...

Firstly: "Much of your effort has to be in the local community, but in such a way that that local effort has a bigger, even a global, political impact."

Then secondly, surrounding is a necessary adjunct and follow-up to occupying. Not that occupying needs to be supplanted — but in order to keep the public theater fresh and exciting, new forms of protest need to be created, too.

For example, in London when protestors were prevented from occupying their first choice, the heart of London's financial center, they found themselves occupying venerable St. Paul's Cathedral instead. When the City of London Corporation, the local government in London's financial district — and more importantly, St. Paul's Cathedral itself — threatened to take legal action to end the occupation, first Canon Giles Fraser and two other St. Paul's officials resigned in protest, and then Christian activists in Britain vowed to ring the protestors and St. Paul's in a "circle of prayer." As I'm typing this, two hours ago St. Paul's suddenly shifted course, rescinded its threat to initiate legal actions against the protestors, and has initiated dialogue with the occupiers instead.

And then on November 6 in Washington, protestors of the Tar Sands Pipeline intend to surround the White House, our house. All the signs carried in that action will be quotations from Barack Obama's campaign speeches in 2008. As Bill McKibben points out, this is a flashpoint moment, an opportunity to put a dent in the oil industry's agenda. Click on the link above to listen to actor David Strathairn's eloquent and heartfelt invitation to join and support this action.

More than 200 protesters, including many long-time Carmel residents rally in front of the La Playa Hotel. Photo courtesy of Xasáuan Topday.Finally, on a very local level (in Carmel), protestors have been joining in support of employees of the La Playa Hotel who have been abruptly terminated, even though some of them have worked at La Playa for 20 years or more.. Here is Xasáuan Today's typically sharp and pointed reporting on one more important local issue.

Sacred Sites Peacewalk for a Nuclear Free World

Is it a matter of trying to remember, or wanting to remember, the peacewalk from the gates of Diablo Canyon? I wonder exactly where they are right now — and who has come and gone. That's one reason I'm so interested in what Janine will find. Janine's a young filmmaker who has flown from Maine to do the whole walk. And I find myself wondering what stories — and what story — she'll find. One thing she wants to find is her own political voice. That seems a story of our times. But maybe it's a story for every time.

Fred Collins of the Northern Chumash and Louise Dunlap, one of the organizers of the walk.

One of the paper cranes that was part of our prayer offerings at the gate.

Filmmaker Janine Parziale from Maine.

Megu Iwate of Japan, who recently did a peacewalk in her native land to honor the people of Fukushima. She's walking here as well to help Californians remember the many parallels between Diablo Canyon and Fukushima.

As the Sacred Sites Peacewalk press release says,

"The walkers will walk 15-18 miles a day looking into the safety of land and people along their route, the still-present danger of nuclear weapons, the poisonous nuclear fuel cycle and how to end the nuclear nightmare in California and worldwide."

SLO Mothers for Peace have been diligent, steady caretakers of this issue since 1973.

Chief Harry Goodwolf Kindness, of the Mohawk/Oneida tribe, drove from Las Vegas to make the whole walk, too.

Miwok elder Wounded Knee.

Some of the people in this walk have walked across this continent — and on many other continents as well.

And some are making their first peacewalk.

"500 mile" spirit runners, with great dedication and experience in such ventures, are accompanying the walk.

San-ji, one of the two leaders of the walk, is a Japanese Buddhist monk now from Bainbridge Island in Washington. San-ji has done peacewalks around the world.

Jun-san Yasuda is the other leader of the walk. She is a member of the Buddhist "walking" order of Nipponzan Myohoji, and she has been honored with a white eagle feather and the Lakota name "Walks Far Woman."

As her friend Dennis Banks says of Jun-san's order: "...their only mission is to walk and to pray for peace. Maybe when the last nuclear bomb is dismantled and the last treaty is signed, maybe then they can rest and quietly meditate."

If you click here, you'll be led to more details of the Sacred Sites Peacewalk. But already you can notice that the peacewalk will be in Santa Cruz on Saturday, October 29; in San José at the San José Peace and Justice Center on Sunday evening, October 30; then in Berkeley for a potluck and discussion facilitated by Buddhist teacher and environmental activist Joanna Macy on Friday, November 4 — just to mention some of the timing of the walk.

Contact phone # of the walkers en route: 805-234-1769. You can learn updated arrival times — and where and when to meet or join the walk — at this number.