G.A. Minutes 4-23-16
The weather people have been saying all day that it’s going to rain but they won’t say exactly when, sometime between afternoon and midnight is the best they can do.
At about 5:30 pm an Occupier takes a look at the latest weather map and tells us, “There’s a storm coming soon but it looks like it’s going to split in two just before it hits the lake. There’s more big storms coming but it looks like they won’t be here until after midnight”.
We decide to chance it and have a fire. The temperature is in the low 40s and a gusty east wind is blowing. We know we’ll need to get a big fire going right away.
Several Occupiers head right down to People’s Plaza. Among them is the Occupier who brings the food, sage and things like that. She says, “The Occupier who brings all the stuff for the fire is right behind me. We left at the same time”.
When we get to the space where we will build our fire, we find the Occupier from the east coast sitting on a bench talking with a young homeless man. She has a blanket wrapped around her legs. “Come and sit over here” she says, “all these bushes block the wind”.
We take her advice and huddle together, waiting for the fire stuff to arrive. After making small talk with the homeless young man, we find that despite his youth, he has been homeless for a long time.
The Spin Collective is just finishing their practice. Someone states, “They’re going to be performing here on Saturday, May 7th at 8:45 pm. We’ll need to put out our fire before then so we don’t distract from their show”.
An Occupier intimates, “Remember that letter to the editor I sent to the Northland Reader at the end of March? Well, it hasn’t been published yet so last night I contacted our friend, the reporter, to ask what was up. He told me that my email with the letter had never been received. He gave me a different email address and I sent it again. He said he had actually been looking for my letter to come in so would try his best to have it published in next week’s issue. I was beginning to think they were afraid of controversy. I know some of the folks over there so didn’t think that could be true. I hope everything works out”.
The fire stuff has still not arrived. An Occupier calls the fire Occupier’s cell phone and reports, “He said he had run into a ‘situation’, will be here in about 5 minutes and will explain when he gets here”.
When he arrives, we all jump up and unload things in a flash. He tells us that just as he was leaving he noticed 2 young boys breaking into the youth center. He stopped to talk with them. At least one of them appeared to be homeless and also looked as though he had been beat up. He says, “I wanted to help them but I also knew I needed to get down here and start the fire. I ended up giving them directions on how to get here and telling them to come down. Be on the lookout for 2 African American boys around 10 years old”
It’s a good thing there’s a lot of wood because we will need it tonight. In just a few minutes the Fire Magician has the flames up and roaring. We all crowd around, taking the chill off. A big fire truck comes racing down the hill with all its sirens and lights blaring. We look at each other quizzically; no worries, several squad cars and an ambulance follow close behind. It looks like they have bigger fish to fry.
An Occupier calls out, “Hey, look who’s here!” It’s Spiritual Man and our former camper who we’d nicknamed something like He Who Walks In A Coma. We haven’t seen either of them in about 6 months and are quite happy they have arrived.
However, things are a bit different this time. Coma Man is bright eyed coherent and alert. Spiritual Man looks a little thinner and rather haggard. We all shake hands with the former Coma Man. To Spiritual Man we give hugs.
The man who appears thin and haggard tells us he felt the need to just get away for a while so spent the winter up in Red Lake. Red Lake is known for wilderness and for elders who stick closely to their Anishinaabe traditions. The spirit man is Sioux, not Anishinaabe, but was still able to find respite in Native tradition.
He tells us he was trying to recover from a broken heart again. Broken hearts seem to be a pattern for him. He tends to form relationships with women who require things he is unable to offer. They don’t seem to be interested in the good qualities that he does have. After a while the women become angry; Spiritual Man feels rejected and goes off to lick his wounds. And so it goes….
We are just finishing a round of smudging when our friends, the Catholic Worker couple come to join the circle. They have brought us Kurdish cookies. Most of us had attended the recent Kurdish Dinner fundraiser so have sampled these cookies. We definitely would like to eat more.
We see 2 squad cars driving slowly past the Plaza. We’re just not in the mood for cops tonight so are glad when they pass us by.
A man who the street folks call No Neck arrives. He’s accompanied by a younger woman we have not met. We’re never particularly happy to see No Neck as he drives us and most other people nuts. It’s possible he is developmentally disabled, we’re not sure. He talks none stop about nothing, generally repeating something like, “What it gonna be like” at least 100 times over.
Tonight, No Neck is actually talking about something, sort of. He talks about how horrible and destructive white people are. We think No Neck is probably a white person himself but he doesn’t seem to be aware of that. Whatever…
The young woman who has accompanied Mr. Neck does not have a coat. Spiritual Man gives her his coat; the East Coast Occupier thinks he now looks cold so gives him her blanket. One of the Catholic Workers hands the eastern Occupier a big scarf.
The young chronically homeless man goes into his backpack and pulls out a well-worn but still pretty and obviously well-made quilt. He engulfs himself in it. Someone says, “Now that is a good blanket”. He answers, “Yeah, my grandmother made it for me”.
No Neck is not getting the attention that he requires. He, his friend and Not In A Coma Man leave. Spirit Man gets his coat back; all the other things go back to their original owners.
Another big fire truck drives slowly past. We think they are looking at us but it’s dark now so we can’t tell. Squad cars are buzzing here and there. There’s just a lot more activity around the Plaza than there was at the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. It will take us a while to get used to it.
Everyone is quiet, just gazing into the fire when out of the blue Spiritual Man says, “Dying is easy; living is hard”. We don’t know where that came from but we don’t disagree.
A friend from Veterans for Peace, who we teasingly call the Anarchist, rides up on his bike. He has attended our fires off and on for years.
An Occupier, also riding his bike, arrives. We haven’t seen him in a few weeks and want to hear about his adventures with Black Lives Matter and his court case from the November Stop the Enbridge Invasion. He tells us that when he and our other organizer friend pled not guilty to the charge of not leaving the Enbridge office when ordered by the police to do so, the court changed the charge so as to ensure they were not able to have a jury trial. They also raised the amount of the fine.
After our friends attempted to have their day in court, the judge found them guilty and gave them a fine of $380 each.
An Occupier asks, “Did you get my message about Idle No More wanting to give each of you $100 to help with the payment?” The bike riding Occupier answers, “Yes, thanks very much. That will help a lot. We’re each trying to raise donations from whoever is able to help”.
A conversation about the Necessity Defense begins. An Occupier tells about a recent case in London where the Necessity Defense was used concerning a blockade of a gun show. All blockaders were found not guilty. She adds, “It’s just a matter of time until the courts begin to recognize the legitimacy of the defense”.
A young boy of the neighborhood walks by. Spiritual Man calls him over and introduces everyone. We offer him a smudge, whatever else he would like from the table and a seat at the fire. The boy appears to be quite impressed by the whole goings on.
We feel a few sprinkles. An Occupier exclaims, “Don’t worry about it! The real rain won’t come for hours”. Well……maybe not. The rain is coming down harder. With little fanfare, everyone begins taking down the chairs and packing everything up. A few vehicles are driven up on the Plaza and everything loaded on. The fire is out too and it looks as though we’d never been here.
The rain is falling too fast for much chatter so we just say, “See you back here again on Tuesday”.