Eminent Domain at Woodlawn Wilds

The garden space I tend across from my house catches most of the sun lost to tree cover in my backyard. The land was used for years as a waste place where kudzu and garden clippings held forth while it flipped for profit from hand to hand. Over the years, I've worked to make it home to a community of healing herbs. The folks who now hold title to the land are building a "Green" home up the bank, but tell me they will let the garden stay. So the Lemon balm and chocolate mint, calendula and valarian, St. John's Wort and celendine, sage and lavendar, feverfew and comfrey, pokeweed and red clover, taragon and parsley, and all the other common and not so common sunshine loving healing herbs I can find, will continue to have a place to be where their unique beauty and healing properties can be demonstrated to all passersby.

Julyan Davis, my neighbor, appreciates the garden also. Last month I looked out to find him there, easel set up and brush in hand, capturing the garden on canvas. The scene reminded me of one of my favorite paintings by Renoir.

Julyan has come by with his easel at all hours, and from time to time throughout the month, catching the sun and shadow play in the garden, and the plants in various stages of opening and growth.

Julayan honors the garden, a place I call my "eminent domain," and one that has offered hours of contemplative time as I learn the ways of my herbal companions.

Cliffside Cakalak

The Cliffside Climate Action in Charlotte was a rousing show of resistance to King Coal and the devastation of mountain-top removal coal mining.

I helped out as a legal observer and in jailhouse support. Asheville was well represented at this remarkably well organized event, both inside and outside of the jail.

The rally and march through downtown Charlotte, energized by the drummers of Cakalak Thunder, and inspired by a diverse line up of speakers, made for a powerful showing of people power against the Earth killing practices of Duke Energy Corporation.

I watched as Avram Friedman of the Canary Coalition was loaded into the police wagon, and I waited outside the jailhouse until after 11 p.m. until all 44 line crossers were released.

Laura and Ole Sorensen were among the last to be set free. They were in high spirits, as was Richard Fireman. It was a long drive back to Asheville, but we all felt the time was well spent.

I've posted a full account of the day on the War Resisters League-Asheville blog.

I was inspired and educated and encouraged by the event. I reconnected with friends from throughout the Southeast who understand that this is a front line of action that cuts across issues. It is a war on Nature. A war on the Earth. A war on the people of these Appalachian mountains.

Obama: Stop the Bombs at Oak Ridge

For twenty years the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has gathered at the gates of the Y-12 Bomb factory in the Atomic City to call for an end to production of nuclear weapons.

Saturday I made the trip through the mountains along with several others from Asheville, including Ray Hearne, who walked for two days with the Buddhist Peace walkers to the site. Coleman Smith took on the persona of Martin Luther King as one of three puppets at the gate. He was joined by Sojourner Truth and Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the awful truth of the deadly bombs manufactured there, we gathered with joy and dancing and trust that we the people will prevail against this factory of death.

Guy and Candie Carawan of Highlander Center were there also and we all locked arms to sing "We Shall Overcome."

We must carry on folks. The Time is Now and it is as urgent that we gather for peace as ever.

The Asheville contingent was outnumbered by the folks coming from as far as Detroit and other long distances, including Veterans for Peace from Minnesota. It was good to see friends from Nashville, Knoxville and many other towns near and far.

Don't be lulled into complacency by President Obama's call for a world free of nuclear weapons. His intention to keep a "safe, secure, reliable stockpile" means Oak Ridge's Y-12 will continue to manufacture so called "thermonuclear secondaries" the highly explosive part of the W76 warhead that turns an atomic bomb into a thermonuclear bomb. And the Department of Energy has plans to build a new $3 billion bomb plant at Y-12 to keep making these hellish weapons for another century.

Is this the Change you voted for? Tell Obama that $40 billion spent every year on the US nuclear arsenal is theft from us all and a crime against humanity and the Earth.

Watch this video clip from the Knoxville paper to see the spirit of the gathering. It's hard to go there. Its a toxic city where good talents are wasted on manufacturing instruments of death.

Veterans Post Billboard Mandate: Indict Bush!

Yesterday I joined the Asheville Veterans for Peace for a rolling demonstration marking the 6th year of the Bush War on Iraq. We jumped aboard Ken Ashe's flatbed truck to take our usually static demonstration to the streets of Asheville.

One stop included the Asheville Citizen-Times offices where we distributed copies of War Crimes Times. The second edition continues to make the case for indictment and prosecution of the Bush regime.

After a few hours up and down the city streets, stopping here and there to pass out the newspaper, we encountered a snag when one of Asheville's policewomen walked up as we were stopped at light to warn: "No amplification without a permit." Kim Carlyle stopped mid-sentence in his amplified reading of the list of war crimes, and we all raised the volume of our voices, still permitted by our Constitution, as we rolled on.

Our next stop was UNC-Asheville to join with the SDS students who were just winding up their on campus demonstration. Then off to our Peace Park on Hilliard where we met up with Asheville War Resisters League activist Coleman Smith, ladder in hand, to update the billboard, nailing up our call for indictment of the Bush regime for its war crimes.

I enjoy the company of these Veterans who continue to speak out against these endless wars. Even former Mayor Leni Sitnick stopped to say "Thanks," and cheer us on.

War, Inc. Six Years On

Asheville's Veterans for Peace have been holding the ground at Pack Place near Vance monument for over five years speaking out against the war machine and honoring their vow to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

March 19, 2009, will mark the sixth year of the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. And now, even with the hopeful possibilities of a new administration, the US government continues its war on Afganistan. The time for public dissent has not passed with the inaugaration of a new administration. In fact, more visible demonstrations are called for so we will be ever mindful of the human and environmental costs of these ongoing wars. It is our civic responsibility to continue to make our dissent clear and unmistakable.

Korean War veteran James Latimore wears his red, white and blue top hat to catch the eyes of passers by. When he's not on the street corner demonstrating, you can find James at our local community radio station, WPVM, where he is one of the hosts of Veterans Voices, heard every Wednesday at 5 p.m. and streaming online.

War Resisters League Asheville member and local organizer Coleman Smith added his "War, Inc." puppet to the feisty mix Tuesday. The street corner vigil happens every Tuesday 5 to 6 p.m. and is open to all who wish to make a public stand against the wars.

On March 19, veterans and allies will meet at Earth Fare parking lot at 10 a.m. for a rolling demonstration against the wars. We will also be distributing the second edition of the publication War Crimes Times, published in Asheville. Asheville VFP president Kim Carlyle and yours truly are on the editorial board.