Today Marks 7th Year Anniversary of Eric McDavid’s Arrest

13th Jan 2013. Today marks the 7th Anniver­sary of Eric McDavid’s (also known as “D”) arrest. Eric was arrest­ed (along with Zachary Jen­son and Lau­ren Wein­er) on Jan­u­ary 13, 2006, as part of the government’s ongo­ing Green Scare cam­paign. All three were charged with “Con­spir­a­cy to dam­age and destroy prop­er­ty by fire and an explo­sive.” His arrest was the direct result of a gov­ern­ment infor­mant – known only as “Anna” – who spent a year and a half draw­ing him in and work­ing with the FBI to fab­ri­cate a crime and impli­cate Eric in it. Anna was paid over $65,000 for her work with the FBI. Eric was impris­oned for what amounts to thought-crime – no actions were ever car­ried out, and Eric was charged with a sin­gle count of “con­spir­a­cy” – a pow­er­ful legal tool often used by the state to crush dis­sent.

Below is his per­son­al cor­re­spon­dence fol­lowed by a cor­re­spon­dence from Jen­ny, his part­ner.

Learn more about Eric’s sto­ry or find out how to write to him at supporteric.org.

Let­ter from Eric McDavid,

7 yrs…  i can’t say it’s easy 2 put these words dn on paper – that it doesn’t pain me 2 look bk over these past 7 trips around the Sun… w/the process of the courts con­tin­u­ing n the final appeal stages; it’s end yet 2 show up on the hori­zon = no illu­sions, while still Danc­ing w/wishes… Love & Joy have also made their pres­ence known = the over­whelm­ing sup­port from all over the Earth ~ i wish 2 Thank every persyn/grp that has writ­ten & sup­port­ed me along this jour­ney – Ur intents, N which ever forms they’ve tak­en, have aid­ed & nour­ished me N remem­ber­ing who i am N a sit­u­a­tion &
envi­ron­ment bent on unrav­el­ing, dis­mem­ber­ing & remolding…along w/all the com­mu­nal Sol­i­dar­i­ty, i’m grate­ful 4 the sup­port of friends & fam­i­ly – & how i’ve been buoyed by the Love and Pas­sion­ate Patience of my Part­ner = i Love you J, you R my Joy…  …  i’m unable 2 ade­quate­ly express my feel­ings of Respect & Sol­i­dar­i­ty 4 all the folx Danc­ing w/the overt repres­sion across the con­ti­nent while stay­ing True 2 their Hearts…  2 the folx Danc­ing w/Grand Juries = bide Ur time, this is 1 of the few circ.s where time is on the SD of the oppressed…  w/N this cul­tur­al cli­mate the Path is not easy or sim­ple by any means – mak­ing it all the more impor­tant 2 find those unique, ever chang­ing, beau­ti­ful & sus­tain­able
ways 2 aid & nur­ture each oth­er… …. i’ll close wish­ing that each of U con­tin­ue 2 explore & heal Ur Hearts & com­mu­ni­ties; may U find the space & time over the com­ing yr 2 let Ur minds play w/new & safe com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, & Ur bod­ies w/self-defense…

Stay safe & have fun find­ing Ur Joy

N Sol­i­dar­i­ty
w/much Love
D

Let­ter from Jen­ny,

Hel­lo friends,

Tomor­row, Jan­u­ary 13th,  marks the 7th year of D’s arrest.  It’s strange
how life real­ly does move in cycles.  Glanc­ing at the note I sent you all
last year my eyes are greet­ed by good news.  After his move to Ter­mi­nal
Island last year – right before the New Year – D and I were final­ly
allowed to hold hands dur­ing our vis­its for the first time since his
arrest.  After 6 years.  It was a reminder of how pre­cious such seem­ing­ly
insignif­i­cant acts can be – and to remem­ber to nev­er take them for
grant­ed.

On New Year’s Eve this year I spent the day vis­it­ing D at Ter­mi­nal Island.
The vis­it start­ed nor­mal­ly – a much await­ed hug and kiss, slow­ly mov­ing
to our chairs, but let­ting our hands linger – fin­gers inter­twined as we
reached across the tiny table between us.  That last­ed about 30 sec­onds.
They called D up to the podi­um where they sit and watch…  I heard a
flur­ry of voic­es with under­tones of urgency, although nev­er hos­til­i­ty. 
When he came back he told me they weren’t allow­ing us to hold hands
any­more.  He tried once more to get them to check their own rules, but to
no avail.  After over a year of being grant­ed this glo­ri­ous priv­i­lege, it
was yanked from under­neath us.

So many things have been tak­en from us.

A mil­lion thoughts swim through your head at times like that.  I knew this
might hap­pen.  It’s always in the back of your mind – what they
can/might/will take one day.  I’m more pre­pared for it now than I used to
be – which is to say it’s slight­ly less dev­as­tat­ing when it hap­pens.

I spent much of the car ride home think­ing about loss.  Some­times it feels
like my heart has bro­ken so many times that the thing I am mend­ing bears
no resem­blance to the orig­i­nal.  That thought scares me.  But then I think
of the alter­na­tive.  A friend recent­ly told me that she always felt like
love should be a safe space…  I wish I could agree.  But that has nev­er
been my expe­ri­ence.  With love we throw our hearts wide open – which means
every­thing gets in.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  And some­times that
means we hurt like hell.  But oth­er times that means we get to expe­ri­ence
so much joy and beau­ty that we almost can’t stand it.  And that is what I
have expe­ri­enced with D.  And I would do it all over again in a heart­beat.

D is an amaz­ing indi­vid­ual.  His heart is big­ger than any i’ve ever known
and his mind pow­er­ful­ly cre­ative and beau­ti­ful…  and his com­mit­ment to
his friends, his fam­i­ly, and strug­gle is rock sol­id.  Being his part­ner
has been the most amaz­ing, beau­ti­ful jour­ney.  I wouldn’t trade it for
any­thing.

Even with all of the loss.

Some­times my heart gets so heavy…  but then I remem­ber our friends and
com­rades who have fol­lowed sim­i­lar paths.  Many of whom are now out here
with us, again.  And then I remem­ber all of you – who have been a part of
this strug­gle.  Who have been here with us every step of the way.  And
togeth­er we inch clos­er to that light at the end of the tun­nel…

Tomor­row is the 13th.  I’ll be dri­ving down to vis­it D again.  He called
me the day after our last vis­it to tell me they found the “memo” that
allows us to hold hands.  How strange that a piece of paper can dic­tate my
inter­ac­tions with my part­ner of 7+ years.  And that some­one mis­plac­ing
that piece of paper can be such a cause for pan­ic, sor­row and reflec­tion.
I’m glad they found it.  But D has told me it doesn’t seem to have fixed
the prob­lem…  either way,  I’m not hold­ing my breath.  Noth­ing is ever
cer­tain.  And even if they don’t have it fixed…I know that noth­ing can
stop us.  Because we have each oth­er.  And we have all of you.

To all of our friends and com­rades who have expe­ri­enced so much loss this
year – our unend­ing love, sup­port, and sol­i­dar­i­ty.  You are nev­er alone.

And to our friends and com­rades who have gained their free­dom – or at
least pieces of it – wel­come home.

With love and sol­i­dar­i­ty,
jen­ny

P.S.
Eric has been in prison a long time…and he has a lot more to go.  Please
let him know that you are still think­ing about him!  Let­ters, books,
dona­tions, fundrais­ers and sup­port events are still always need­ed.  For
more infor­ma­tion on how to write Eric a let­ter or how to donate to his
sup­port fund, please vis­it:  www.supporteric.org