Category: Global

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

12th Jan 2012. Marie Mason’s 51st birth­day is com­ing up on Jan­u­ary 26, 2013. We are ask­ing that folks hold events for Marie around her birth­day as part of what will be an annu­al time to cel­e­brate her life and keep her spir­its up while she remains impris­oned.

The orig­i­nal call out for Marie’s birth­day can be found at www.supportmariemason.org, along with her cur­rent address, art­work, inter­views, let­ters and more ways to get involved.

11th Jan 2012. Alleged ELF activist Rebec­ca Rubin, who turned her­self in last month at the Cana­di­an bor­der, plead not guilty today in a Eugene Court. Accord­ing to a state­ment from her lawyer, “Rubin has not been co-oper­at­ing with
author­i­ties in terms of help­ing inves­ti­ga­tors find two oth­ers accused in the case.” 

Her tri­al is set for March 19.

Let­ters of sup­port can be sent here for the time being:

Rebec­ca Rubin #2033855
Lane Coun­ty Adult Cor­rec­tions
101 West 5th Avenue
Eugene, Ore­gon 97401–2695

For a com­plete descrip­tion of mail reg­u­la­tions, check here.

The fol­low­ing is from an Asso­ci­at­ed Press arti­cle pub­lished today:

Canadian woman pleads not guilty to ecoterrorism fires that did $40 million damage around West

A woman who turned her­self in after a decade as a fugi­tive in the largest ecoter­ror­ism inves­ti­ga­tion in U.S. his­to­ry has plead­ed not guilty to con­spir­a­cy and arson charges in fed­er­al court.

Rebec­ca Rubin, a 39-year-old Cana­di­an cit­i­zen, was ordered to remain in cus­tody dur­ing the hear­ing Fri­day in Eugene, Ore.

Tri­al was set for March 19.

A fed­er­al indict­ment accus­es Rubin of being a mem­ber of cells of the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front and Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion Front… Inves­ti­ga­tors blame the group based in Eugene for 20 fires around the West that did $40 mil­lion in dam­age.

She turned her­self in to the FBI last Novem­ber at the Cana­di­an bor­der with Wash­ing­ton state. At the time, her lawyer said she want­ed to get the case behind her.

Marie Mason is an eco-pris­on­er con­demned with a long prison pun­ish­ment by the Amer­i­can regime.

Marie Mason’s 51st birth­day is com­ing up on Jan­u­ary 26, 2013. We are ask­ing that folks hold events for Marie around her birth­day as part of what will be an annu­al time to cel­e­brate her life and keep her spir­its up while she remains impris­oned.

We know that the mid-win­ter hol­i­days are a busy time for every­one, but they are a sad time for the pris­on­ers who remain inside – and every­one wants some cheer on their birth­day! So we hope that folks can find time to plan a small event for Marie, such as a let­ter-writ­ing or birth­day par­ty. (If time per­mits, we rec­om­mend that you might want to hold let­ter writ­ings a week or more ear­li­er so the cards can reach her before the 26th.)

Some peo­ple are con­fused about Marie’s mail sit­u­a­tion. It is true that she can only send let­ters to a pre-approved list of 100 peo­ple. How­ev­er, she can receive let­ters from any­one and so she will be able to receive all these birth­day wish­es. (Please be sure that the sender’s first and last name are on the enve­lope, that let­ters are all in Eng­lish – she can receive let­ters in oth­er lan­guages but will be delayed – and that cards do not have glit­ter or oth­er things added to them.)

Last, if you are plan­ning a pub­lic event for her birth­day, please tell us and we’ll include the infor­ma­tion on the web­site.

Sup­port Marie Mason
www.supportmariemason.org

Marie Mason #04672–061
FMC Car­swell
Fed­er­al Med­ical Cen­ter
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127

Source: Sup­port Marie Mason