Part 1: The Introduction
A word about this post:
This will be a lengthy post about a lot
of stuff that is not a tiny house. However, the name of the blog is
Tiny Houses and Revolutions, so it's about time I start making good
on that second part of the title. Secondly, this post will function
as an extended “Hi, how're you doin?! This is what I've been up to”
post for my friends and family scattered about the US and the globe,
Part 2: The Prologue
First, I moved out to Phoenix, into a
cute little 1 bedroom cottage on a half lot in the Coronado district
of PHX with my partner and best friend Alex!
This is us (as we take a photo for the cover of our singer/songwriter album)...
This is our home
But what I really wanted to post about
was today. There was a May Day celebration. The flyer looked like
this:
Part 3: The May Day Garden
I showed up there with the band I'm in,
a radical social justice marching band called The Brass Lung. Despite looking a bit thin in ranks because half of the members were unable to
make it, we played an awesome show for all the people who showed
up ready to build a garden and park.
We took people across the street where
we would build a garden where there was only a desolate plot of
“private property.”
We made sure to cross at the sidewalk
like the law abiding citizens we are.
This was the general atmosphere of the
day
A lot of the folks there really liked
the music.
A few of the folks there were not fans
of our music
They came over to tell us about it
We were totally prepared for that
They liked talking
And video taping
...from multiple angles!
So did we!!
They informed us that there would be no
building on that property today.
We briefly considered what the police
officers had to say
They called for reinforcements for the
violent crowd
They made a line. We would have preferred a mosh pit, but
you've got to give the audience what it wants. Also, how fucking hot did this have to be? Lots of them were there all day. More than one person wondered aloud how much of Tempe resident's tax dollars were going to paying the creepers overtime to babysit us without asking.
So we played them a song (it was Amarga
Terra Mia. If anyone would like to post the lyrics in the comments, that would be excellent.)
Later, we walked away, having provided
a distraction.
For no reason, here's me by a train.
Momo and I then bounced, and here's
where the pictures turn to story again for a bit. We left and bought
9 2”x6”x96”, 1 4”x4”x96”, a box of exterior wood screws,
9 cubic feet of soil, 4 cubic feet of mulch, boca burgers, cheese,
ketchup, and a slew of other fixin's and materials. We also brought
from home otter pops, water, ice, and a ton of tools (circular saw,
drill, square, driver and drill bits, and anything else we might need
for the build.) We then came back and saw that people were building
in the public space, a barren strip of land right across from the
Farmer's Market. We called over 10 volunteers and got all the stuff
unloaded, and set to building a raised bed.
The building included a 30-45 minute
workshop on how to use a drill and how to build a raised bed. A
couple really awesome kids took turns practicing drilling and driving
screws.
Some adults too!
These two folks were the backbone of a
lot of the build. They were with it from start to finish. The person
in the back is Emily, Momo's friend from Ann Arbor who happened to be
traveling in PHX. She got dropped off at the Home Depot and worked on
the build the whole time. These two people built the shit out of that
planter box. Or more like, built a planter box so we could fill it
with shit and then plants. It was interesting to note that most of the men and kids helped for 45 minutes to an hour, but the four people on it all day were myself, Momo, and these two ladies. Is it alright to say fuck yeah there?
This is some of the mulch, a shovel,
and one of the planters that got put up while I was getting supplies
for the other box. It appears to be re-bar, a pallet, and some
plastic. It's really fucking neat, and an especially neat idea for a
wall. There's also a cooler buried and planted.
This is a spiral I imagine the kids
made out of rocks that we all dug out of the ground. Before we left,
we found some left over grass seed, so we seeded it, mulched it, and
watered it. It looks pretty cool now, In back are the tents people brought for shade. Folks are grilling hella veggie burgers back there and playing music. There's plenty of video of it online and I'm sure more will role in (please post any media you find in the comments)
This is the Alto Sax player in the
band, Jason, being very angry that he was unable to make the show. So
angry, in fact, that he beat the shit out of the ground. It was
really helpful. I'm kidding... Truth of the matter is, Jason found out that the ground was scabbin' for Old Man Whoever-Owns-The-Property-We-Couldn't-Go-On and he gave it the treatment that all scabs get... Okay, that's a lie too. He was being very calm and controlled and digging holes for the stakes of the raised bed to go in. I just like my stories...
Then, we filled it with dirt, realized
we needed much more dirt and had no plants, went with two people I
never met and bought a ton more dirt, two tomatoes, 4 basil plants, 4
peppers, 2 artichokes, and a rose. Angela, one of the people I just
met, came along with another guy and I and must have thrown 35
dollars down on plants. We came back, threw in all the dirt, mixed it
up, everybody gathering around to take part in the final steps. We
laid out the plants, dug holes, squeezed their root balls, and
welcomed them to their new home. We were all very busy during this
time, so no pictures.
Late at night, we had an assembly and
it was decided to build a makeshift structure for shade. We came up
with this.
The finished product was there in the dark. When the dust settled, it looked a bit like
this:
Then, like any political faction worth its salt,
we had a party.
we had a party.
We sang lots of songs by The Mountain
Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, Andrew Jackson Jihad, David Rovics,
Radiohead, and a couple folks played a bunch of stuff I never heard
before.
Part 4: The Epilogue
All in all, the day, Sunday, April
29th, was a day when a small number of people took a
direct action and all went to bed having collectively, without
leadership or coercion, in the face of arrest and police presence,
broke ground, sweatily labored in the sun and heat, and created a
world that is just a little bit better than the one they woke up in.
And maybe that can give people hope. An old friend I just recently
started talking with again told me that they try to operate with the
philosophy that we should live as if the revolution had already
happened and we are building the world we want to live in instead of
just acting against the old. Today I lived exactly as I would have if
the revolution were over. There's a poster that says “If the world
were to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.” I think that
idea is rather foolish and fruitless, but I will say that if the
revolution ended yesterday, I'd want to spend the day building a
community garden around mothers and children and teachers and
houseless folks and the cast aside and the nerds and the rejects and
the occupiers and the sons and daughters and friends and lovers and
comrades. Today was Anarchism in practice. Without hierarchy, without
oppression or coercion, with the strength of laborers and the
ingenuity of thinkers and the elbow grease of those who refuse to let
go of their dreams.
Tomorrow, we will go back, and we will
fix the shade, and we will hang the following sign:
You Don't Need Anyone's Permission To
Create A Better World
DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS
ON THE JOB, AT THE SCHOOL, IN THE
STREET
Happy May Day 2012 – Solidarity
Forever
If anyone wants to ask me about my
political beliefs, they are pretty much all crystallized within this
day.
Have a good evening everyone.
(A) <3 :) - N
Part 5: The Gratitude
Many thanks to all the people who have
supported me. I will be putting them in Alphabetical order so as to
use a meaningless hierarchy as opposed to allowing anyone to think
about who's name is higher up on the list. Also, it's Z-A... fucking
Anarchists...
Zelda, Zahid, Zach, Woodie Guthrie,
Uncle Steve and Aunt Elsa, The Tempe Farmer's Market, The Royal
Family, The Preacher, The Phoenix and Mesa Libraries, The Olympia
Leftist-Circular-Firing-Squad Scene (I respectfully request you take
notes), The Evergreen State College, Stevie, Stacy, Sophia, Savvina, Ryobi and Ridgid Power Tools,
Paul, Opa and Oma, Mom, Meghan in Tucson, Matt L., Matt D. (I miss
you, sir. Let me know when it's okay to call), Aunt Marina and Uncle
Sam, Lamise, Kurt, Kristen, Katy Clark! Kate, Joe Hill, Joe Beck, Joe
B., Joe, Jefferson, Jeff, Jasun, Jason, Jakob, Haley, Halena, Garyn, Aunt
Evenor, Erixa, Emily B, Emily, David Rovics, Dad, Aunt Betty, Austin,
Ashlea, Angela, Andy S., Adam, Academic Advisor Jean, and my best
friend, Momo.
Thanks, everyone.
Part 6: The Bonus Material
The following is a letter that Comrade
Stace-drum sent out to the Brass Lung listserv. I think it bears
reposting here since it's important to get a fair and balanced view.
I have not edited or altered the content in any way (even for any
spelling, syntax, grammatical or diction errors; all logical and
rational fallacies have been left entirely in tact, all cognitive
dissonance is as it was when received). I only cleaned up the format
so it is more legible. You're welcome, Derek Pittnam of the Tempe
Police Department and Shauna.... you're not further clarified so I
will give you the option of being referred to in future posts as
Shauna of the Dead, Shaunaunauna, or Thanks Shauna. Please post your
preference in the comments:
Hello,
Derek Pittam with the Tempe Police Department asked that I share the following information with you as your neighborhoods are closest in proximity to the area. Please contact Derek at Derek_pittam@tempe.gov or I with any questions.
Thanks,
Shauna
I write this to you because as you know my career has led me to have a close relationship with the residents and businesses in and about the downtown Tempe area. In fact, several years ago, the Maple Ash community honored me with a “Friend of Community” award. Community members have always known that I am aggressively proactive on issues of crime prevention. This is no different, and I am very concerned that the planners of this event have not disclosed important information in their quest to gain the support of local residents and businesses.
I know the flyer (above) looks and sounds harmless right? Well anarchists looked like this (photo below) the last time they planned an event surrounding “May Day” in downtown Tempe.
Now I know that some may see the photo and then look at the flyer above to find no correlation. One might think that law enforcement is even taking a “cheap shot” because after all this event will be garden building…right?…it’s green…it’s local…it’s hip…it’s taking a vacant brown field and making it beautiful…why would the police be concerned?
Well despite the nice flyers and excellent planning to get local residents and businesses to show support and even commit to participation, the planners of this event forgot to do something… or maybe they did not forget.
At the time of writing this email, no planner for this event has contacted a private property owner or management group of vacant land within the downtown Tempe area to ask permission to conduct such an event. No planner of this event has contacted the appropriate city staff to inquire about proper permitting or permissions needed to do this event. That’s a problem and that is why I now have concern as it relates to community members and businesses who would like to participate.
Basically, this activity is known is “guerilla gardening” and is not new. It has picked up steam with the Occupy movement and is usually done by seizing and occupying “privately owned” property.
Upon public safety learning that no property owner/management company within the downtown Tempe community has approved of this planned activity, subsequently many downtown property responsible persons have signed “Authority to Arrest” letters. This allows police to arrest for trespassing without the property’s responsible person having to be present. As a part of our duty to protect the rights and privileges of *all persons*, the Tempe Police Department is prepared to enforce certain laws against those who believe their own personal liberties supersede the liberties of others.
Why do I think the anarchist organizers are planning to knowingly engage in criminal activity? Well despite pointing out the above obvious issue, there are other indicators. On 4/23/12, Modern Times Magazine reported the location for this event in an online article.
http://www. moderntimesmagazine.com/ page16/Arizona_May_Day_120423/ Arizona_May_Day_120423.php
Ironically, police had already been working with the local property management for this specific location outlined in the above article several weeks prior. The property management confirmed that this planned activity received no permissions from the owners to take place on this property. In response, property management subsequently posted “no trespassing” signs on the property after the signing an “Authority to Arrest” letter. Not long after, this post appeared of the event’s Facebook page:
In response to your no trespassing signs, we say “if it’s vacant, take it!"*
The signs on this lot, as of today, have been knocked down and destroyed by unknown persons.
Not to be overtly accusatory toward the planners of this event as responsible for this criminal damage, but it is coincidental and only raises my concerns that anarchist planners for this event could be anticipating conflict. After all, staging events that force the police to take enforcement action police is how anarchists hope to erode community support for local police departments. Anarchists want to place police in a position so they can say in a clever sound bite, “See we told you so… the cops are here to protect the interests of the wealthy!”
In actuality, police would provide the exact same enforcement action to assist any person exercising lawful standing regardless of their of socio-economic status. These are well known anarchist tactics that I am all too familiar with.
In conclusion, researching other “guerilla gardening” actions planned by anarchists in other cities, the goal is to engage in civil disobedience (as seen in Santa Cruz, CA in December of 2011) . In other words, due to the liability concerns of property owners surrounding these “un-insured” actions, the property owners do not have the chance to be supportive of such an event without certain guarantees from the organizers, therefore with property owner participation exclusion from the event planning, conflict is evitable with police and/or property holder.
Where this tactic meets the goals of the anarchist, it may not be in the best interests of the local law abiding citizen who thought they were merely showing up for a community building event where a garden or park was being built.
Again, I send this to you Shauna for informational purposes to forward to anyone within the community that you feel may be affected by this planned event. This way, public safety has expressed its concern with the community and therefore allows each community member or business to make a decision based on “free agency” as to whether they will participate or support such an event.
Derek Pittam #14555
Detective
Homeland Defense Unit
Tempe Police Department
Part 7: The Translated Version of the Bonus Material
Hi everybody! I'm Shauna-banana. Look down. Look up. Back to me. Now I'm Derek Pittnam, all-around really nice guy who hates crime. I think these Anarchists are being too sneaky, perhaps criminally so. Anarchists seem nice, but like to wear bandannas and give parked luxury automobiles the finger.
Now, I know planting shit is hip with all the kids now-adays, but these particular kids are forgetful, or maybe they aren't... They forgot to ask permission from the wealthy gentleman who owns the property. OUTRAGE!
Again, let me reiterate how much I know about how “groovy” these people think planting shit is, but they didn't tell us and so businesses want them arrested. These people think the property owner's decision or indecision to allow a prime piece of real estate lay fallow is UNDERNEATH their liberty to build an open public garden that beautifies the area and brings communities together and THAT CAN NOT BE ALLOWED FOR I AM THE LAW AND I AM JUST!
Then the owner put up a sign but everyone was really mean about it and they were all super cereal about it on Facebook and I was like nuh uh and they were like YEAH HUH! And then someone wrecked the sign that the wealthy property owner worked so hard to invest in the right stocks to acquire a large enough capital gain to pay a crew of minimum wage workers to erect a fence around a vacant lot AND put a super duper serious NO TRESPASSING sign on. How rude, amirite?
Not to be unfair, I just worry that these Anarchists will force us to use any means necessary, including intimidation, selective enforcement, physical restraint, physical violence, chemical weapons, and really really shinny bicycles, to stop them from being big meanies and planting a rose bush and some tomatoes on that poor person's rocky wasteland to which he has rightful claim. We don't want to beat protesters, but they trick us into police brutality with their gotcha sound bites.
Look, fact of the matter is, the law protects rich and poor alike. So if a wealthy person, like a multi-national conglomerate bank, wanted to foreclose on your property, we would totes defend you... Yup, you can trust the police. In conclusion, judging from one other event in a different state that we won't investigate here and absolutely nothing else, I think there are only two reasons anyone would show up tomorrow: Because they are a terrorist, or be cause they are a sweet, law-abiding, church-going family who have been hoodwinked into terrorist actions by the aforementioned terrorists.
So Shauna-banauna, at least the truth is out there. At least finally, the people with all the money, socio-economic power, and military-grade weapons and armor, will be heard. Then, the people can decide for themselves.
Derek Pittam #14555
Detective
Homeland Defense Unit
Tempe Police Department
Part 8: Allow Me To Play You Out
