The quote is from Father Roy Bourgeois on DemocracyNow!.
You cannot teach democracy behind a sign that says no trespassing.
And the book, the book is a bundle of joy and hope.
I keep wondering why I haven’t heard about this book on Znet. All Over Creation by Ruth L. Ozeki ends with a letter from a father in Seattle on November 30, 1999.
Resistence is Fertile
She held the picture up in front of the baby’s face. "Look, Betty," she said. "It’s Daddy Frank."
Betty flailed her arms and legs. Her tiny fist closed around the edge of the photo, and she waved it back and forth for a while, then she put a corner in her mouth.
"That’s right," Cass said, gently prying the picture away from her and replacing it with a pacifier, "Daddy’s going to save the world."
And the author’s Acknowledgements end with. "Thanks to all who save and plant. May your gardens grow."
I wonder if 20 years from book is going to be cited like Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang as spurring along some lively environmental/social movements. Who’s going to be the Bill McKibben writing ‘Desert Anarchist’ for Ruth Ozeki? In the book, The Seeds of Resistance group in the book is a bunch of fun, talented Direct Action people. It’s exciting stuff, and funny too. I learned who Grace Slick was, and started to appreciate ‘greasy heart’s the second time through.
The book is like a fun female Fight Club, they hack the plumbing to reroute runoff to gardens, the make and throw ‘seed bombs’, they plant food for people in public spaces, they provide information to The People about un-labled GM pesticide-foods. The ‘Geek’ anarchist guy doesn’t f-note the main character over, unlike the slick PR guy that preys on underage hippie(-to-be) girls and ends up responding ‘limply’ to corporate media females. The book is a riot, makes you want to jump into some Direct Action and Guerrila Gardening…
It’s a shame I can’t find the book with the same cover, the exuberant little girl is much more inspiring than the sack of potatoes cover. The sprouting seedlings cover is a bit better, can’t find it now though..
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