This has been a very intense 48 hours. I have been tracking friends in Minneapolis, some of whom have been brutalized, beaten, tasered, illegally detained, had their vehicle impounded illegally (a "regrettable misunderstanding" the Minneapolis City Attorney says) and on and on. I have a friend in crisis in Florida, and found out yesterday that my 7 year old nephew was just diagnosed with a brain tumor.

My antenna are up. I am back on Turtle Island, came back saying "I am ready to work" and it is in front of me now, to do what I can to help in these situations.

Coming from Europe, being here in the US, even in Vermont, there is a feeling of "the shit is just starting to hit the fan" and some people see it. Some folks are still hiding from their terror behind nationalism, religion, greed, consumerism etc. but there is a gradual shift in the direction of realization.

There is also the rapidly increasing militarization and lockdown occurring in "civilian" amerika. What happened in Minneapolis this week is the most blatant fascist behavior I have seen in a while. I personally know dozens of people who are in Minneapolis; peaceful creative resourceful loving people who have emailed me with accounts of multiple illegal acts on the part of the police, including the feds. There will be lawsuits, the taxpayers of Minneapolis will end up footing the bill for the violence of the government agents, and amerika goes on.

It is not surprising or a new thing that the more a government represses, the more radicalized the populace gradually becomes, until that repressive regime falls.

I am focusing in this entry on events in Minneapolis where people gathering to protest the criminal actions of the Republican controlled/manipulated government at the Republican National Convention. Houses are being raided, people are being detained and otherwise hassled and intimidated by the police.

I am posting some links here. Please look at them.

•Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raids
•Massive Police Raids on Suspected Protestors in Minneapolis
•NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51
•NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51 explained on Wikipedia
•Police State RNC: A Nun and Eight Others Swept into Unmarked Van by Cops in Minnesota
•Permaculture Education Bus Seized by Twin Cities Police at RNC
•Federal Government Involved In Raids On Protesters

On another note, here is a link to a live webcam in New Orleans for those of us watching closely.

Tomorrow Chloe the cat and I will fly back to North America, to Vermont. It's hard to believe. Partly because the whole air travel thing is always surreal...both the experience and the fact of going so quickly from one place to another. It's also just amazing that 5 months has come and gone, my life continues to bring new awarenesses and surprises. Going back to NA I feel like a new chapter is starting, and I'm actually excited about it. I have ideas of things I'd like to do, projects, work, as well as getting to see many people I love.

Yesterday was the four year anniversary of the day my mother was attacked in her home, tomorrow it will be four years since her death. That's an interesting day to fly! Four years isn't so long, but it's a chunk of time. I find myself considering how the catalytic events of this week in 2004 has led me to this point, to a very different life than I was living. I wonder if and if so how my responses to the world, to my life and experiences, will change as that four years stretches into 5, 10, 15...

I have constructed a page to hold the archived episodes of my radio show "Stories from the Road" on wbkm.org. You can find a link to the archive on the right hand side of this page, or at wbkm.org. Enjoy!

Wow it's been two weeks since I blogged. Time flies. Still in Den Dolder. The last two weeks have been relaxing, some socializing, continuing my internal planning process. I gave a permaculture talk to 5 people in Amsterdam on Saturday night. That was fun and exciting, as they are all people who are interested in learning and in awareness.

Last summer I was interviewed by a guy named Luc Sala who has his own television station in Amsterdam where he runs whatever he likes, including his many interviews. You can seem them at http://www.mindlift.tv

My interview can be seen here. It's a 500 mb file, it's about 45 minutes long and it's an mpg file so you'll need Quicktime to play it. If you're on a Mac you already have Quicktime, but if you are running any other OS you'll need to install it if you haven't already.