Dear Friend and Reader:
I’m going to intrude on the vibe of Beltane with a bit of political truth about our rights and freedoms being eroded in the United States. For those who think Europe is better, the difference where food and supplements are concerned only looks better because no European government in this day and age would order a police raid on a home food coop, as you’re about to read about. But beneath appearances government policies are equally frustrating. In France, for example, it’s illegal to sell flax seed oil. Why? Well, it might go bad. But I believe the dairy industry solved this problem around 1925.
I digress a bit. I mentioned Joseph Mercola earlier in the week, an osteopathic doctor who publishes a health newsletter. Today I got this rather disturbing edition about a family that endured a police raid for organizing an organic food coop out of their home.В The YouTube video is worth watching, though the code on the newsletter page not quite working so you may need to go directly to YouTube to watch it.
Nobody wants to call this tyranny because it’s “too scary” to do so. But we have a little problem because the police are too powerful, there are too many laws, and certain individuals in positions of power know there are unlikely to be consequences if they do anything wrong; who polices the police? Anyone who might (such as the District Attorney) is already their friend.
When I look at the Stowers family and their story of starting a family food co-cop, I think of this as being the agrarian spirit of my country, and of my European foremothers and forefathers. And when the journalist in me runs through the hundreds of ways that a local municipality could intervene, I could fill pages without even referring to the policy regulations.
Now, you may think this could never happen to you. You may think it’s ridiculous to think that this will happen to you for using organic shampoo. That may not be the issue; it may end up getting thrown in jail for a tail light bulb going out. I am pretty sure something like this happens to everyone at least once, only to a greater or lesser degree. And I don’t mean for smoking a joint. We all know when and when not to do that. I am talking about for minding one’s own business.
Here is the contact page for the Lorain County, Ohio (home of Oberlin College) Sheriff. I just called and said I was aware of the issue. I plan to get the street address and mail them a copy of the Constitution. Please spread the word. Posting it to the cover of Planet Waves seemed the least I could do.
ant, it sounds as if the stowers are being represented, with a sound principalled case. By law, they should be good, if what the newsletter states is correct.
I take it you do not live in the us? Each state has its own business laws. It will be a case to watch. And a win for the stowers will affect the future of the organic farming in ohio for the better.
Within each state are county, town, city, and village governments. Local governments can be a problem as they can be very factional. The town hall is empty on meeting night. The decisions are mostly made before the voting. Our guy lets me talk and then he does what he wants anyway. My issues have been mainly environmental concerning land planning and development. And I have gone up the food chain to the county who has to sign off, with assistant knowlege from the many local educators about my very local concern. I cannot stop the development but I did devote a year of my life to research and discussion (a polite word) and if it does happen it will happen the best way it can without increasing flooding. It’s a compromise I have to live with.
I look at this moment at the 2009 Farm Fresh Atlas of Eastern Wisconsin and a flyer from the Center for Food and Community Culture. It is not one coop but many banding together. The infrastructure is being laid here locally. Many cities and towns have farmers markets. The one that surrounds the capitol square in Madision is awesome.
I think the problem in the stower’s community might be that the coop is not just about food. They may be seeming to become autonomous, like their own government (home schooling 10). I don’t say that in support of the law and I don’t say that because of the home schooling, but I don’t have all the facts. Waco and Ruby Ridge were justified like that. Now maybe Koresh was a nut, I didn’t follow it. Cults have given groups subsisting a bad name.
There is a communication breakdown between the coop and the local government. Public relations and education is very important to survival.
The justice system in ohio is working it.
The law well, it exists, until it changes. I have to stay away from its enforcers. Let me count the times I’ve lost on that one. My only rule of thumb about the law is, don’t break more than one law at a time. That’s when it gets really messy. I don’t oppose fighting the law, but I have found it to be a waste of my time.
Did lots of travelling today riding sidecar with the driver in training. Stopped at one of those neuvo hippie shops. Saw a coffee cup, one of those where the print disappears with the heat of the beverage. It said watch your constitutional rights disappear. I like the idea of a coffe cup with the rights written on it, but didn’t like the implication.
Not much for posters, but bought one that states The Ten Indian Commandments. I was surprised, but felt empowered somehow, by being given permission to say the word Indian. It gave me great clarity.
Ok, is it just me or is this wording “it may end up getting thrown in jail…” confusing?
Nonetheless, I’ve emailed the info to just about everyone in my address book. There is so much helpful and interesting info on this blog.
Holy fucking shit, that was Bad-Ass! Anybody else catch the (beyond Goddess) restraint in that gentle-man? (That’s beyond intense)
And just for pure shit-talk sense, the schooling?!? They took away “the schooling”?!?
I used to have a friend when I was young who when his mom was pissed at him he’d ask her, “What are you going to do, take away my food?!”
Welcome to guerilla space,
Love,
ME
Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise – [ http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html ]
And, in a bizarre twist of my current fate (?), I just received a letter from the state tax and rev dept saying i owed them $2k due to 2005 taxes not received – 3-4 years ago – what the f*? i don’t have this money to make this go away now, but i am held responsible for the time passage and not understanding they never got what they deem i owe… took them so many years to chit chat with feds to determine i was a non-filer…
Un-f* believable, and yet…
Here is how to get thrown in jail for a tail light. If you think it’s a stretch, stretch a little more.
Your tail light goes out. You get pulled over. You get an equipment ticket. You pay the ticket but the payment doesn’t go through and in a short while your license is suspended for failure to respond and a warrant is put out for your arrest (standard procedure). Maybe the states sends a notice; maybe they do not; maybe they sent it to the right place; maybe not; maybe you moved and the suspension took a while to go through.
Then you get pulled over for anything and — your car is taken and you’re put in custody, charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle (AUO, or Ay! You owe!).
I have friends various places in government and when I was crossing borders a lot (such as into the US), I would make a habit of asking one of them to run my records through the national database, you know, just to be sure. One day a few days before coming to New York from Paris, we discovered through this routine check that my privilege to drive in New York had been suspended due to a ticket I got in 1992, that I had no recollection of and had never heard from the state about. I had seen my driving abstract and run my DMV records many times in those 15 years and it never came up.
Fully 15 years later, a suspension was processed (the Town of Newburgh, New York took its time), and because I had checked and for no other reason, I discovered this; we dealt with it in about 24 hours moving a money order and suspension reversal by Fed Ex. Had I not checked and not handled it, I would have been arrested and my rental car impounded for ANY pullover of any kind. Again, standard procedure in most states.
Steve Bergstein did an article recently about someone who was arrested for having CDs of music on his front seat that looked like copies of ‘official’ CDs; he was pulled over for a driving infraction and arrested for bootlegging. The case was thrown out. But you can imagine the hassles.
All of this adds up to what is called the chilling effect: everyone scared of doing anything.
I read about this incident a while back. Twas interesting on many levels, and disturbing, but something of a ratification of close personal relatives who lived in Oberlin, OH, until last year, who had simply said the year prior to moving away, 2007/8, that odd things were happening via institutional choices, locally, that they could no longer be part of. My relatives now reside in the Berkshires as they luckily had a pathway out.
“That may not be the issue; it may end up getting thrown in jail for a tail light bulb going out. I am pretty sure something like this happens to everyone at least once, only to a greater or lesser degree.” Huh?
The loudest response is by way of our actions. Speaking out, then acting out by never even stopping at a WalMart, changing our sense of what we “need” in order to purchase as much as possible from life-friendly companies, and always always supporting the creative arts for the other “stuff” that gives us joy in our homes and lives.
Thanks Eric for posting this story.