Anti-Fracking Tour

[H2O Man]

I had a phone call last night, with an invitation to speak today at another anti-fracking rally today. It's in a small city, not that far from here. When I got off the phone, my younger son said something to the effect of, “That's good. Some guys at work said that they keep seeing you on the news.” I responded that it's good, but that I'm getting tired. He asked if I meant tired of going places and speaking? No, I said, tired from going places and speaking.

Two days ago, I posted about being called and invited to speak at a rally, then present at a town board meeting. I had about three hours to prepare. Both of my sons asked me how that went? Kind of strange. There was a large crowd of pro-fracking people there, trying to disrupt the rally. Not all of them were hostile and obnoxious, but most of them were. A couple of area television news stations had reporters there, and I was approached and asked to speak to both of them.

After I spoke with them, a fellow who had been standing among the pro-fracking, flag-waiving group approached me. He said, “I would be careful, if I were you.” A couple of my friends asked him what he meant? “Well,” he said, pointing towards me, “those people hold the rest of your group in contempt. But they really hate you.” My friends – one a former Marine who saw combat, the other a former amateur boxing champion – are now intent upon serving as my “bodyguards” when I travel and speak. I think that is a good measure of how volatile things are becoming, though I do not require bodyguards.

My older son will be driving me today. In part, this is because he knows the Old Man is, well, old. And part is because we will be meeting a couple local democratic leaders before the rally, who have asked him to run for local office. He is going to.

Before today's rally, I'll take a few minutes to organize my speech. I will also contact a few more attorneys – some environmental, some constitutional – to lay out some of the areas where I think we may not only have a good legal case, but where we may be forced to initiate proceedings. (I did send a package yesterday, to one environmental law clinic that I've done business with in the past.)

My younger son advised me that, even if I am tired, to “go for it.” He said do as many rallies and public hearings as possible. I've got a couple coming up – on the 25th and 29th of this month. One of the topics that I'm going to focus on is the need for our people to inhabit higher ground. To not return contempt for contempt, anger for anger, or hatred for hatred. The majority of the pro-fracking people are under pressure: they have bills they are having trouble paying, and they have been lied to by the gas corporation representatives.

Those gas corporation people suffer from the disease of greed. They have been disconnected from the natural world. They have fallen from grace.

I do not blame desperate people for their desperation. And I do not resent the fallen for their situation. This does not mean accommodating their greed, hatred, and destructive natures. But it does mean offering them the hand needed to reach that higher ground. There's room here for everyone.

[Champion Jack]

1. Great work! Thanks for your effort

[hootinholler]

2. Humor your pals who want to play bodyguard, please.

I know you don't need them, but, it costs you little to let them and then you have witnesses if some altercation should happen.

I cry for my home state (Pa.) even though I no longer live there. The Rs have given the commons away to the gas industry and more and more the reports I hear are dire.

I would love to be in a position to stop these fracking bastards.

-Hoot

[G_j]

3. K&R

[Octafish]

4. Keep on keeping on, H20 Man! Congratulations, all around!

Thank you for sharing the great news about your family. The sky's no limit for good people.

Please let me know if you need another bodyguard. I look a lot like Luca Brazzi and move just like the original Terminator driving around in the stolen police cruiser, before its big accident. I smile more, too.

Thank you for all that you do, H20 Man. Peace, Wisdom and Strength to You and Yours.

[mmonk]

5. Take them to the mountain top.

[mmonk]

6. And congrats to your older son on his decision.

[Fly by night]

7. We can live without petroleum. We (and every other species on earth) cannot live without water.

We can certainly live without petroleum that we can only obtain by fracking the Mother.

Keep fighting, H2OMan. You are on the right path.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Thank you so much for the work you are doing -

it is so very important. As someone who uses (what she thought was ) "clean, natural gas" for almost all of her heating and electricty this fracking issue has blindsided me. :( I really had no idea. Now that I am educated I am even more determined to make the serious changes needed to make myself energy independent.

Please stay strong and safe, H2O Man. :hi:

[Champion Jack]

9. K & R