Hello friends. Apologies again for yet another semi-generic email - but something else I wanted to share with you.

Yesterday (Oct 23rd), at six am, I and three other activists scaled a giant construction crane outside Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Using technical climbing equipment, two of us rappelled off the arm of the crane, and the team unfurled a 2,000 square foot banner (40'x50') stating: "Bank of America: Funding Coal, Killing Communities". After being in the crane for nearly 3 hours and battling fierce winds, we safely ended the demonstration and came down to the ground. The action was organized by Rainforest Action Network, and included members of RAN, Rising Tide North America, and Earth First!. 4 of us were arrested and charged with simple first-degree trespassing; Matt Leonard from San Francisco, CA; Joshua Rumschlag of Clearwater, Fla.; Brian Wallin, of Asheville, NC; and John Watterberg, of Brooklyn, New York.



Coal is rapidly becoming a heated issue as community groups, national organizations, top scientists, and political leaders are building momentum for a complete moratorium to this outdated, dirty, and deadly technology. Coal-fired power plants are the leading cause of climate change worldwide, responsible for 24,000 deaths annually from air pollution in the US, and the recent boom in proposed coal expansion (what!?) is being financed by billions of dollars provided by Wall Street banks like Bank of America. In addition, Bank of America is a top financier for the mining practice of mountain-top removal, in which hundreds of entire mountains across Appalachia have been leveled for the pursuit of cheap coal. Entire communities have been destroyed from MTR - mining companies literally level mountain tops to expose coal seams, leaving the toxic debris in neighboring valleys. Appalachian communities have had their air quality and health destroyed, their water supplies rendered toxic, lost a national treasure and vibrant ecosystem - and had their local economies decimated as mining companies reduce their labor force by tens of thousands of workers. Learn more about the problems of coal, climate change, and the campaign I work on at www.dirtymoney.org

Our goals of this action were many, and we feel very successful. The banking center of downtown Charlotte woke up to see the truths behind Bank of America's investment polices; that they are accelerating global warming, polluting our air, and destroying the lives of communities across the globe. As executives and employees started their workday at Bank of America's headquarters -the banner sent a powerful message to America's largest retail bank that being one of the top financiers of coal and climate change is unacceptable business, and not something they can hide from their customers. Beyond the direct statements to thousands of Charlotte residents and bank employees (who were actually a receptive crowd on the ground), we also received dozens of stories in regional media and were a top story on all the local TV news stations. And nationally, we were covered in Forbes, MSNBC, Associated Press and many more. Most stories were at least fair and balanced presenting the issues, and several were incredibly supportive of our issues and actions.

And most importantly - ones of our goals was to inspire others to act. While the fight against coal is being largely led by communities across Appalachia, it is an imperative global issue if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. To really shift our economies and industries away from destructive industries like coal - the Inconvenient Truth is that if we are to have a livable future planet, some things will be inconvenient to "business as usual". Charlotte hasn't seen civil disobedience since the Vietnam war, so while the event shut down the city center for a while - the disruption was nothing compared to what residents of the coalfields are experiencing every day, and what will we all experience if we keep destroying our atmosphere. The crowds on the street (and arresting officers and firefighters) were all incredibly supportive of our issues and actions, offering an "official" scolding but with "unofficial" admiration, respect, and support. While we don't expect people to mimic our actions, we fully believe it will inspire many people to realize the seriousness of the issues at hand.

This action also happened on the same day as a public hearing in nearby Raleigh where Duke Energy is expected to draw serious opposition to a planned coal-fired power plant and just days before hearings for the Stream Buffer Zone rule affecting coal mining in Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee. A full-page ad in the local Charlotte weekly paper ran this week as well, objecting to Duke's local coal proposals. And in less than a week, over 5,000 youth (myself included) will gather in Washington DC for the Powershift Conference - strategizing and mobilizing for a clean energy future.

Pictures, video, and a heated blog discussion more are available at www.ran.org


-Matt

--
Matt Leonard
losinghand@riseup.net
AIM / Skype / gTalk - losinghand

Hello friends. Some of you I haven't talked to recently - and I apologize for the mass email. But - some news in my life I wanted to share.

On Saturday October 6^th, I finally acted on a decision I had made years ago, but had never managed to complete. I'm now castrated impotent sterile. Yes, I finally got my vasectomy. While it's actually a very common procedure (nearly 500,000 men get one done every year in the U.S.), I have found that it's always something that raises eyebrows when it comes up in conversation, even just speaking hypothetically.  While this was a very personal choice for me, it was also a choice imbued with bigger societal, political, and environmental motivations.  Since these issues are quite important to me, and I'm very open and candid about the fact that I was considering, and now have gone through, with the procedure; so I figured I'd write all my friends a letter explaining my reasons for choosing never to have biological children. If you don't want to hear about my nuts, stop reading now.

The procedure was quite simple.  I firmly believe Planned Parenthood is one of the most important, inspiring organizations in this world, so I chose to go there and pay out of pocket rather than go through my insurance plan.  After dodging the gauntlet of evangelical pro-lifers in front of the building (I gave them a piece of my mind), I was in and out of there in about 2 hours. I was fully conscious during the procedure (local anesthetic), and 6 hours later I've had very little pain or discomfort from the stitches.  I still have to go back in 12 weeks to confirm success of the procedure, and have a few days of taking it easy around the house. Thank god for Netlifx!

Wow – isn't that permanent? What if you change your mind?

Yes, it is permanent. While there are reversal procedures, they don't have high success rates and they are very expensive (in the tens of thousands of dollars).  I am fully viewing this as a permanent decision, as should everyone who gets a vasectomy.  As I see it, I already made the decision years ago not to have children based on sound, rational reasons. This just commits me to that decision.  If I change my mind, then When I was 20 I looked into a vasectomy, and had a difficult time finding a doctor willing to perform the procedure on someone so young.  This has always been something that I wanted to do, and now I simply got around to it. (I also had some extra money floating around.)

Many of my friends have children, but the overwhelming majority of them were unplanned. And as I'll explain later, I don't see this decision as preventing me from becoming a father, albeit an adoptive one, if someday I go completely mad and decide I want a kid in my life.

And why is it OK for young people to make the permanent decision they DO want to have a baby, but not OK for me to decide I don't want to have a baby?  What's worse: regretting a vasectomy or regretting an unplanned pregnancy?

But aren't there other forms of birth control?

There are all sorts of birth control: abstinence, pulling out, crossing your fingers, condoms, a diaphragm, Depo Provera, Nuva ring, IUD, the patch, the pill, tubal ligation and more.

Abstinence? Well, that's no fun. I'm a very sex-positive person, and sincerely believe that the world would be far better off if we could shed the taboos—if sex was recognized as a fact of life that we could talk about openly as easily as last night's baseball game.  I'm not going to stop having sex anytime soon.  Pulling out and crossing your fingers?  Well, almost anyone who hasn't gone through Federally-funded so-called "sex education" knows just how effective those methods are.  And condoms?  Fine and dandy in many situations, but they've got their share of downsides as well, especially if you have a regular partner, or a latex allergy, or you're attached to spontaneity.

And all the other common methods have one aspect in common: they all place the onus on women.  Not only does our society expect women to shoulder the burden of the logistics of birth control (going to the doctor, getting prescriptions, getting refills, paying the costs, remembering to use the method correctly), but these methods also have severe physiological drawbacks.  From roller-coaster hormonal changes to intensifying menstruation cycles to weight and skin changes, birth control for women isn't a walk in the park.  The stories can be drastic; I've heard of women who, after taking birth control for years, went off for one reason or another and suddenly realized how utterly depressed they had been while on the pill; stories about women who threaten to break up with their partner at the same time every month; stories about IUDs perforating uterine walls… although these methods have come a long way in the few decades that they have been widely available, they still place an unpleasant, unfair burden on women and their bodies.  And tubal ligation? An expensive, invasive procedure that has a sizable list of drawbacks and possible complications.

For men, vasectomies are simple.  There are almost no side effects, no long term impacts, and it's an easy, low-cost, outpatient procedure.  I simply have decided that I want to take an active role in birth control—both because it's fair, confronts my privilege on this issue, and because it is far simpler for me to take responsibility for this than to expect my partner(s) to have to do so.

Is it any coincidence that in a male-dominated society, a male-dominated medial establishment has thus far focused on birth control methods that leave the burden solely on women?

What if you decide you want kids in the future?

Then I can adopt.  It's easy for me to choose not to have a biological child because I've just never placed any importance on blood relationships.  I've always been that way, even with my family.  I love my parents because I've spent my life with them and they've always been there for me: that's what has created love.  The fact that we share some genes to me is mildly interesting, but doesn't place a mandate on me to love them, or on them to love me.  While I'm remotely interested in meeting, say, a long-lost cousin, I just don't understand the societal norm that says I must love them simply because we share some DNA.  Nurture over nature. 

When millions of dogs are put to sleep every year because adequate homes cannot be found, why on earth do we allow breeders to birth millions more every year?  I feel the same way about children.  There are thousands of amazing children all over the world who need parents, and if I ever decide that being a father is something I want in my life, I would feel personally ashamed to bring another life into this world while effectively ignoring the existing life needing support and love.

That statement may come off as judgmental, but that's not my intent. Many of my friends whom I deeply respect have chosen to have children, or will do so in the future.  That is their decision, and I totally respect that.  Some people DO feel that there is something special and important about having a blood-related child.  Just because I don't share that sense of importance doesn't make it any less real or valid for other people—it's just not my choice.

But don't we need the smart people and progressive people to reproduce?

Again, nurture over nature. I think the whole "passing on genes" thing borders on eugenics when we start making it a societal issue. And really – I've got messed up teeth, I'm legally blind, bald(ing), and have a history of heart disease. Let Matt Damon and Brad Pitt pass on their genes.

We need more parents in this world, not more kids. And I'm fairly confident there is no gene that dictates that your child will vote Democratic. And sadly, there certainly isn't a gene that says your child will shun faux democratic institutions in favor of dedicating his/her life to building community-based, ecologically-rooted social movements that transform this world into a truly free and just society. That only comes from reading Murray Bookchin.

So why else?

Honestly, for me, the environmental reasons are almost paramount.  Without going into a diatribe on the inherent conflict between an economy and social structure that demands infinite growth and the realities of finite resources on a finite planet, I'm drawing the line at myself. While most of the "zero population growth" advocates I've talked to have really shallow analysis on the important economic, social, and political aspects regarding carrying capacity and resource use, I do believe there are far too many people on this planet.  Yes, it's more complicated than that, and we must look at consumption patterns and levels of industrialization.

But I live in the U.S. And any child I have will live in the U.S. And they will consume (despite my best efforts) far more resources and do far more damage to this world than I am comfortable accepting.  It's a hard fact to stomach—but it is a fact.  Our lives in this society exist on the backs of others, and living even a modest lifestyle in the U.S. comes as a direct result of the oppression, domination, and deaths of many unseen people.  I do what I can to change this fact and confront the systems that create this reality, but for me, contributing another person to this system is not something I willing to do.

In the end, it's my choice to make. Just as I don't pass judgment on people for making a different choice, I would hope people don't pass judgment on me for mine.

No babies for Matt.

 

-- 
Matt Leonard  
losinghand@riseup.net
AIM / Skype / gTalk - losinghand

So, believe it or not, I still play in a band. We're called End on End. And despite not having played a show (or even practicing!) for over a year-and-a-half, or touring in over 3 years, and living far from each other -  we never officially broke up. But, the time has come to put an end to End on End. We are all at different places in life, and as much fun as we have playing together, we'd rather have some closure, than to just let things fade away. So, we've been driving down to LA the past few weekends for band practice - trying to scrape off some of the rust of not having all 5 of us in the same room for 18 months, and prepping for a great last show.

So, consider this an invite, to come see End on End's last show. I can't think of a better way to go - it's an amazing lineup, with many bands we've spent lots of time with over the years, and some bands that I'm excited as hell to finally play with. And we'll be surrounded by friends old and new, in a venue that we've had some amazing memories of.  We'll be playing with some incredibly bands, including:

-Assailant (from Seattle)
-Broadway Calls (from Oregon. on State of Mind Records)
-Burial Year (LAST SHOW EVER!)
-Comadre (putting Redwood City on the international scene map!)
-Dangers (from Los Angeles)
-End on End (that's my  band. LAST SHOW EVER!)
-Fischer
-Ghostlimb (from Los Angeles. members of Graf Orlock)
-Glass and Ashes (from Santa Barbara. on No Idea Records)
-Trainwreck (from GERMANY)

Saturday, September 8th @ the Half Moon Bay Community Center 535 Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay, CA
$7 doors at 4pm bands at 5pm

This show is really special to me, for more than just the reasons cited above. While I may prove this statement wrong at some point - I have a strong feeling this may be the last show I ever play. At least the last show with a band that was serious, toured, put out records, and was really a  part of a special community. And after 15 years of playing in bands - I feel like this show will close a big chapter in my life.

When I was 12, I started going to punk shows. And actually, even before going to shows, I was "in" a band with my neighbor - merely because we both had Pearl Jam records and happened to have the sheer luck of having instruments in our house (me, drums - him, guitar.) My life took on a dramatically different direction at this point. Rather than continuing as the school nerd/braniac, and as a respectable soccer player in the Olympic Development Program - I found a whole new joy and community through music. While my initial bands were horrible (and still are my some opinions)- the friends made, the experiences had, and the doors opened via punk shaped my life immeasurably. Over the years - my entire life was immersed in the punk scene - playing in bands, writing for zines, booking shows, traveling, starting collective punk houses, touring with my band and friends', distributing records and books at shows and much more. At one point my identity in punk was something all-encompassing of my life.

Punk fueled my interest into activism, organizing, and radical politics -  which is what has come to dominate my life since I was 15. While I've admittedly become a bit disillusioned with the revolutionary potential of punk rock, it's still something that is hugely important to me, and I still see punk as an invaluable cultural movement that has profound impacts in the world well beyond its musical aesthetics. But over the years - my interest in "the scene" has waned. I rarely go to shows anymore, and the ones I do are largely to see old friends. While putting my Itunes on shuffle might yield Bjork or Young MC as easily as Fugazi or Jawbreaker or Catharsis - the music that still really inspires me and excites me is hardcore punk.

I recognize that many of you receiving this email don't relate to punk, or don't even know this side of me. I'd love it for friends to come and share this day with me - but if it's not your bag, no worries. I think it will be a great time, you can see me hit things really hard while making funny faces, see kids screaming their guts out, see people pouring their hearts into a vibrant community, and people dancing like fools. And for folks that haven't experienced the world of the do-it-yourself punk community, this will be a great show to illustrate it's beauty.

Hope you can make it.  Spread the word.

-Matt

So, I don't write blogs often on here. I've said that before. But do all you fine friends know that I do write pretty regularly on other blogs, include the Rainforest Action Network Understory, as well as on It's Getting Hot In Here: Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement. And while I'm not an official writer (yet!) for the fabulous Grist.com - I'm a regular reader and regular commenter on there as well.

Here's a post I made earlier today - check it out...

Al Gore calling for Direct Action against coal?!

In today's NY Times, there is a great op-ed talking about the magnitude of the climate crisis. People are still talking about Al Qaeda as our biggest concern, but that by any objective measure - climate change is a far greater threat on just about every level.

It's a pretty good article - you can read the text below. But the kicker - is this quote from Al Gore. He says "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers," Mr. Gore said, "and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."

Wow. Did Al Gore just say that? Hold up. So often we ourselves perpetuate the mindset that non-violent direct action is a fringe, or radical, or even extreme act. But it's not. We've let the Bush administration portray it as that - but even Al Gore is recognizing the importance of such actions. If Gore is questioning what the young people (the ones most affected by climate change) are doing - this should make us realize that it's imperative we pushed the movement into high-gear.

Non-violent direct action has been the cataylst for nearly every major social, political, and environmental victory in our history. From the Boston Tea Party to Ghandi, to the anti-nuclear movements of the past 30 years, to incredible forest-defense campaigns, to civil rights struggles, to rank-and-file labor efforts, to indigenous struggles against oil and gas exploration, and to global efforts against neo-liberalism, corporate globalization, and colonialism - non-violent direct action has been an effective, peaceful, and necessary tactic to change the world.

But the US climate movement has yet to really embrace these methods. The climate crisis is the biggest problem our world has every faced - yet our responses to it are still slow-moving, not measured to the scale of the problem, and still largely waiting on corporations and politicians to offer "pragmatic" responses. There is no balance to be struck between (false) competing interests of climate, economy, and politics. If we dramatically curb climate change, and do so in the next decade - our economy will be irrelevant. With climate change - partially addressing the problem is the same as not addressing it at all. A rescue rope that is 10 feet short still offers no rescue.

But people are doing things. This past week - three Climate Action Camps have been held across the globe. In Asheville a few days ago, I was a part of a great camp and action confronting Bank of America for funding coal and climate change. In Oregon, activists confronted the expanding liquified natural gas industry there. And in the UK this week, thousands of people are taking non-violent action at Heathrow airport for their role in fueling climate change. In Australia - activists are confronting coal head-on, even shutting down coal loading terminals.

I think what it comes down to is that we don't have time to wait. While yes, we need strong legislation, not a single politician (Gore included) is putting forth frameworks that truly get to the root of the problem, or that will truly stop this crisis. Politicians operate in a world of compromises with corporations who want to maintain business-as-usual as best they can. Someone needs to put forth real visions, real responses, and real solutions. It's up to us as youth, as visionaries, and as realists (who are real about having a future worth living in) to re-frame the debates, re-frame the options, and reclaim the responses to this crisis.

Al Gore is calling us out. It's up to us to meet the challenge (the climate challenge, not just Gore's!) and do what has to be done.

-Matt

————————————————————————————————————-

The Big Melt

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

If we learned that Al Qaeda was secretly developing a new terrorist technique that could disrupt water supplies around the globe, force tens of millions from their homes and potentially endanger our entire planet, we would be aroused into a frenzy and deploy every possible asset to neutralize the threat.

Yet that is precisely the threat that we're creating ourselves, with our greenhouse gases. While there is still much uncertainty about the severity of the consequences, a series of new studies indicate that we're cooking our favorite planet more quickly than experts had expected.

The newly published studies haven't received much attention, because they're not in English but in Scientese and hence drier than the Sahara Desert. But they suggest that ice is melting and our seas are rising more quickly than most experts had anticipated.

The latest source of alarm is the news, as reported by my Times colleague Andrew Revkin, that sea ice in the northern polar region just set a new low — and it still has another month of melting ahead of it. At this rate, the "permanent" north polar ice cap may disappear entirely in our lifetimes.

In case you missed the May edition of "Geophysical Research Letters," an article by five scientists has the backdrop. They analyze the extent of Arctic sea ice each summer since 1953. The computer models anticipated a loss of ice of 2.5 percent per decade, but the actual loss was 7.8 percent per decade — three times greater.

The article notes that the extent of summer ice melting is 30 years ahead of where the models predict.

Three other recent reports underscore that climate change seems to be occurring more quickly than computer models had anticipated:

•Science magazine reported in March that Antarctica and Greenland are both losing ice overall, about 125 billion metric tons a year between the two of them — and the amount has accelerated over the last decade. To put that in context, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (the most unstable part of the frosty cloak over the southernmost continent) and Greenland together hold enough ice to raise global sea levels by 40 feet or so, although they would take hundreds of years to melt. We hope.

•In January, Science reported that actual rises in sea level in recent years followed the uppermost limit of the range predicted by computer models of climate change — meaning that past studies had understated the rise. As a result, the study found that the sea is likely to rise higher than most previous forecasts — to between 50 centimeters and 1.4 meters by the year 2100 (and then continuing from there).

•Science Express, the online edition of Science, reported last month that the world's several hundred thousand glaciers and small ice caps are thinning more quickly than people realized. "At the very least, our projections indicate that future sea-level rise maybe larger than anticipated," the article declared.

What does all this mean?

"Over and over again, we're finding that models correctly predict the patterns of change but understate their magnitude," notes Jay Gulledge, a senior scientist at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

This may all sound abstract, but climate change apparently is already causing crop failures in Africa. In countries like Burundi, you can hold children who are starving and dying because of weather changes that many experts believe are driven by our carbon emissions.

There are practical steps we can take to curb carbon emissions, and I'll talk about them in a forthcoming column. But the tragedy is that the U.S. has become a big part of the problem.

"Not only is the U.S. not leading on climate change, we're holding others back," said Jessica Bailey, who works on climate issues for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. "We're inhibiting progress on climate change globally."

I ran into Al Gore at a climate/energy conference this month, and he vibrates with passion about this issue — recognizing that we should confront mortal threats even when they don't emanate from Al Qaeda.

"We are now treating the Earth's atmosphere as an open sewer," he said, and (perhaps because my teenage son was beside me) he encouraged young people to engage in peaceful protests to block major new carbon sources.

"I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers," Mr. Gore said, "and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."

Critics scoff that the scientific debate is continuing, that the consequences are uncertain — and they're right. There is natural variability and lots of uncertainty, especially about the magnitude and timing of climate change.

In the same way, terror experts aren't sure about the magnitude and timing of Al Qaeda's next strike. But it would be myopic to shrug that because there's uncertainty about the risks, we shouldn't act vigorously to confront them — yet that's our national policy toward climate change, and it's a disgrace.

We are currently in the amazing beach-front town on the end of a long peninsula called Placencia. Population, oh, 500. It's supposedly the best beaches in Belize (which I believe whole-heartedly), and very popular with the scuba, snorkel, and fishing crowd as well. Crystal blue water, white sand beaches, and coconuts everywhere (And yes, we did learn how to pull them from the tree, crack it open, husk it, and drink straight from it!) This town is the next big resort town - it's very sparse and lots of empty lots, but everywhere you see signs of new construction, with things slowly being more resort-oriented.

Today, we passed our written exam for our PADI Open-Water SCUBA certification. After completing our final 2 60-foot dives tomorrow, Mer and I will be official Scuba junkies. Well, I think we were hooked after our first dives yesterday, but after tomorrow we'll be able to go anywhere in the world and dive on our own, up to 100 feet. I can't explain how amazing Scuba is - the amount of life underwater here is incredible. Yesterday we were followed by a shark cleaner (A Remora - which looks a bit like a small shark itself) following us around curiously for 10-15 minutes. We are here just in time for whale-shark season - their annual migration hits peak these next few days (with the full-moon) They can be up to 60 feet in length, and so long as we pass our dive test tomorrow, we'll be out in the Cayes the next few days hoping to swim face to face with one!

We've settled into Placencia for a few days - it's nice to not be jumping from town to town so often, and this town defines the notion of "laid-back". The weather has been fabulous, and the local culture is unbelievably friendly. Two nights ago the big futbol match was being played in the next town just down the river - Mango Creek. We hopped in the water taxi to watch the game. Belize City vs. the local Tex-Mar Boys - and it was the match for the finals. Amazing soccer playing, especially for being a municipal match, on a dirt field, with players coming from a region of less than maybe 2500 residents. We weren't sure how we'd get home - but after the games we walked to the docks (with another couple we met from the Bay Area), and got a ride with one of the dozens of boats going back to Placencia. It's amazing - how hundreds of people went to the game - and nearly everyone just went to the dock after to catch a ride - and everyone was more than willing to share space in their boat, make conversation with strangers, and hear your travel stories.

The way to Placencia was a fairly long series of bus rides out from San Ignacio. We were sad to leave our nice little guest house (The Hi-Et Hotel!)- the owner had spent days baking an amazing wedding cake from scratch, as she said there was no place in the western half of the country to get a cake like that. We were hoping she'd share some of the cake, but it wasn't going to be done for a few more days (can you imagine spending the better part of 5 days baking a single cake?!) Finally saw some rain on the way through the Mayan Mountains - which was a nice change from the constant heat and sun.

Following up my last post - we did indeed do the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave - which was amazing. It's about 2.6 miles long, with an underground river flowing the whole way. Our tour went about half way, branching off from the river to an ancient Mayan ceremonial chamber. 14 skeletal remains, dozens of pots and artifacts, and incredible cave formations throughout. It was a bit larger tour than we had hoped (3 groups of 7, plus guides), and The Discovery Channel was there filming for a documentary. We had an 84 year old man in our group (who made it most of the way amazingly!), and 1 woman who ran screaming from the entrance to the cafe - too scared to continue after the hour hike to get there. The cave entrance is a pool formed by the river - so you must don your headlamp and swim about 25 feet to a small ledge. The rest of the hike is mostly in the river - sometimes up to your ankles, often up to your knees, occasionally up to your neck or deeper - all this by just the dim light of your headlamp, with bats flying overhead.

After that, we ventured out for a beautiful horseback ride, following the Mopan River out of town. Our guide was amazing - part-time high school teacher, part-time farmer, part-time horseback guide, and a very well-traveled and educated man. I hadn't ridden a horse in 15 years - but got the hang of it quickly. We had a great ride out to the Xunantunich ruins, crossing over his farms fields, and taking a hand-cranked ferry across the river. Amid wonderful talks of politics and foreign affairs, Rodolfo taught us all about various flora and fauna, small Mayan sights scattered about his land, and why Meredith's horse was nicknamed "The Bully" (any attempt by me to pass her horse wasn't welcomed!)

Xunantunich was amazing - while not nearly the same massive overall size as Tikal - I found the architecture much more interesting. While only a handful of buildings are uncovered, the main temple is very impressive - with more rooms and chambers and walkways than at Tikal. And it's less "touristed" - meaning no handrails, restrictions, or crowds. Rodolfo had previously worked doing excavation at another nearby ruin called Cahal Pech (which we also visited on our own), and was very knowledgeable about Mayan history and architecture. They uncovered one of the most intact sets of stelae and writing there - which surrounds the entire temple. While they reburied the originals to protect from the elements - they have replicas for about half of it - which looks incredible. On our ride back we had just picked up the pace and started cantoring down the trail when we encountered a few of Rodolpho's cows which ad escaped pasture! We had an exhilarating time rounding up cattle for a bit - he apologized for the unexpected turn of events but for us it was the highlight of the ride!

Anyway, likely a few more days here in hopes of seeing whale sharks and more of the ocean floor on our own. We plan to head up to either Caya Caulker or Ambergris Caye, and then back down to Belize City to fly home.... Hope all is well back in the North!

-Matt

Since I rarely post in this blog, and most of my posts really are for my own benefit and archival purposes - I bet many of you didn't even know I was going to Belize. Day 5, out of 15 already - and here's a quick rundown of adventures.

We arrived in San Ignacio (Cayo) earlier today. It's a nice, fairly bustling town, full of taxis nearly hitting pedestrians, aimless dogs milling about, trinket shops, and lots of tour guides for the plethora of activities in the Cayo area.We're sitting right now in Cocopele Bar, which is supposed to be a happenin' sort spot for folks passing through town, though it's empty as of now. San Ignacio is Belize's second-largest town and the capital of all things adventurous - caving, rivers, jungle hikes, Mayan ruins, horseback riding, kayaking and more. And we just heard "What's Love Got to Do With It" on the stereo (Latin America is where all things U.S. go to die - old school buses, tee shirts, pop songs!).

Our plans for tomorrow will involve hiking and wading into an ancient Mayan ceremonial cave called Actun Tunichil Muknal. Yes, I mean wading, as it's apparently mostly half underwater. We'll be exploring ancient Mayan artifacts left in the cave, ceremonial chambers, crazy geology, and some crystallized skeletons.   

Today, we crossed the border back from Guatemala, where we had just visited the enormous ruins of Tikal.  The city, once the New York of the Mayan civilization, is pretty crazy - words won't really do it justice, it is 25 square miles of ruins, and the 3,000 partially uncovered structures (some buildings over 200 feet tall) represent a fraction of the 10,000 known structures in the city. The synopsis is that we arrived in time to see the sunset from the top of an astronomic observatory pyramid (tucans, parrots, spider monkeys flying through the canopy below us) and woke up in time to see the sun rise (like a dragon eye, our guide noted, aptly), framing spires of ruins in our view. 

It was a bit adventurous getting across the border into Guatemala, hitching a ride from Caves Branch (our first stop of thet trip) to Belmopan, the state capitol. From Belmopan we caught a bus (despite the apparentl national holiday making the schedule funky), all the way to Benque Viejo. Caught a cab from there to the Belize side of the border. Walked across the border, got suckered into paying a $10 quetzales fee to the bortder agent that went straight into his pocket (read: not required by law). then suckered by a cute young boy who was all of 10 into a taxi ride to catch a collectivo bus which would take us into Tikal. The taxi ride was all of 500 yards, and the collectivo bus actually just took us to El Remate, the nearest town to Tikal, but still ~30 kilometers away. We flagged down the next collectivo we saw, which suckered us into paying far too much to get us the rest of the way to the park.

We actually just made it to the park entrance, because if we waited 30 minutes until 3, our entrance fee was valid for the next day as well. So, we waited by the side of the road until 3 and caught a ride with the first vehicle we saw coming. All told, we took a few too many vehicles than we needed to to get there. but Meredith's spanish held up enough to get us cheated out of only around $15 US - which is actually quite impressive considering the smooth dealings of Guatemalans - and how much they tried to cheat us out of. Getting back to Belize was  a snap - hitched a ride with the supply truck for one of the resturants in Tikal back to Ixlu, and then waited on the side of the road for the next collectivo bus back to the Guatemalan border. We even rebuffed the currency traders - getting a better exchange rate trading quetzales back into Belize dollars than what we got going in. Crossed the border, didn't pay a dime.Oh, and ran into two nice folks from our sunrise tour of Tikal, who shared a ride with us back to San Ignacio in Belize.

Before Tikal, we stayed at Caves Branch, about 10 miles south of the capital, Belmopan, to take an introductory adventure or two through the highlands of Belize.  What a way to acclimatize! Ian Anderson's Cave Branch adamantly bills itself as NOT a resort - but an "Adventure Lodge".There's some grey area there in our opinion - while they don't have pina coladas at poolside (yet!) - they do have a really nice, beautiful, well run place. The rooms do have thatched palm roofs, and it is set in the middle of the jungle - so it pushed some limits of the mostly yuppier folks staying there, but is still accessible to budget backpackers too. Our first night we were greeted with a scorpion in our room, and woke up to howler monkeys screaming through the trees - which make an amazing soundtrack for the undead. They are really something that needs to be heard to be believed.

Our first tour was called the "Black Hole Drop"  where we rappelled 280 feet down into an enormous sinkhole that used to be the gallery of a huge cave. Pretty amazing views, and my first time really hiking through a jungle.  By way of background, most of the geology of Mayan Highlands of Belize is composed of limestone, which means that underground streams carve caves into the mountains readily and often.  It's called "karst" geology, and creates some crazy features: turqoise sinkhole swimming sites (cenotes) and deep, scary, miles-long caves with rivers that travel both under and above ground. There is extensive evidence of Mayan usage of nearly every cave found in Belize (and there are thousands, many still unknown) - with remnamts of pottery, ceremonial chambers, sacrificial offerings and skeletons.

After our rappelling trip - we wandered down the road to Blue Hole National Park, to go swimming in an amazing cenote fed from an underground spring, that is part of a 8 mile river that flows mostly underground. This was a great swimming hole, with beautiful water, and a neat cave at one end you could swim into - just you, pitch blackness,  and the bats. We met a nice local man at the park, who offered to guide us on a trip the following day, of the famous Crystal Cave (one of only 10 crystal caves in the world) and then on a cave innertubing trip through St. Herman's Cave.

Crystal Cave was amazing - words can't even explain the formations of stalagmites and stalactites that adorned every inch of this massive underground world. It's surreal how dark and mysterious the underworld is (Xibalba to the Mayans - the "Place of Fright). Even with headlamps, some ropes, and tough hiking boots it is scary to not know what lies ahead, and so easy to twist an ankle or just get confused on the route while climbing over massive boulder piles and crystals.

After several hours in Crystal Cave, our guide Jose led us out, and a 45 minutes jungle hike took us to the entrance to St. Hermann's cave. We had lunch inside the mouth opening, and began a much easier (comparatively) hike though St. Hermann's. We finally came to the underground river, where Jose had hidden several innertubes earlier in the morning. Incredulously, we packed our gear into dry bags, and hopped in the tubes and into the river. The water was chilly, but we were drenched in sweat so it was refreshing to say the least. We followed the river for maybe a mile, pasing more amazing rock formations, bats, scorpion spiders,  and the occasional catfish. 

We finally came upon the more "public" area of the cave, where a group of ~25 young students were walking on the guided, roped trail. They were in disbelief at the sight of us floating down the river in the cave, we gave them quite a laugh. It was really unreal when we all turned off our headlamps and floated in utter darkness for a while. It'a amazing how sensory deprivation will affect you - and while it was very tranquil - feelings of paranoia set in (will a bat fly into my head? What just touched my foot? Was that water dripping from the ceiling or....?) Amazing.

From here, we'll be doing the cave trip in the morning, and then maybe 1 more day in San Ignacio. We're debating horseback riding to more ruins, either Xunantunich or Cahal Pech. Then? Beachward for us. Plancencia to the south, and hopefully Glover's Reef Atoll 28 miles out if we can catch a boat out there... Scuba and snorkleing on the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world...

Yes, we're taking hundreds of photos like good American tourists. A few are already up at http://flickr.com/photos/losinghand/ - the others will be up soon!

-Matt

I'm addicted. To music. I realize I spend far too much time with my music collection. I have over 210 gigabytes of music 4,380 albums. iTunes says it would take 116 days of continuous listening.

 I haven't even listened to everything I have. I'll get several new albums daily, and don't have the time to check out each album. I have bands in my collection that I know nothing about. I'm anal. I organize everything by specific genre, that names are spelled correctly, and I track down album release dates and make sure that is correct. I'm anal about not having single songs - only complete albums. I hang out on silly  message boards tracking down obscure punk and hardcore bands. I pore over Wikipedia, BandtoBand.com, and last.fm far too much.

Part of this obsession is love. I love music - I listen to lots of genres, and have always found the art of exploring new artists and scenes fascinating. But it's more than a rational obsession - it really does border on obsessive behavior, in an un-healthy way. Often, my first instinct in the morning is to track down a new band or two, and then try to locate an obscure album.

Anyway. It's 86 degrees out. It's hot. I just got back from a great game of soccer. Soccer is amazing for the comraderie - new people can jump into a pickup game and across all sorts of cultural boundries make friends instantly...

And now, I'm drinking an amazing vanilla mint soy milkshake I just made. Went rock climbing at Mt Diablo yesterday with a big group of friends. Led a 5.10a, and climbed a 5.10d crack - very happy with myself. Spent Friday night doing Karaoke with Scotty Parkin for his b-day. I don't do karaoke, but was signed up against my will to do Humpty Dance by Digital Underground. I do in fact know every word by heart - and someone felt that the whole crowd needed to be made aware of that fact.

And I go to Belize in 2 weeks. Life is good.

-Matt

So, it's been a busy few weeks for me. I've been on the road a bunch and feeling a bit ragged - so apologies for being out of touch with many of you.

I spent a week up in Sonoma County with The Ruckus Society, at a training camp for their Indigenous People's Power Project (IP3). We were working with young leaders from Native communities across North America, helping prepare them for campaigns they are fighting trying to stop clear-cut logging, surface mining, and coal-power plant developments on their lands. Inspiring group of folks, and I'm very excited to keep working with them in the future.


I then flew to Charleston West Virginia, to spend a week working with folks in the Appalachian Coal communities. Seeing first-hand the destruction caused from mountain-top removal surface mining and the atrocities committed against these poor communities was gut-wrenching. It was part of Mountain Justice Spring Break - gathering college students from around the country to work alongside communities across Appalachia. We visisted mining sites, took water samples from neighborhood homes that were contaminated by decades of coal toxins, visited a school that sits alongside a massive coal silo a stone's throw from a 2.8 billion gallon toxic sludge reservoir and held all sorts of workshops and trainings. The issues facing Appalachia are appalling - such a blatant disregard for life, a once-beautiful environment, and people. PLEASE look at some pictures and videos at http://www.ilovemountains.org/


We had an excellent action where we occupied the governor of West Virginia's office for several hours. Over 100 people sang, chanted, danced and demanded that the governor take leadership in prioritizing the safety of kids at Marsh Fork Elementary over the profits of coal companies. See the story and video here: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/1217 and video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8vYJhADxQ4

I got home, and then Monday on the anniversary of the Iraq War, Bay Rising  (an affinity group that friends and I started recently) organized a grassroots-led shutdown of Chevron World Headquarters in San Ramon. There's been a growing call nationally to "escalate" the costs of continuing the war - recognizing that 4 years of marches, rallies, polls, and petitions have yet to bring about substantial change. 

We picked Chevron as we wanted to "connect the dots" between the war and oil, and also around climate change. We wanted to draw attention to the fact  we are spending billions to fight a war to control resources that are ultimately leading to global warming and destruction - rather than spend billions for peace and responsible energy policy (and not kill anyone in the process). Chevron is also a primary profiteer with the newly proposed "Iraq Oil Law", which will essentially privatize their oil reserves to the benefit of corporate interests.

Considering the action we organized was on a weekday, early in the morning, hard to get to (45 minutes from San Fran), and competing with many other anti-war events, we had a great success. Excellent media coverage - some national  (NY Times), and also our event framed much of the general local media coverage about the war. Check out the story, pics and video below...

http://understory.ran.org/2007/03/20/end-chevrons-oil-crimes-from-richmond-to-iraq/

And of course, photos of all this and more are on my Flickr account.

-Matt

The Valentine's Day Pillow Fight Flash Mob was amazing. I would say there were at least 1000 people, if not double that. A sea of pillows, and giggles, and feathers flying everywhere.... San Francisco is fucking great....

Check out photos and more here.

W-R-E-A-T-H-E-N. (verb) To form as a wreath by twisting or twining.

That scored me 212 points, by bingo-ing using all 7 tiles, and then building off an existing word I was able to use TWO triple word tiles in the same play. AND - that was my 2nd triple word/bingo combo of the game (my opening move, 2 play in the game used all 7 tiles and the triple), leaving me with a final score of 386. That's my new record. I will likely never come close to that again.

My roomates don't like me anymore.