Sitting right now in Orca Books in Olympia, WA, getting ready for a reading. Last two days have been hectic, but fun. Wednesday noon in Seattle I had a nice brownbag with the staff at Grist, the online environmental magazine, which was really cool and informative for all involved especially me. I was reminded that the subject of my book Operation Bite Back — radical environmentalists and animal rights activists whose actions are now the subject of terrorism prosecution — is a really a subject that the mainstream environmental movement regards from a long way off.  It was not so surprising that many of the staff knew little about the history of Rod Coronado and his friends and accomplices, but it was a little bit disconcerting that they were not aware of the ramp-up in terrorism legislation and how this could affect the movement.

Maybe the lesson here is that this will never concern the bulk of people who fight for legislation to curb global warming and the like — and it probably won’t. But parsing the word “terrorism” and what it means so that it can’t apply to people like Rod or Daniel McGowan is an essential project. Who will take that on?

Nice crowd that night at Seattle Town Hall. Yes, it was a little diminished by the huge event going on upstairs with Gen. David Petraeus, but not as much as I’d imagined, and the Seattle Channel was there getting it all on TV, too. I realized afterward that I had done in my talk almost exactly what Rod had done: in describing his 2003 speech in San Diego, I told how he had answered a question about how his incendiaries were made and I mimed the way he picked up an apple jug and, though I didn’t know all the details about how his incendiaries were made, I gave a mock description. Now, there I’ll be doing it on TV, somewhat like Rod. They tried to get him with a terrorism charge for that. I hope those watching still understand the meaning of the First Amendment.

Portland was at Powell’s on Hawthorne, and I was thrilled that Rod’s parents Ray and Sunday Coronado came walking in. They listened intently and seemed to enjoy the presentation, and afterward they were the very model of graciousness and support as they came forward and congratulated me for writing the book. They had not talked to me — at least, not this time — when I was researching in 2008, and Ray joked, “And now he’s followed us to Portland.” He was all smiles, and they walked off with a couple books. It’s a funny thing to be reading a book to the very people who lived the whole thing. I always wonder if it must sound ridiculous. But I guess not. At least, they never said so.

The other great thing about both this store, Orca, and Powell’s Hawthorne? They’re packed. People in and out the door constantly. Buying books, selling books, researching books. Books are very much alive!

On Saturday, June 27, we had a nice turnout at Book Soup in West Hollywood, with “Book TV” in the house, really smart questions and a good discussion. A couple of nice surprises. First, Jonathan Paul’s sister Alexandra Paul — you once knew her as Lt. Holden on ‘Baywatch’ — turned up with her husband Ian and made a couple observations that made me realize I was going to be asked for a lot more than just telling Rod Coronado’s story on this tour.  Ian pointed out that I kept on referring to this book as a book about “terrorism” and referring to the people in it as eco-terrorists.  The book I wrote is an argument that hardcore direct action activists like Rodney are NOT terrorists, in their intentions or their acts, and that the expansion of the use of the word “terrorism” is something that the civil rights and environmental communities should be actively resisting. Which, for various reasons probably including expediency and even patriotism, has not been happening. But I realize now I’ll have to be constantly making this clear.

Alexandra also asked me directly if I felt that actions like Rod’s were effective, and I had a waffling answer. Because sometimes they were not, but a couple times they were.  At Oregon State Univerity in Corvallis, the experimental mink farm was shut down about 2 years after the fire and never restarted again, partly (but not entirely) because of the attack. At other universities, the attacks were an excuse to rebuild bigger and better and have more animal experiments than ever. And several times the animals who were liberated were thrown into chaos, injured and eventually killed. So the legacy is mixed. The intention, however, is not.

The most effective action Rod ever did was sinking the whaling boats in Iceland for the Sea Shepherds  in 1986, and that steered us into a discussion of what IS effective right now, which, ironically, is the Sea Shepherds show, “Whale Wars.” The show has terrific ratings, kids everywhere are watching it, and it is making a huge difference in the debate about whaling.

Alexandra and I talked afterward, and she was of the opinion that we need the radical actions in order to push the agenda and to make space for the more conservative or at least well-behaved groups like NRDC or Sierra Club. This has been the argument since the dawn of the 1980s, when then Earth First! and more radical elements came out of the desert and began drinking in public bars. And that is still true now, but the legislative and law enforcement backlash against radical direct action has definitely made life more dangerous, more prone to surveillance and infiltration, and more exposed to conspiracy than ever before. So we’re going to go on talking about this.

The other nice thing about Saturday’s event was that it was taped by C-Span’s “Book TV” program. The tech told me it would air in about two weeks, so it’ll be around the weekend of July 10-12, I’d imagine. But you can look it up on the Book TV schedule page.

From July 8 thru 14, I’ll be on tour from Seattle to San Francisco. See my “Tour” page for details.

More on Rod’s current parole conditions in a separate post.

dk