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!