Jon's tent was the first personal tent up. The police insisted that the personal tents come down or else they would shut the whole thing down. Colonel Ann Wright came and noted there could be ways to get them set back up. Cindy and other central folk were running errands at the time. There were only a couple dozen people there besides passersby at most. It was too cold with the wind for me for how I was dressed, so I had to leave. Maybe better weather will make a difference as it will come soon.

Obama's 3 helicopters flew directly overhead returning from his Ohio trip. Someone said Bush used to use 4 helicopters.

Jon was sitting there with his bullhorn at one point saying " We're going to shut this town down!" I felt badly. That is part of the rhetoric of the action so I can't fully fault him, but it felt silly for a couple of dozen people to claim they're going to shut down the seat of government of the world's empire.

In the late 70's I was part of a mass movement to prevent the building of the nuclear plant at Seabrook NH. In 1977 there were 1414 people arrested and held in national guard armories for up to 2 weeks. We were covered on national TV the extensively. In 1978 the authorities intimidated the movement into calling off what would have been the largest civil disobedience in US history, turning it into a legal rally. In 1979 and 1980 a large minority within the movement organized actions where the fences were stormed. In 1980 900 police and national guard repelled 1300 activists wearing gas masks and helmets. This movement had been inspired by the resistance earlier in the 70's at Whyl Germany where 26,000 people occupied a proposed nuclear site on FOUR DAYS NOTICE. The plant was never built. Ignored by the movement was the fact that the subsequent year 100,000 activists tried to occupy a site at Brockdorf Germany. That action was repelled by military force including a moat and tanks.

The lesson is that you can't physically overpower the modern state. That in no way means POTA isn't a brave and valuable action. putting one's body in the way of business as usual is a legitimate idea and CAN be done nonviolently. Cindy's actions have no history of violence so her claim to be nonviolent is quite justified.

That doesn't mean rhetoric of shutting down the city is justified. You, dear reader, and I know that Jon Gold doesn't physically attack people. He's a big guy and he glowers, which is hardly a crime. He needs to recognize that the words "We're going to shut this city down." CAN be seen as a terrorist threat, particularly from such a small group.

Jon, sadly, continues to refuse to talk to me, as does Cindy.

I was speaking with a couple of college age guys there who had traveled from hundreds and thousands of miles away for the action. They were not against discussing nonviolence with me. I noted that Gandhi was actually concerned with the spiritual progress of his adversaries. They were honest enough to admit that they were under the impression that the point of protest is to intimidate those in power.

The above exchange provides me an excellent opportunity to show the difference between Gandhi's approach and that of most people who do protest. Gandhi considered those who hated their adversary and engaged in nonviolent protest to be practicing "nonviolence of the weak." For those of you who hate the perpetrators of 911 and those committed to the coverup, the reason to at least consider the Gandhian approach is that it has greater potential for strength.

The 2 days I spent in jail in Pennsylvania for holding a sign at the entrance to the Treason Conference pleading with Cindy,Jon and Betsy to engage me in dialog, were part of my attempt at a Gandhian approach. Sander Hicks advised me the night before that Jon is not the enemy. I repeat now that neither is Bush or Cheney. Those who oppose me are all my adversaries. No one is my enemy. I said that as the keynote speaker at the conference Sander organized last September. Bush and Cheney are just several orders of magnitude more misguided than Cindy, Jon and Betsy.

The simple argument for why this is a stronger approach than seeing anyone as the enemy is the same simple argument I made against Cindy's demonstrating angrily outside Cheney's House. Even if Cheney is not afraid of us, how do we know that his supporters and sympathizers, the vast majority of whom had no involvement in perpetrating 911, may worry that we will come to their private home and hurt them or their family? What would you think if an angry crowd was outside your home?

I want our movement to be as honorable and strong as we can be.

John MITCHELL
Herblay FRANCE

bonsoir ,
from Davidslesinger's reply below I can see that the camping will not be easy. Courage and learn from the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine
.
http://www.tryukraine.com/photos/kiev/orange.shtml
.

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8QtVnAkw6w

In march 2005 on the Khreschatyk street in Ukraine a "village of tents" ( some small indivual tents were orange) were set up so I am asking myself if the communists could accept small tents why cannot Obama also. Were the communists were more democratic than Obama is today ?
As we can see in the video the people were cold in the snow but they kept their place.

Courage to you all at the Washington Memorial and thanks Davidslesinger for the news on the campment.

Yours John

PS have not yet found a good photo of the orange "village of tents" but am still looking.