My great aunt, Sister Dominic, sat in her chair in her room in the hospice ward of the convent. She was watching Mass on TV. It hadn’t even occurred to me that someone would televise Mass. But there she was, arguably too infirm to attend in person, so she watched Mass from her chair while I waited awkwardly, patiently, to talk to her.
It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a year now since she passed away.
Continue reading Sister Dominic
Here’s my year in review. I suppose most people just do these sorts of things on facebook or something now, but I’ve been doing it on this site for quite some time: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, and 2008.
In 2014, my accomplishments were, by-and-large, more personal and less of the “look at what I made” variety.
The proof copy of my upcoming novel, A Country of Ghosts, arrived yesterday and got approved. Now we’re just waiting a couple of weeks for the first print run to arrive!
I’ve been doing these year in review posts for awhile now. See: 2012, 2011, 2009, and 2008.
So, in 2013:
I focus on projects in these lists because, by and large, I keep my personal life private. But it’s been an intense year for a lot of people I’m very close to, with its share of grief and hardship. I look forward to the days growing longer once more.
I realized that tumblr is a good platform for broadcasting things and for collecting snippets of projects. At the moment, I seem to be posting photos from my travels and quotes from the anarchist quote book project I’m vaguely working on.
My tumblr is nomadicwarmachine.tumblr.com.
Oh, 2012:
Next year, I hope to get out of the country for awhile, finish a linear novel, and get better at spanish.
Apparently the US government thinks I owe them nearly $500 because I got upset that they hogtied me overnight.
In 2002 I participated in “The People’s Strike” in Washington, DC against the International Monetary Fund (who are basically loansharks writ large). I got arrested, along with 700 other people. Almost none of us were charged with any kind of crime. Most people they ransomed back into the world for like $70 or something. I’m stubborn, so I refused. I also didn’t answer any questions (like “what is your name”) or cooperate with them.
All 700 of us ended in a giant gym somewhere, I guess some cop training school. They hogtied us, handcuffing our dominant hand to our opposite ankle, then left us overnight. In the morning, they rounded up us 100+ “John Does” and took us elsewhere, where they stripsearched us in groups, forcing us to pull down our pants and “squat and cough.” I was held there all day in tightly-packed cells. Eventually, near midnight I believe, they let me go. They never charged me with any crime. I never saw a judge. In total, I was fed one ham sandwich (which I refused) and a small portion of a bagel over the course of the entire 36 hours or so I was held.
In one memorable moment, a guard told me that they were never going to let me go, that I would get raped by some guy named Bubba.
Some years later (2008, I believe), I joined a class action lawsuit against the D.C. Marshall Todd Dillard, who oversaw the whole thing. I was one of five named plaintiffs, representing all the rest of us who were subject to this strip search. You see, back in the day, “reasonable suspicion” was required before you could stripsearch people. But the DC court found otherwise, after a trial that stretched on for years.
And now, because I dared to question the way that the government handled me while I was in captivity, they’ve decided I am (along with my co-plaintiffs) liable to pay their court fees.
Anyone familiar with the American prison-industrial complex won’t be surprised to hear any of this, and it’s absolutely true that my story is essentially nothing compared to what comrades are facing here in the states and in other countries. But it’s this thing that happened, and it’s fucking annoying to say the least.
I kind of enjoy these end of the year year-in-review posts. They help remind me that I actually get things done, since the end of December is usually a kind of low-point in my mood and productivity. I did one for 2010 and 2008. I tend to leave my personal life out of my blog, and I’ll continue in that habit.
Every now and then I try these social networking things.
I now have a facebook. My name on it is Margaret Kiljoy (one L). I have no idea how to use it or what to use it for yet. But I’ll probably figure it out.
This morning I got a text at 5:30am telling me that #occupysantacruz was being raided, so I drove down to the courthouse to film. I crossed the street (it could be argued that I didn’t cross the empty street at the corner) and turned on my camera. Immediately, a cop detained me for jaywalking. Here’s the interesting part: he told me that I didn’t have to get a ticket if I would just leave and not come back for two hours. He told me he had no interest in debating what was and was not public property. I argued with him for awhile and then acquiesced.
It was clear that he didn’t care about my jaywalking and was only using it as leverage to clear me off of public property.