We've been summonsed to appear at the court in Medford this Monday (tenth of March) for trespass under the threat of eviction.
A private detective came skidding through the mud in his loafers to serve the papers, although they also came in the mail. He was friendly enough but refused hospitality and stayed standing in the doorway of our lodge until Kayla went and got him a stool to sit on.
The papers say we're squatters and we're holding the land by force. Neither of which are true.
If we fail to appear then the sheriff will most likely be called and we'll be "physically removed". We're ankle deep in mud in places and it's hard to see how we'll be able to move this time of year. And we have nowhere to go. Perhaps the sheriff and his deputies will help us strike our lodges and carry our belongings out? Or perhaps they'll stand around watching. Or maybe they'll pepper spray us and handcuff us and take our children away. Or perhaps they will break down weeping at prosecuting unjust laws on ordinary people...
It's a stress best avoided, especially for the children, so we'll be appearing on Monday to ask for more time and let the courts etc. know that there is no intention for us to stay beyond May and remind them that we're nomadic and that we move after the rains, anyway.
We're harming no-one, we are families raising our children in the way we know best. Living as directly and accountably as possible.
The plaintiff has some massive inheritance tax/ debts and is desperate to liquidate their thousands of wild, uninhabited acres.
They have a beach house in Malibu, next to Oprah Winfrey's, that they don't want to loose. I don't know if our presence on this small plot blocks any sale. This is where the Dominant Paradigm meets us and we work out how to maintain integrity with it.
We find ourselves on the 'wrong' side of the law because we don't have unlimited access to lawyers and money. We live fairly hand-to-mouth, which is dynamic, though there's little room for waste. We'll see what happens in court and what moral values the court holds, if it is just. Or if it upholds the values of the 'property' owners over those of the common person.
We'll keep posting updates on the process.
We're very open to guidance right now; be it law related or land related.
More strongly: Help, now!
Thanks.
Ande
Maybe Oprah could buy the piece of land you're on in support of life! She likes helping people.
ReplyDeleteYeah Oprah will help! Stop whining people.. lots of crunchy families would love to get to live on land for free what makes u so special?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking that, Ms or Mr 'anonymous'. There are probably others with similar questions but not quite bold enough to ask for fear of appearing bigoted.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's possible to live anywhere for 'free'. There's always an exchange of energy. I would prefer to keep paying mine directly, to the land.
As for what makes us so special, I don't know. I know that we're getting on with our lives as best we can, as inspired as we can. Like you said, there are plenty of families that would do as we do, and they can.
As it stands, the default industrialised paradigm says that the person with a piece of paper claiming they 'own' any piece of land is special and is backed by the judiciary. Whether or not they interact with that land and even though, which is especially blatent in the New World, all of the land has been stolen and aboriginal people, men, women and children, have been killed, ultimately, for that piece of paper.
But thanks for the reminder to stop whining because what we're going through is not the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, Table Rock, or any other of the genocidal atrocities commited in the name of progress.