bakersfield

We recently spent 4 nights at a CHP Firing Range in Bakersfield, California. Other than it was nice not to have to break camp every day, then energy of this place was bleak, man.
See that little sand berm in the distance? It surrounded our camp on three sides. If you climbed up it you had an incredibly great view of the surrounding valleys and the foothills. Unfortunately the surrounding valley was filled with active oil drilling machines. And the sand berm itself was basically built out of lead shell casings from all of the rifles and guns.
Creepy.
But...in a weird way, a lot of healing took place here because a lot of stuff came to a head at this camp. A lot of the young non-native people had been feeling put upon and disrespected and vice-versa. The Native people were feeling like they weren't taking this Walk seriously.
So there were a lot of hurt feelings, but we finally started talking about it in small groups. Some with Native elders, some without. Eventually we started talking to each other and began getting somewhere.
We also had an incredible violent incident happen out here. One of our Walkers had an episode around his mental health. It happened late at night and the people that walked into it became scared and called the police who came out and were incredibly brutal in their dealing with this guy. It was horrific to hear about, and I'm not going to go into the details. We caught it on video though - and lawyers have been retained.
But, due to the seriousness of this incident we also started talking as a group as to how we want to handle folks who are coming in who may be having difficulty with their mental health. This young man will not be the last one.
So last night we ha our first non-violence training and will be continuing them as a group for the rest of our time. It will give people a chance to talk about their fears, and give those who have experience with this kind of thing try to help. I'm sorry this had to happen to this person, but there is good to counter it.
Jun-san reminded us that our society is sick, and to remember that we are all the police. A lot of folks are still mulling that one over.