Update #1 from H2O Man [View all]

[WilliamPitt]

He told me he is doing well, though "There are only so many ways to prepare water -- ice water, cold water, bottled water, a glass of water, a cup of water ....."

His report:

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Sunday
January 15, 2012


This morning, I had two phone calls, both asking if I planned to attend an anti-hydrofracking meeting at the Sidney Public Library. The first call was from an old friend, who -- when I said yes, I was going to be there -- said, "Good. We need our leader." The second was from a young man who I'm not familiar with, who hung up on me after I said I planned to be there.

The meeting went very well. The gentleman who organized it said that there were three times as many people as he had expected to show up. There were representatives of several of the area pro-environment, anti-fracking grass roots groups at the meeting. The only person I didn't recognize turned out to be the fellow who called me.

He approached me at the end of the meeting, and said that not only did he resent that I planned to do a hunger strike, but was offended that I spoke to a group that appeared to support me. He said that I was no different than a person standing on top of a high building, threatening to jump. And the others here were like a crowd that gathered to watch the freak show, and were yelling, "Jump!"

I told him that I didn't see it that way, and that apparently no one else there did, either. This fellow said, "You are all about death." A woman next to me asked if I knew this guy? I said that I didn't. She asked him why he was there? He didn't respond to her. So I said that my actions were intended to promote health and life, versus hydrofracking, which represents disease and death.

He said that I was "a typical politician," and asked if my "next stunt" would be to take the state senator hostage at gunpoint? I pointed to a book I was holding, and said that if he insisisted it was a bike, it was still a book. The "bike" existed only in his mind. I said he seemed to be peddling in some dark territory, and that I was not able or interested in going there with him.

I am not a "leader," nor a lunatic threating to jump off a building, much less commit any act of violence. I'm simply a citizen, and a father, who is very concerned that hydrofracking will destroy our environment. As the hunger strike goes forward, it will be important to try to focus on that -- no hero, no villan, just and ordinary person attempting to exercise Amendment 1.