IDAHO WINDOW / AUGUST 24 2013

Our "duel in the shadows", with obviously unfriendly human forces which have waxed and waned since we came here a little more than sixteen years ago, has quieted somewhat -- for the moment, anyway.  There have been a thin scattering of strange phone "things" and some very obvious attempts to jam and freeze my computer. The AWS (stats) related to our large and recently attacked website were knocked out a few days ago but have now been restored. Our large and aggressive dog has barked a number of times in the middle of the night but there are various alternative explanations for that.  A lion screamed nearby the other very early morning.  Lions are much around and don't trouble us at all.  We like them as we do all wildlife.

As I've indicated numerous times, we know how to handle a wide variety of hostile human (and other) situations.  Frightened retreat, as I've previously noted, would be disastrous -- as it is in any campaign, in any place, and at any time.  Reckless hyperbole, and recklessness in general, serve absolutely no useful purpose, either.  A strong, cool-headed approach is the only Good Medicine.  Our NRA Life decals will remain on the windows adjacent to our doors for a long time to come. All of our other security measures will certainly be in place.  

If there are, by any chance, people, genuinely altruistic as they may be, who find our approach troubling, then I suspect they have never been similarly situated, have little or no knowledge of firearms or gun rights, know little or nothing of hunting -- and reside in secure atmospheres.  

We greatly appreciate the positive comments that we've received in this rather lonely situation -- and we appreciate the efforts by some to sensibly publicize our situation in their own e-mail systems -- and in other ways.  We are even more convinced that these "surveillance" roles in local situations which grossly violate civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy rights in general, urgently call for close and detailed scrutiny and corrective action.  The same certainly holds true for racist thrusts as well.

Fire danger in the Pocatello region has been, to engage in understatement, considerably dampened.  Yesterday afternoon, two and a half inches of rain fell in little more than two hours. This was record -- apparently the heaviest rainfall since Pocatello was founded in 1886. We've had many months of drought, and intense and relentless summer heat.  The thirsty earth consumed much water but there was also runoff which caused widespread flooding down in Pocatello proper, flooded basements, many road closings.  There was lightning but it's doubtful that any fires will come out of that -- although there could be sleepers that take a day or two or three to emerge.  Things dry fast around here but the super heavy rain has moved the local fire situation into a much less threatening dimension -- and has also partially replenished some water reservoirs.

I say "local" because this rain was restricted pretty much to Pocatello and environs.  Idaho Falls, fifty miles or so to the north, got only a trace.  In the fire-burdened Central Mountain region not far to our west, there was scattered rain but enough lightning to start nineteen new fires.  Heavy firefighting manpower, the heaviest of which I have ever heard, has been increasingly successful in controlling the fires, some massive, in that setting.

As always, suffice it to say from our perspective, we shall remain very vigilant indeed on all fronts.  Wish us well.

Solidarity,

Hunter Bear

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

Check out our massive social justice website with much
material on grassroots organizing techniques:
www.hunterbear.org  The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
.
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," 
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial 
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed 
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson  
Movement of 1962-63.  And this book is also an organizer's
how-to manual:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm   

And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm 
and also "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers" :          
 http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)