The Lost People

This is a story I wrote for a contest for the Chronicle in Austin, TX. I wrote it somewhere between Nov 08 and May 09.


Lost in L.A.

They call me Nancy, the tree hugger from Seattle, WA because I try to hug or touch as many trees as I can. It can drive me crazy because their are so many trees that need a touch. I hope after reading my story you will start touching the trees, too. They need all of us to love them and start thinking about their well being. We need them to survive.

I had never actually spent time in CA, it was the stuff dreams are made of. I have travelled a lot in my life but nothing like I just accomplished. I camped all over Seattle, WA for an entire year and then began a two year journey travelling all the way down to San Diego mostly by foot.

Camping on the streets for three years was a very unique experience. What causes anyone to do something out of the ordinary like become homeless and start camping? How many people can actually say they have truly lived?

God sent me to the streets to find out what was going on and to teach me how to fix it. It didn't start out as a planned journey across three states. It was extremely difficult with many obstacles that caused many tears but it certainly was fun, too and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I got to go to Venice Beach and paint faces. I got to sing on the promenade in Santa Monica and up and down Hollywood Blvd in a string bikini! I even sang on Jimmy Kimmel's preshow for a talent contest. I saw Will Smith on the red carpet for his premier of Handcock.

Talk about the one that got away...

There I was up on a small ledge with others waiting for Will Smith with my camera. I was seven months pregnant and began feeling dizzy. I didn't want to fall so I jumped down. Within thirty seconds Will stepped out of his black SUV right in front of where I was. I didn't even know he was in the vehicle or I would have probably just sat down on the ledge instead of hopping down. The crowd was in hysterics. People were everywhere and I barely got to see him.

I slept wherever I could. Camping does not necessarily mean you have a tent and a place to set it up. Camping means you know you are not going to rent or own. I learned a lot about camping and homelessness as the homeless were the ones who took care of me most of the time. Many nights I slept in pain, cold, crying, hungry, and all alone as I followed the journey God had layed out for me.

God gave me specific jobs to do while I was travelling. My jobs were to research everything and to pray for people while encouraging them that God was going to help them. I studied the architecture of buildings. I looked at abandoned buildings. I studied the care of the plants. I watched water being wasted by cities. I visited all the homeless shelters and have been arrested 33 times for protesting corrupt government.

It wasn't all work though, it was more fun than I can fit in a life time. One of my arrests was in Venice Beach. I got to run up and down Venice for three months. The drum circle is mesmerizing up until the police shut it down at eight p.m. They didn't like me telling them that the Venice Beach Party lasts 24/7 and that they are communists. Who stopped the party?

I set up my camp on the sidewalk across from Big Daddy's restaurant right on Venice Boardwalk. I was protesting the war. I was offered thirty days for illegal lodging but I said I had a right to protest and I wanted a trial. I cut my losses at 114 days and plead no contest or I wasn't leaving Jail. Thirty days in Lynwood County CA is really only three days. I did 114 days which is equivelant to 1,140 days at ten percent. That proves I tried to fight my case. The torture was unbearable. I did not get to meet Paris Hilton.

As I travelled around CA one of the things God really wanted me to study was the fire hazard. The truth is CA is set to burn down. The terrorists, whoever they are, have planned a major attack on CA using fire. I saw huge piles of dead wood in many, many locations in CA. I removed gas and oil mixtures from the bushes but I couldn't do it all.

I saw bags with things ready to go like scuba gear, high powered binoculars, lighters, shoes, gloves, extra clothes, cups, and food. These are not things left by homeless people. These are bags ready to go. These are things waiting for someone to come use them. They have left messages for each other all over the place, especially glow in the dark paint that's read under a black light.

The sidewalks, streets, and buildings are all mapped out exactly the same from Seattle down to San Diego using paint and other things. There are squares painted in a tetris type pattern on the sidewalks using some kind of paint that doesn't get hot in 100 degree weather. I know as I went without shoes a lot of the time. It's a different shade of grey. I believe it's being read from the sky using infrared.

USA is painted everywhere using white spraypaint as if someone is getting ready to install their own communication system and lasers from the sky are cutting patterns in the concrete.

Gas meters are leaking everywhere and I smelled sulphur coming up from the ground at a bus stop in Portland. Electrical panels are open and easy access as well as phone boxes and cable boxes. I saw someone who looked like a city worker taking a stick of dynamite to the top of an electical pole. I knew that's what it was when I saw it. I asked him what he was doing and he jokingly said he was placing dynamite at the top of the pole. I didn't laugh and said I knew that's what it was and then he tried to deny it.

While I was in Ocean Side/Carlsbad, CA I sat on a hill all night long and watched no less than ten fires start all at the same time in the distance. It was on the news the next day as one arsonist but I believe it was a group based on the things I was finding in the bushes.

We have no one to blame but ourselves for our own complacency. The reason these terrorists have stuff to burn is because of our wonderful, 'American Dream'. We all want so badly to have our own place that we neglect the whole. By working for ourselves instead of the whole we don't have time to see the truth.

We are caught up in a fantasy world. When are we going to stop believing in Hollywood for our well being and start taking care of the earth? When are we going to stop blaming the government for not doing our job even though we paid them too? If the roofer goes bankrupt you still have to fix the hole in the roof at your own expense. When are we going to stop shirking our responsibilities even though we paid someone else to do it?

The Federal Government is nothing more than a company that can be replaced. We don't kill them off by revolting. No, we bankrupt them by actually doing the jobs we paid them to do and they haven't done. What a concept. When there are no jobs for them to do why would we pay them anymore? Taxes are nothing more than payment for jobs they say they are doing.

Instead of even talking with them why don't we just start cleaning the public areas ourselves and take care of the homeless ourselves? Why would we allow a million dollar toilet when an outhouse that composts works just fine? Why would we have a porta potty that must be cleaned out when a composting toilet works just fine?

The trees would love the compost but they can't even get water. The city has placed cement all the way to their trunks. Our beautiful trees that we need for oxygen and shade are slowly being killed by the government we hired to take care of us. The plants are being replaced with concrete. The birds are all dying just like the honey bees.

A peaceful revolution will change all this. A business that gives everyone jobs and makes life fair just by taking care of the earth and each other is a very plauseable solution to this current crisis. When are we going to realize that the American Dream is just a game called Monopoly?

We do not have to live through another great depression. The wild fires is CA are preventable. No one need go hungry. Stop believing in the three Rs. Writing starts with a W and Arithmetic with an A. Reading is the only one that starts with an R. That spells WAR! Stop building up the Matrix and start living for love.

All the Veterans of which I am Honorably Discharged from the Army need to realize they took an oath for life not for as long as they were being paid to defend America against domestic terrorism, too. No one is doing anything about domestic terrorism. False arrests fall in the category of domestic terrorism as well as all the things I found in the bushes and abandoned buildings and fields. I even saw a portion of Magnolia Bridge at pier 91 in Seattle that's ready to collapse two years ago. Our government won't do anything about it.

It's time we the people of the United States step up to the plate, stop working for whoever, and start taking care of the earth. We must create a way to stop global warming or all our efforts at true happiness will have been for nothing. We must stop an out of control government or we will all suffer so says the Declaration of Independence.

Make me the new president and treasurer of all non profits and I will pay off all debt and give everyone jobs and lower the borders! NO MORE WAR!