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Re: Harassed Permies

First, Paul, our sympathy and support.  Othewise, I'm dumbfounded.  

The decision whether to leave or face the rednecks down (at least that is
what we call them here) is a hard one and no one outside the community can
help you make it.  We've just moved into the heart of redneck country in
Florida.  We've had no problems.  I've only had that sort of problem once,
before the word permaculture was coined.  My wife and I moved from New York
City back (for me) to rural Massachusetts and the worst that it got was
people opening our mail, which is a serious matter in the US but hardly as
serious as burning people's homes.  Well, we also had some trespassing by
racoon hunters.  Both were handled by making it vividly clear that people
could not mess with us with impunity.  After that we were left alone.  The
chief of police himself, who was a reputed child mollester and a general
creep, would not get out of his car in our driveway.

I have to ask why these people think that you are different.  In my case, it
was because (as a freelance writer, which they didn't know about) I didn't go
off to work everyday.  I think people thought I was a drug pusher.  They
decided not to find out.  It seems really important to identify what set
these people off.  

If you stay, I advise you to bring every conceivable form of wrath down on
the people who are harassing you.  The meek won't inherit the Earth if they
are already dead.  

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
permaculture training by email. Copyright, 1996, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O.
Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA  YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.

In a message dated 1/12/97 6:56:43 AM, pgill@random.tpgi.com.au (Paul Gill)
wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>This is my first post to the mailgroup, so I will apologise in 
>advance for any stuff ups I make. They are not intentional, either in 
>this message or future messages and relate entirely to my own 
>incompetence. I will also apologise now for spelling.
>
>I am looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience to that of 
>my friends and I, trying to establish a permaculture property in New 
>South Wales, Australia.
>
>In the time we have been trying to do this, since 1984, we have 
>become the targets of harassment from various people in the local 
>community. We have always gone out of our way to assist the community 
>and to avoid any difficulties. And most of the people concerned have 
>had little to do with us anyway, so it isnt like we have upset them.
>
>The harassment has included killing of livestock (which led to a 
>local police officer facing charges of perverting the course of 
>justice) and last week, the caravans at the farm were doused in 
>diesel and set alight. Total damages bill, around $50000, possibly 
>more.
>
>We are having a meeting in the next few days to decide if the best 
>option is to rebuild or to move to another district.
>
>If this is widespread sort of thing, then I guess moving solves 
>nothing. If it is isolated, then it does solve something.
>
>So is this the sort of thing that is happening to others?
>
>Paul Gill
>Canberra Australia
>pgill@tpgi.com.au