STATEMENT OF REASON


It is my considered opinion that violence and oppression are the two chief concerns facing humanity today. While violence results in nuclear weapons, oppression results in suffering. In the final analysis violence is the only problem, because without it oppression would not exist. While violence continues to exist, the greater probability is that humanity will cease to exist as the direct result of violence.

I maintain that there is no justification for violence. As long as nuclear weapons exist it is inevitable that, either by intent or by accident, one day they will be used. On that day it is probable that humanity will be exterminated, and my point, that force is unjustifi- able, will prove true.

I am in this country against my will. While I am here I have a responsibility to scream out against the irresponsible activities of this government. For the most part my screaming has been ignored, but lack of attention has not been a factor in driving me away from the White House sidewalk. Since June 3, l98l, I have fought to retain the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. I have stood my ground against the police, against bureaucracy, and against the suicidal system of this country. Perhaps one point made by this demonstration will be to illustrate to the Federal courts that sleeping can be expressive communication. It may also serve to show that, while it may be necessary to go to ridiculous extremes to stand up for one's beliefs, one's belief in freedom need not, cannot, be protected by destroying the Earth.

My experience has led me to conclude that ignorance, apathy, and a lack of compassion abound in the United States. But experience has also shown that not everyone here is dead. There does exist a definite trace of intelligence, interest, and compassion in this country. My belief that a little intelligence can overcome great ignorance is what I presently rest my hope on.

While I am in this tree I will neither eat nor drink. My demand is that the United States renounce nuclear weapons, or that either the government or some concerned individual will assist me in exiting this country. I have no desire to be part of an organization which would employ total destruction in an effort to safeguard its vested interests

. My death may result as a matter of this experiment. To say I committed suicide would be like saying that a mountain climber who plunged to his end as the result of a miscalculated leap committed suicide.

I climb ideological mountains. In this case my calculation is that sufficient intelligence, interest, compassion, and humanity exist in the United States to get me out of this moral dilemma. The legal hocus-pocus of bureaucracy and jurisprudence have placed me here. All it will take to get me out is a little reason, and logic.

If I should die up here, it was not me who was wrong, but America. No hard feelings.

November l982 (reprinted October l986)