Joanna Smith - Actual Person - Sent to prison
Joanna Smith, an actual person, starts a 60 day sentence - an Op Ed by Paul Severence
“You didn't think about the impact of your actions on the Little Dancer or on any actual person at all.” - Judge Amy Berman Jackson, to Joanna Smith-April 26, 2024
Joanna Smith was sentenced to 60 days in federal prison on April 26, 2024. She began serving that sentence on July 9.
She was charged with Conspiring Against the US Government...with fingerpaint (yup, fingerpaint).
On April 27, 2023, Joanna Smith and Tim Martin went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, smeared washable red and black paint on the pedestal of a Degas statue, causing no damage to the artwork. Then they sat on the floor and waited for police.
As she sat, Joanna made a statement about the importance of protecting actual, living children from the climate catastrophe, not just sculptures of them.
But in unhinged, bizarre, arrogant, and ignorant comments at Actual Person Joanna Smith’s sentencing hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson twice said Joanna didn’t give any thought to “actual people.”
Judge Jackson, of course, speaks for “the system” - the system we’re all being killed by, the system that has done next to nothing to address the climate catastrophe that looms over us all, every single minute.
She and that system must think the 1,300 who died from excessive heat in this year’s hajj pilgrimage are not “actual people.”
Nor 20,000,000+ residents of Mexico City who are very close to running out of water. Nor the estimated 700 million people who will have to flee their homes when average temperatures surpass 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
We could go on and on and on - there are billions of Actual People in the crosshairs of this catastrophe. But you get the point.
BE AN ACTUAL PERSON: 68 CENTS AND A FEW MINUTES IS ALL IT TAKES
Actual Person Joanna Smith needs our support. Write her a letter. With just 68 cents and a few minutes of your time, you can provide Joanna with the connection she needs while she sits in prison.
Remember all incoming mail can be opened and inspected by staff for both contraband and content that might threaten the security or good order of the institution.
Write Joanna here:
Joanna Smith 61068510
FCI Danbury
Federal Correctional Institution
Route 37
Danbury, CT 06811
Even if we truly understood even a little of what is at stake, we would be spending days unable to speak - traumatised by horror and terror. And then we would know what we are going to be do for the rest of our lives. Whatever it takes to stop climate collapse from happening.
Roger Hallam, via @RogerHallamCS21 on Twitter, July 7th, 2024
“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration."
“I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.“
"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet."
“This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable.”
— William Shatner, actor
Brace yourselves for intensifying, accelerating climate impacts. Sigh. All the people in power are so incredibly stupid
Peter Kalmus, via Twitter, July 2nd, 2024
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