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Last night was the moment I've waited for for ten years, the chance to put my arms around my friend Jeffrey "Free" Luers and give him a long, hard hug. And another. And another. And a kiss on the cheek. And another hug. I thought my heart would explode with joy. The End.

But after attending the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (aka ELAW) for the first time in six years this weekend, after hearing Ramona Africa and Jeff speak, after seeing fellow activists I haven't seen in a decade, it's also very much The Beginning.

I won't lie. Anthony's cancer and his death almost extinguished my fire. But in addition to that profoundly personal trauma were a myriad of other losses from the last decade: Bush, war, arrests, arrests, arrests, fear, in-fighting, and the collapse/implosion/suppression of much of the local radical resistance.

Anthony is gone. But so are others. Imprisoned. In hiding. Burned out. Dead. Gone.

When Ramona shouted "Long live Jeff Luers. Long live Mumia Abu-Jamal. Long live Leonard Peltier. Long live the Zapatistas. ... and down with this rotten ass system," I felt the winds whip up that tiny spark I've managed to keep burning, and I know what I have to do now to care for and nourish that flame. I have to write. I have to agitate. I have to fight.

Because, yes, we have lost a lot over the past decade. A lot of folks are gone. But as my friend Shelley said last night, "Sometimes, we get them back." We have Free back. And we still have a world to fight for.

Audrey Watters


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Audrey Watters

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