Mike Ferner

Update
May 25, 2007

After completing two months house arrest, paying a few thousand dollars in fines and restitution, getting permission whenever I wanted to leave the state, and serving 1/2 of my probation period “without incident,” I’m back on the streets.

Last week I received a “Restoration of Rights” memo from Judge Jennings of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court, stating that the court had been informed by the Adult Probation Department that I completed my term of “community control.”

The memo went on to say that “…the rights of citizenship to serve as a juror and hold an office of honor, trust or profit, are hereby restored” and notifying me that my felony conviction “may preclude future possession of a firearm.” Apparently, my right to bear a can of spraypaint has been fully restored.

The best part about being a fully rehabilitated felon is that I can once again get arrested for civil disobedience actions without having a year’s jail term hanging over my head for painting a bridge.

Onward!!

July 20 2006

Friends:

Below is an article that describes my day in court yesterday, plus an unusual editorial that appeared in today’s paper, by Toledo Blade editor and vice pres., Tom Walton.

If this story touches your heart, write me if you must, but better yet, do something for peace today that you never thought you could do. You will have my undying thanks and the thanks of those people who desperately need your committment.

Be well. Raise some hell.

Mike

On June 30, I. went to Chicago to participate in the final week of a four-week, 320-mile walk organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence from Springfield, Illinois, to the Great Lakes Naval Station, north of Chicago. The day I joined “Voices” they were walking through Chicago’s south side. The walk that day ended at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center. A few of us stood on the sidewalk, holding signs. Mine said, appropriately enough, “Demand quality health care for veterans.” One at a time, we took a bathroom break, being sure to leave our signs outside. When it was my turn, I went inside, saw a coffee stand in the hallway, and decided to get an iced coffee and rest my dogs. The rest, as they say…

June 30 2006
By Mike Ferner

This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago’s south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, “OK, you’ve had your 15 minutes, it’s time to go.”

“Huh?”, I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.

“You can’t be in here protesting,” officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.

“Well, I’m not protesting, I’m having a cup of coffee,” I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.

June 28, 2006
By Mike Ferner

The 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s signing of the Interstate Highway Act is a good time to dust off this review of the PBS documentary, “Taken for a Ride” that I wrote 10 years ago when President Clinton visited my city during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Riding a “Presidential Special” from Columbus to Toledo on tracks that no longer carry passenger trains, Clinton crowed, “I’m goin’ to Chicago (for the Democratic Party convention) and I’m goin’ on a train!”

I wanted to ask him why the rest of us could no longer travel to our state capital by train; why we are the only industrialized nation on earth that refuses to subsidize its passenger rail system? And I asked a question that makes me sick to my stomach to read 10 years later: “How many more billions of dollars and how many more lives will we pay for Mideast oil?”

June 6, 2006
By Mike Ferner

Please! Would somebody please tell me that the corporate news media are talking about U.S. war crimes in Iraq besides just the civilians killed in Haditha.

I can only hope that my fellow citizens are not being told that this latest outrage tumbling out of Iraq is some isolated incident; that Herr Rumsfeld will diligently investigate it, and dispense timely justice to all guilty parties (below the rank of lieutenant, of course).

Just in case your Uncle Bob or Aunt Sophie has been asking you, “Exactly what the hell is going on in Iraq?” and you’re looking for hard facts to help them get off the fence, here you are.

April 09, 2006
By Mike Ferner

“Sentenced to time served,” were the welcome words pronounced by Senior Judge Stephen Milliken, of the District of Columbia’s Superior Court, on March 28.

Ed Kinane, from Syracuse, and I stood before Milliken, charged with disrupting a Congressional Committee hearing the evening of March 8 when Ed silently held up a banner that read, “Stop the Killing,” and I started reading the names of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis killed in the war. Capitol Police hustled us out and arrested us, but not before we interjected several moments of reality into the committee’s discussion of $67,000,000,000 more for the war.