Dear, wonderfully progressive Trish OKane is leaving Auburn University and moving to New Orleans to teach at Loyola. I suppose she decided that she couldnt take the crap anyway. I often wondered about that. After spending ten years in Nicauragua and Guatemala officially working for the U.N. but also working with the Sandinistas, how in the hell can you go to Alabama? Befuddling.

I met Trish my sophomore year of college, I think I remember correctly, when there was supposed to be a protest rally and march taking place there in Montgomery to protest the police having run over a boy with an SUV and then not doing anything about it. The only three to show for this protest were Trish, myself, and a classmate from Huntingdon ( I think perhaps the city quelled it somehow). Anyway, so the three of us met and from there it took off. I started working with Trish, who had just then stopped working for Southern Poverty Law Center and had switched to working with the Center for Democratic Renewel tracking down hate crimes in the state of Alabama. I became her sidekick. Trish is a terribly progressive individual and someone whom I look at in awe and sometimes bemusement-- such as with her gimmicks such as the Kayak Queens-- basically she took her kayak and went out on the Alabama River- whirlpools, filth, and all.

Trish hails from California where she is first generation Irish-American, the daughter of strawberry pickers. She went to USC where she fought against Reagan back in the 80s to get(successfully) military recruiters off of the campus. She then became a journalist, went to Latin America, and became involved with the Sandinistas. What a life. She is also made of steel. I remember once, when we went into a very bad neighborhood over in Montgomery,( I think Smiley Court) to investigate the boy whose legs were broken by the police and the SUV and honey I was as uncomfortable as shit, looking over my shoulder every five seconds looking for the next drive by( I have had to overcome a lot of my bs factor) and Trish was just as cool as a cucumber, sitting on the curb outside of one of the project buildings. I suppose when you have been up against the Contras, Montgomery is nothing. Hmmm. Anyway, Trish is fabulous, and really my first introduction into serious activism and activist work. I wish her well.