BIG GREEN

Debriefer got word the other day of a pretty big wheel coming to town on Sept. 16. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune will give a talk at the Glaser Center at 547 Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa. It seems like a good time to get a heavyweight environmentalist in town to motivate the gaggles of green-oriented activists in and around Sonoma County. Teri Shore at the Greenbelt Alliance says Brune will give a 7pm talk on a range of issues—climate change, the post–fossil fuel economy, protecting wildlands, and voting—as she noted that Sonoma County, despite its reputation as a full-bore wild country of environmental superiority, could always stand for some improvements.

On the one hand, Shore says that “we’re the only county with a regional climate-protection agency,” while also noting that the same agency was just sued over its well-intentioned climate-protection plan, which was enacted in 2008 but has failed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a county-set standard of 25 percent. The lawsuit was filed by the eco-warriors at California River Watch, who say the county agency has totally blown it when it comes to underrepresenting GHG emissions from car-driving tourists and the wine economy, both of which, let’s face it, will get a big boost if and when cannabis goes legal. But that’s a story for another day.

HOMELESS ALONE

Homelessness can take many forms but the essential fact of it is that you’re homeless. This newspaper heard from several people, homeless among them, regarding our Aug. 17 story “Palms Not Bombs” about a local success story at the Palms Inn in Santa Rosa, which has found permanent homes for over a hundred formerly homeless people, more than half of them veterans.

That inspirational tale prompted a phone call from Marie Douglas, a 59-year-old woman who has lived in her car—or was living in it, until it broke down—and who has bounced around from San Francisco to San Rafael to Sonoma County and then to Mendocino County since 2014. Douglas called to share her story last week, and told us that she was headed to Santa Rosa from Mendo to pay a debt and would be taking a bus to Cloverdale and would figure it out from there.

Douglas described herself as a gay, older African-American woman who has been in and out of college for decades and never been arrested, she says, as she tries to put together a career in horticulture. She’s interested in permaculture and eco-villages and medical cannabis and cheerfully says she has “lived in a tent, in an orchard, yadda yadda yadda.”

There’s some great Shambhala wisdom that Debriefer holds close to heart that says: Never give up on anyone or anything, and Douglas struck Debriefer as the living proof of that wisdom as she tries to improve her present circumstances. Good luck, Marie.

Champions, as the old cliché goes, are tested in fire. For one unassuming local champion, Matthew Porter, official armorer of the U.S. Olympic fencing team, that adage came true in a tragic way.

While in Rio de Janeiro, as the United States won four medals in fencing, Porter’s new home in Lake County was burned to the ground in the devastating Clayton fire. “They say you win some, you lose some—but this is ridiculous,” Porter jokes, admitting that it hasn’t been easy maintaining his usual sense of humor.

The month began in high spirits, as Porter and his wife, Karen, took ownership of their new property, spending what amounted to their life savings, in cash, on the home and adjoining warehouse. In Rio, the United States had its best results in decades, with silver medals in men’s foil and men’s saber, and bronze medals for the four-member women’s saber team and the four-member men’s foil team, the first medal the United States has won in that event since 1932. Sadly, as the team was celebrating its wins, Porter was literally losing everything he owned.

“Karen made it out just in time, and she was able to save our dogs,” Porter says. “But anything that didn’t happen to be in her car, or that she wasn’t wearing or that I didn’t have with me in Rio, is completely gone. We had only just finished getting everything into the new place when I had to pack up and head out with the team.”

The owner and operator of American Fencers Supply, Porter is also known in the North Bay for his many years as an actor at the Heart of the Forest Renaissance Faire in Novato, where he played a colorfully crude pig farmer. He also provided fencing equipment for the fair’s popular fencing academy attraction. Porter had been operating the fencing-supply business from his former home in Pacifica until just weeks before the Clayton fire.

The arson-suspected wildfire, which started on Aug. 13, burned 4,000 acres and destroyed most of the town of Lower Lake. Fire officials estimate that at least 300 homes and businesses were lost to the fire, which was finally reported as completely contained on Aug. 25. A Lake County man, Damin Anthony Pashilk, has been arrested and charged on 17 counts of arson for starting the blaze.

According to Porter, the fire was at one point projected to miss his neighborhood. “Karen was calling me in Rio, giving me updates, and the last time I heard from her, it sounded like the danger was over,” he recalls. Fire conditions change rapidly, however, and his wife was taking a nap when the blaze suddenly turned toward the Porters’ street. “She woke up and saw a red glow,” says Porter. “She barely had time to pack up the dogs and get out before the whole street was hit.”

All but one house on their cul-de-sac was destroyed. In addition to losing the house and a lifetime of belongings, Porter’s workshop and warehouse—containing his entire stock of fencing equipment—was also lost. The website for the business now bears a tiny statement: “Closed until further notice due to Clayton fire.”

Porter has served the U.S. fencing team as its chief armorer for over 18 years, with the Brazilian games marking his third Olympics. The armorer is the one in charge of maintaining the team’s equipment, which is a bit more complicated than just polishing swords.

“Fencing is electronic nowadays,” Porter explains. “When one opponent scores a touch, an electronic sound goes off. Being the armorer means that if that sound doesn’t happen, I did something wrong.”

A team of friends, fencing enthusiasts and folks from the Renaissance and Dickens fairs have launched a fundraising campaign to help the Porters with the goal of raising $100,000 to rebuild their home and business. They had no insurance. The U.S. fencing team has already contributed $2,000.

Porter admits to being overwhelmed at the generosity offered by friends and strangers, while recognizing that he and Karen were hardly the fire’s only victims.

“Because of my connection with the Olympics, my particular plight has gotten a great deal of attention,” he says, “but it’s important to remember than 300 other families lost their homes as well. I hope that people’s generosity spreads to everyone else in need, too.”

To help the Porters rebuild, visit
www.gofund.me/armorer.