In September of 2015 I participated in a hunger strike to deliver a copy of Pope Francis' Encyclical on the Climate to some of the worst polluters on the planet.
About a dozen and a half participants fasted for 18 days, only consuming water and enough miso paste for necessary salts. I lasted about six days.
For the most part, every single day of my life I have had at least one hot meal. And I am an emotional stress eater, as well as a comfort binger when it comes to food.
The day we were planning on breaking the fast was the 28th of September, when Pope Francis was going to be making a three stop tour through the United States, and he would be speaking in our city.
Something Pope Francis was known for was that he was outspoken on reforming our collective extractive relationship with the environment. He wrote an Encyclical mandating that people of faith, and especially Catholics, have the healing and restoration of our ecosystems as a moral foundation of their religion.
This was a big deal because, for many people, especially of the Christian faith, exploitation of the environment was baked into a mindset, that conquering the environment was part of becoming closer to a higher power.
If you want to read Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home, you can do so here on the website for the United States Conference for Catholic Bishops. It's not terribly long. But if you want a very abriged 'meme' summary, I got you.
At the time, there were people criticizing this move of the new Pope as very surface level without any substance. There were many Native Americans who were calling on the hypocrisy of the Church as an institution in their role creating the Doctrine of Discovery, a document that gave a green light permission for Europian colonizers to brutalize and destroy Indigenous cultures around the world, while stealing their land and pillaging that land for commodity. And that if this Pope was serious about fixing our relationship with the environment, a better foundation would be rescinding the Doctrine of Discovery.
Learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery in this video here:
Several of the nights we could camp on concrete outside of government buildings. When it wasn't under 40 degrees, or a weekend when the buildings were closed anyways.
I made it about six days. I quit my fast on the 26th. Each morning I would rent one of the city's e-bikes and go biking at 5 in the morning. I remember those brisk mornings biking in DC. The city still waking up. Riding roughly from Fort Totten to Union Station.
Two things happened that morning:
- I had a run in with a stranger on their way to work. I had no noticeable insignia of what I was doing at the time, nor did I instigate the conversation. This person had stopped me and asked if I had any interest in two tickets they had to see Pope Francis speak at 6 AM on the 28th. I had really wanted a ticket for me and my partner at the time to go see him speak.
- I almost crashed because of a hunger pang. I decided at this point I was ready to break my fast.
You can't just come out of long term hunger with complex foods. It will upset your system. You have to start with simple things, like fruit, and then crackers. I had broken my fast with an apple I bought from a coffee shop and bodega right by Macpherson Square. The apple was two dollars and seventy five cents. The most expensive apple I have ever had.
I can't say it was the best apple I have ever had. But it was juicy and satisfying given the circumstances. As I am biting into this apple, something happened that I'm worried if I share, people will think I am making up.
At the time, Macpherson Square was on the walking route for Senator Bernie Sanders going to work each morning. And on this day, and time, as I am eating this apple, Bernie Sanders is walking through.
If you are too young to know who Bernie Sanders is, he ran for president, and lost the Democrat party nomination, despite having the popular vote. He had an extremely organized and sensible campaign and a 12 point campaign for the United States, and for many people, was hope for a better America. He was also a very modest and frugal person who would opt to walk to work each day, despite being in his seventies.
I did try to walk alongside and say hi to him. I was a big fan at the time. I kept it short and simple. I told him who I was and what I was doing, and he gave me a couple of words, basically with the energy of, 'That's great kid, keep it up, I got to get to work..' I'll take it.
The actual event of the Pope speaking was beginning at 6 AM in the morning. So many of us opted to stay up all night, outdoors, in a small park near Judiciary Square, while having a schedule block of people speaking every 30 minutes. We were encouraged, for visibility purposes for media, to not lay down and sleep.
The actual event, was so crowded. And from where I was, you could only see a dot in the far distance, that was the Pope speaking. We waited for about two hours in line and in crowd in the cold.
I'm glad I did all that, but I never want to do it again.
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