EricBidwell.Com

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like an Alp on the brains of the living." - Karl Marx - 1852
- The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon

I won't be able to post it until later, but I type this as I am flying over Panama. I just finished my first in flight meal: a tray of eggs, potatoes, sausage, bread and fruit, plus coffee of course. It's pretty surreal, mainly because it's my first time I suppose, everyone sitting elbow to elbow with a tiny little tray of food, all the meanwhile getting slightly jostled around from the movement of the plane. I guess the odd part is doing something totally mundane, something each one of us must do everyday, all while doing something a bit more exceptional, being crammed into this little pod being shot through the sky.

As you might know, I've been planning on going to Chile to visit Rachel while she's interning down there. As I explained in my last blog, in the end I am simply flying instead of my more provocative desires of hitchhiking. I'll be there for three and a half weeks and even come back on the same flight as Rachel :)

I will be leaving from Los Angeles this coming Sunday at 02:00. I wanted to be here for my July potluck and will, but just barely. Immediately after the potluck I'll be heading up to LAX to check in by 22:00 Saturday night. I'm still not sure how I'm getting there, so if you know anyone heading to LA Saturday night and has extra room, I could use a ride ;)

The last potluck was the biggest yet, I guess the publicity from the election helped a little bit! There was quite a variety of people and food. I met quite a few people for the first time. I loved the Chile Relleno Casserole and the super garlicky hummus!

So if you're free this Saturday, grab some friends and food, and come down to the potluck to wish me off!

For details and a map go to TheRevolution.US/Potluck

If you need help finding it on the day of give me a call, (619)933-3690

A week from now I will be the furthest I've ever been from home. Santiago, Chile is about 8,800 km from San Diego, nearly a quarter way around the globe!

I initially wanted to hitchhike the whole way to save money and have more of an adventure along the way. I quickly found out that this would be impossible due to the Darién Gap, a 160 km length of swampland and forest separating Central America and South America.

So I decided I'd fly over the Darién Gap and still hitchhike the rest of the way, but then my friend Pedro from Brazil told me that Colombia was probably best avoided. Sure enough, Colombia's been in some sort of "armed conflict" for almost fifty years! Back to the drawing board it was...

This past Friday I ordered my passport, it was pretty difficult to figure out how to get it done fast. After finding out that most post offices that do it stop at 15:30 in the afternoon and require an appointment a couple weeks in advance, I finally found out that I could just do it at the same place I was going to get my birth certificate, and until 16:30.

I ran, and rolled, up to the County Administration Center at 1600 Pacific Highway a couple minutes past 16:00. After a couple minute delay emptying my pockets for the the metal detector and checking my knife (which I forgot and need to pick up tomorrow) I went to room 260 to get my birth certificate. After waiting about a minute for one person ahead of me, turning in the application, showing my CA ID, and paying $17, I was told that I'd have to wait about ten minutes.

Eric Bidwell, the "revolutionary mayor" candidate, is moving on to his next big thing.

"I'm thinking about hitchhiking to Chile to visit a girlfriend down there for the summer," he told Union-Tribune reporter Ron Powell. "I'm going to take a little vacation."

Of the campaign, he said, "It was a great learning process. I had no clue where it was going to go or how it was going to turn out. But I was really pleased with the way it turned out. I think I'm more disappointed in our political system and community participation than I was before. It just makes me want to fight to make it better even more."

How about a City Council run?