Matt and I went to Applebee’s a few nights ago to say hello to an old friend of his who works there.

We waited at the bar until his friend got off work. The bar faucet was gushing out steaming hot water at full blast, draining out of a teeny, tiny little sink that never filled up. The water was on when we sat down, so who knows how long it had been on before our arrival? The entire time, the lone bartender ran around frantically texting, I-phone in hand, screaming every detail of the Ebay bid she was trying to win.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes, when I could stand it no more, I said gently, “You know, I come from a place where we have to conserve water. Can you turn the faucet off? Please?”

I should mention that this bartender seems to be a very nice lady. She’s a friend of the friend we were there to meet. She talked about how she had signed up for a bell-ringing shift for the Salvation Army. We even had a few beers together later in the night, where she apologized a second and third time about the faucet. I cannot help but wonder if she apologized because she realized the need for water conservation or if her reason revolved around the social pressure of my pointing it out.

Just one state over from South Carolina, where this runaway faucet event occurred sits Atlanta. Lake Lanier is it’s main water source. Just one year ago Lake Lanier was so low from drought, mis-management and overuse that Atlanta measured it’s quickly dwindling available water supply in terms of weeks and officials declared an emergency.

Only when the faucets run dry will people realize that there is no more water. We’ve got the technology at our fingertips, literally, so that we don’t have to lug water from wells anymore. But this technology has contributed to our mindlessness.

I’m not perfect; I’m here to educate and bring awareness. Guess what? Everyone is from a place that has to conserve water.

There is a woman who roams the western United States in an effort to repopulate wild areas with intentional planting of indigenous plants in the manner of the Native Americans of centuries past that was destroyed by our culture. I’ve not yet met her. I’ve heard much of her through mutual friends and I hope to someday meet her and learn from her.

But right now Finisia cannot do the work that is so important to her – and important for our planet. She was stopped last month by a forest service agent and told she could not do her planting. She resisted and is now sitting in jail in Idaho. I’ve heard through many a spirited story that Finisia has been jailed many times for her acts of civil disobedience – and always takes the incarceration with an open heart and mind.

But this time is different. Finisia is in trouble, I believe. She needs help. The authorities who don’t understand her and her ways are trying to put her in a mental institution, where they can forget about her.

This cannot happen. Please take some time to visit Finisia’s website – pullingforwildflowers.org. Donate money to this woman. I’m told that the fees to release her from jail and to fix her covered wagon only amount to approximately $550.00.

I recently read an article in an old National Geographic magazine from 1973 about a man who walked the west gathering and cooking native foods that grew in wilderness. The story of his passion made a national magazine! Now here we sit 35 years later . . . and one who is trying only to perpetuate this bounty of nature – and not hurting anyone in the process – is being held and labeled as insane simply for leading a lifestyle that is outside the economics of capitalism.

Finisia is in jail simply for the “transgression” of digging her hands in the earth in an effort for conservation.

Again, I ask you to donate to this brave woman. Pullingforwildflowers.org. If you’d like to send a letter of encouragement, please do so:

Finisia Medrano

Lemhi County Jail
Inmate Finisia Medrano
206 Courthouse Drive
Salmon. Idaho 83467