Veteran activist, author, co-founder of Code Pink, and leading civil disobedient Diane Wilson returns to San Luis Obispo on April 1st and 2nd for a series of inspiring personal appearances. Ms. Wilson visited the Central Coast last year, and has been very busy since then. She caught up with us by telephone from her trailer on the Texas Gulf coast, where she is recuperating from a broken sternum she suffered in a car accident. Reflecting on the collision that tossed her out the rear window of the vehicle in which she was riding, she chuckled, “Most folks airlifted to the hospital with my injuries end up with brain damage or paralysis. The doctor said I must be made of some pretty tough stuff!”

Of course, it might also be divine intervention as well, for Diane is now completing her second book, an autobiographical account of growing up in a devoutly Pentecostal southern family. Due out this fall from Chelsea Green Publishers, the book is titled “Holy Roller” though Diane adds, “It should be subtitled, How I Gave Up Snake-handling and Developed a Second Personality.” Like her first book, An Unreasonable Woman, this one is set among fisherman on the Texas Gulf, and even though a work of non-fiction, she assures me that, “The old saying that truth is stranger than fiction really plays out with this story.” “Personal experience is the key to Pentecostal faith, and anyone can say ‘God told me to do this,’ which puts way too much power in the hands of the preachers,” comments Diane.

As a young girl, Diane was quiet and listless, traits the preacher interpreted as signs of demonic possession. As a result, an exorcism was performed on Diane, which influenced her decision to flee from the bonds of the Pentecostal world. Her recent accident has slowed progress on the book, but as her publisher told her, “You didn’t die in the car wreck ‘cause you had to finish the God book!”

When not writing, Diane’s current passion is the Texas Jail Project (www.texasjailproject.org). Having spent much time in county jails for her civil disobedience, Diane was shocked by the injustice and brutality at the local level. “Most people think of county jails as a lockup for a day or two, but forget that people—mostly minorities—who have no access to lawyers or bail money can end up languishing for months in conditions that most would find appalling. There are tremendous abuses, from inadequate medical care and rampant suicides, to forced prostitution rings. And because so much attention is focused on state and federal prisons, the women in these local jails are all but outcast by society.” Diane has attempted to bring some visibility to this plight with highly publicized “caravan” demonstrations throughout her home state of Texas.

To keep her more than busy, Diane’s small coastal town is being pursued as a location for an offshore Liquified Natural Gas terminal, a coal plant and a nuclear reactor. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a real energy nightmare down here,” she sighs, “and I’ve still got whistleblowers calling me from the chemical plants too.”

Concerned citizens will have a chance to get up close and personal with this renowned champion of social justice at the two events: April 1st at the SLO Library on Palm Street, from 7-8:30 PM ($ 20 donation suggested/$5 for students w/I.D.) and on Tuesday, April 2nd, at a private reception in SLO, from 6:30-9 PM ($40 donation-reservation required). These events benefit The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Legal Fund. Reservations are strongly suggested for these events, so please call 805-704-1810 to secure your place.