O.R.C.

by Arnica
Much has been made of Tre Arrow, and his case will soon stand the test of the American Justice system. The case is as much a test of the draconian punitive nature of post 9-11 America as it is anything else. To date there is no forensic or physical evidence linking Tre to the crime, and all indications suggest that three college students who knew Tre implicated him in their sloppy firebombing, thus guaranteeing reduced sentences. People know this: they also know that the corporate media has labeled Tre as everything from a “trippy hippie” to an “eco-terrorist”. But psychologically, people know very little. It’s the purpose of this article to shed some light on his psyche.

Tre is from Ohio, and there is an all American wholesomeness about his upbringing which belies the transformation he went through later in life. If you look at old photos of him you see an ordinary American mall shopper. But what caused Tre to stop being Michael Scarpitti, the high school wrestler and Pepsi drinker, and become Tre Arrow, the man who refuses to use municipal water and won’t even put bandages on his wounds for fear of damaging the environment with additional packaging.

Around the time Tre changed his name, he became a rawfoods vegan. He was introduced to the idea by some Essenes from Oregon whom he met at a vegan foods fair. The Essenes were a Judean sect who accepted Jesus Christ as one of their mentors. They believed in a lifestyle which didn’t hurt plants and other living creatures.

From the Essene diet and way of life, Tre realized, somewhere along the line, that our individual actions are responsible for much suffering and the degradation of the world eco system. So he began to extend the philosophy of the Essenes to the rest of his life.

From this point onward Tre strove to live a life as free of wastage as possible. He shunned use of shoes, soaps that weren’t vegan, any form of packaging, or even forms of energy that came from nonenvironmental sources. So meetings with him were held in cold dark rooms, and he’d wash with only spring water hitchhiked from the Oregon coast. All his clothes were secondhand and made of natural fibers. He even avoided band-aids.

His zealous battle against wastage extended to trash as well. Tre would collect trash and recyclables, then find ways to use them. There are stories of him entering and remaining in dumpsters until each and every item in the dumpster, edible or non-, trash or recyclable, had found a happy home, either in a compost heap or as a sculpture if it could possibly be reused as art.

This behavior was perceived as madness for some, and godliness to others. A virtual religion followed the man wherever he went. When he was living on a seven-inch ledge in downtown Portland in 2001, someone was distributing T-shirts that read “GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR INNER TRE”. When he made crucifix-like yoga poses on the ledge, one could hear people visibly breathing in and out along with him.

A year later he was on the FBIs “Most Wanted” list. Two years later, he was in jail.

As soon as Tre found himself in jail he began to fast. Punished for hoarding recovery-period food, he nearly starved to death. The starving / fasting incident proved his resolve, and the Canadian courts gave him the right to receive foods delivered by his supporters, an important victory.

He then focused on the other aspects of prison life. He wore the prison uniform inside out, rolling up the pant legs and pushing down the backs of the shoes so he didn’t need to wear socks, reducing use of chemical detergents. He wouldn’t use the prison water to wash his body or for hydration: his supporters used bike carts to haul well water to the jail, and he’d use small amounts to wash his body.

He stockpiled styrofoam bowls and cups, cereal boxes, plastic material, etc. then sent it out with his support people to be reused or turned into art projects. The inedible remains of his meals were termed “offerings” and sent out with specific instructions as per where they were to be donated to the earth or to animals.

Tre would only wash his cell with non-toxic biodegradables that had been purchased in bulk then transported in reused containers. Which in his case, meant vinegar and castille soap. (Attempts to bring him baking soda were firmly denied, but not without some hilarious guard’s reactions).

Tre’s fellow inmates reacted as might be expected; they thought Tre was insane. They had trouble understanding why the shelf reserved for his TV was covered with ripening fruit, they didn’t like the way he or his cell smelled, and they didn’t understand his zeal for reusing all the trash. But with time he got some begrudging respect, so that the prisoners came to Tre with their moral and ethical questions. They wanted to be in touch with their inner Tre.

Now in the County prison system, he continues to manipulate his life, focused on impulsively avoiding wastage, or creating any form of wastage or pollution of the environment. Feeling that the municipal water is polluted, he cleans his body with orange peels, and drinks only as much as he needs. He will, no doubt, attempt to stockpile trash and recyclables, but his new prison is surely less lenient than the one in Canada.

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When all is said and done, two observations emerge from this story: Tre is accused of firebombing logging trucks, acts so utterly lacking in any consideration for the environment it is unthinkable that he’d commit them. The second point is that his story, focusing only in his eccentricities and how they’ve played out in a prison setting, illustrates the struggle of idealism against totalitarianism, how it is both futile and successful at the same time.

Tre may be let out of jail someday soon; he might also end up fighting his incarceration for years on end. Either way, he represents an untenable ideal, in which the individual is slated to lose the fight for a life entirely unsullied by pollution, coming from one’s own actions, or the actions of others. But Tre serves as an inspiration, and he holds down the fort of idealism manifested in action and in personal life choices. This is, ultimately, how he is effective, whether in jail or out, and no matter how you might gauge the outcome of his actions.