Elliott Adams, a longtime Sharon Springs activist and well-known anti-war protestor is 26 days into a hunger strike he hopes will help shut down the United States' military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
And his fast couldn't be more timely-or maybe people are just starting to listen:
Sunday, Senator John McCain, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said he's working on plans that could close the prison and move its 166 detainees to a maximum-security prison in Illinois.
More than 100 of the prisoners at Guantanamo, most of who have been held without charges for more than a decade, have joined in a hunger strike to protest their fate and it's in a show of solidarity that Mr. Adams and others have joined the cause.
"We are trying to build a movement to create change," he said Monday-Day #24.
"We are outraged by what's happening at Guantanamo. It defies every moral and American principle. People need to force change. This is democracy."
Mr. Elliott, 65, has fasted for causes before-enough times that he can't remember how many-and so he's familiar with both the process and the dangers.
"The first day you're hungry, the second, your body starts adjusting," he said. "After that you're home free."
Unless you run into issues like heart arrhythmia, neurological changes, or kidney failure as your body starts to shut down.
He's already down nearly 30 pounds-about a pound for every day of the fast, living on 300 calories a day-that's a half cup of oatmeal-to keep his body going.
"I want to stretch it out [the hunger strike] at long as I can," he said. "Thirty days isn't enough to get anywhere, but if I can go twice as long..."
Though he's voluntarily using his fast as a way to draw attention to the situation at Guantanamo Prison, Mr. Adams said the detainees are fasting because they are desperate.
"These people were bought and sold by the United States and deliberately taken to a place where our laws don't apply," he said. "After 10 years, they don't see any other way out but in a pine box. Are they terrorists? Put them on trial. I have no problem with that. But it shouldn't take 10 years to build a case against them."
He's also angry that 41 of the detainees are now being force-fed through tubes inserted into their noses and down into their stomachs, calling it torture.
"It's clearly a freedom of speech issue," Mr. Adams said, "and we should all be affronted by it. They're hurting no one...This is not what America is about."
Mr. Adams said he hopes people will learn of his hunger strike and investigate the situation at Guantanamo themselves, then spread the word about what they learn.
"I don't expect our politicians to do something; change never happens that way," he said. "I expect us to make them do something. Call your Congressman or Senator, talk to everyone you know. This is democracy."
Mr. Adams' hunger strike has the support of his wife, Ann, who said she worries about his health, but is equally concerned about why he's doing it.
"The only problem I have with what he's doing is why he has to do it," she said. "People just aren't aware of what's going on [in Guantanamo]-and they're outraged when they realize."
Mr. Adams hasn't set a date for the end of his fast.
More information on what he and others are doing is available online at: Codepink4peace.org, Closeguantanamo.org, or Witnesstorture.org.