Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 29

Lockdown

Read Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 28: Water Hazard

“Let’s go, maggot!”

Sheila

Hi, my name is Sheila Ruiz-Blasingame. I’m weighing in here for two reasons. One is in my capacity as president of the Santa Fe Council on Creative Nonviolence, an organization devoted to our most vulnerable citizens: homeless families and victims of domestic violence. We organize a network of shelters, kitchens, food-rescue warehouses and commissaries throughout Santa Fe and Rio Arriba Counties.

I am also the half-sister of Teo Monteverdi, who works security at Christus St. Vincent hospital, where he was a longtime colleague of Gus Demetriou. He was also Gus’s “upline,” I think they call it. In PMR, he’s the distributor who signed up Gus and benefited from whatever Gus did in his sales organization. Not that I’m a fan of PMR. As a matter of fact, it seems to be a dubious enterprise — with certain characteristics of a cult — under highly problematic leadership. I refer to the erratic behavior and highly suspicious activities of the founder, a Mr. Randolph Hergenroder, with whom I have had an uneasy relationship on matters of grave interest to the Council and the community. Maybe I’ll get to that later. Truthfully, I’m not sure he’s the point here.