Protesters were evicted yesterday from their perch atop a 90-ft. redwood tree on the University of California (Berkeley) campus. For 21 months hundreds of protesters had taken turns sitting in the tree to demonstrate their objection to the university's plan to level a grove of 40 live oaks---some 85 years old---to make way for a new sports complex. After a court ruling in favor of the university on Thursday, workers eradicated the oaks: after the protesters were brought down yesterday, the redwood met the same fate. ---Applause to these friends of the trees for their valiant effort!
Doubtless the proper etiquette was to raise objections earlier in the sequence of events, before the complex was approved and funded. Maybe this occurred and was ignored. Thanks to cronyism a huge part of a college campus here was converted to a golf course despite large turnout and overwhelming majority testimony against it (including from representatives of the Department of Wildlife, who said the then still-intact block of forest there was important) at a hearing I attended. Made the process look like single candidate voting, a facade undertaken to present an appearance of legitimacy.
It was ever thus. One might have an iota's-worth of tolerance for honesty---e.g., "Any objection to our plan will be ignored"---rather than the undertaken facade. What a mindless, pointless waste. ---However...one must always try. Here is a personal example. I am glad to say that I was a participant in an effort last year to save a horsechestnut tree on the grounds of the Kirtland (OH) High School. Board members had off-handedly announced that the 65-year-old tree would be executed so that a driveway could be installed in its place. After months of impassioned pleading on the part of supporters such as myself, the intrepid science teacher at the high school (who used the tree as a cornerstone of his botany classes), students, other faculty, and parents, the board ultimately figured out that the driveway could be curved AROUND the tree. When the science teacher sent me pictures this spring of the tree in magnificent full flower, I shouted with joy. Sometimes the combined power of desire for the right thing to happen can work a miracle. Sometimes, not. My heart goes out to those who tried, and to the trees sacrificed on the unholy altar of indifference and self-aggrandisement. ---Thanks for writing.
