14 Years ago- Plight of The Redwoods Campaign grew out of my involvement with The Save The Redwoods Boycott the Gap Campaign.  Hundreds of people from the New York Island  to the Redwoods of California and via  travels around the country in between  and to as far away as Nairobi Kenya--  helped  to carry the message of the  wholesale logging of the most amazing ancient and endangered  trees on the planet!
Here are some of the Archives:
http://www.wetlands-preserve.org/north/butterfly.htm

http://www.wetlands-preserve.org/north/shut.htm

http://www.gapsucks.org/gwa/history/22-23-earthtimes/

http://www.earthfilms.org/havc/campaigns_videos/timbergap/redwoodmary.html

http://www.irthlingz.com/irth/songs_for_the_redwoods.html

https://treesfoundation.org/publications/article-24

http://www.gapsucks.org/gwa/letters/maryrose.html

and  the most amazing people I had worked with in the New York City Metropolitan Area were the folks at EcoBooks in Brooklyn, NYC Clearwater, SATYA Magazine, Kid Against Pollution in upstate NY, SEAC, NY Environmental Law Project, MORE Gardens, etc., and especially  the Wetlands Activism Collective- formerly housed at the famous Wetlands Preserve Nightclub at 161 Hudson Street.  From 1989 to 2001, The Wetlands provided a stage for everyone from tiny ska and hardcore bands to future stars of rock and hip-hop. Pearl Jam, Oasis and Rage Against the Machine played their first New York City shows there, and the likes of Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors and Phish turned the venue into a mecca for live, improvisational rock music.


Simultaneously, the club itself provided a headquarters for working groups for social and environmental advocacy. Forced out of its downtown Manhattan home when its lease expired, the club closed prematurely in the wake of 9/11, just days before its scheduled finale.
While Wetlands' nightclub  is sadly, a thing of the past, Wetlands Activism Collective continues to campaign for earth, human and animal liberation. The Collective is run by volunteers and needs your help!

http://wetlands-preserve.org/no_count.php?page=DonateIndex

  P

Wetlands
Activism
Collective
Phone: (718) 880-7979
Fax: (501) 633-3476
activism (at) wetlands-preserve.org


Grassroots Organizations that are still needing your help to save the Redwoods:
Trees Foundation
PO BOX 2202
Redway, CA 95560

Phone: (707) 923-4377
Fax: (707) 923-4427
trees@treesfoundation.org

and The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) works to protect and restore ancient forests, watersheds, coastal estuaries, and native species in Northern California. EPIC uses an integrated, science-based approach, combining public education, citizen advocacy, and strategic litigation.
epic@wildcalifornia.org
145 G Street, Suite A
Arcata, CA 95521
(707) 822-7711
(707) 822-7712 FAX



EARTH FILMS CLASSICS - 3 classic short films are now on one DVD - LUNA (20 mins) FIRE IN THE EYES (30 mins) TIMBER GAP (20 mins) - $25 place your order  at:http://www.earthfilms.org/order_dvd.html#

LUNA The Stafford Giant Tree-Sit. (20 min.) 1998. The Stafford Giant redwood tree, also called Luna, was discovered by Earth First! during the Fall '97 Headwaters campaign. The tree was blue-marked for cutting. In order to save it from the chainsaw, a nonstop tree occupation began. One extraordinary woman named Julia Butterfly remained in the tree for over two years. This video report gives you the inside view of one of the most inspiring acts of civil-disobedience ever. - Winner Okomedia Film Festival award - "Best Journalistic portrayal of ecological issues for children & young people"

Timber GAP 20 min. ( 2000) Timber GAP is the story of a community struggling to save the last of Mendocino County's  coastal redwood forest. A new company has recently moved in, financed by the GAP founder Donald Fisher and family. The Fishers made their fortune off the backs of exploited sweatshop workers, now they are exploiting the redwoods. Grassroots movements of labor, the environment and human rights converge in Seattle to protest the WTO and the huge corporations (like the GAP) that benefit most from Free Trade.

Fire In The Eyes, (VHS or DVD) a powerful, unnerving look at Humboldt County's policy of using pepper spray directly on the eyes of non-violent protesters.  This 32 minute portrayal of the controversial police tactic, euphemistically called "pain compliance", shows the dark side of law & order. !  - Winner "Black Maria Film Festival" Honarble mention award

Nationwide PRACTICAL Solutions to the Housing Crisis

Keep it Simple: Stop the Foreclosure Crisis with the Right to Rent

There are a lot of complicated plans being discussed, but sometimes the simplest solution to a problem is best.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/107572/keep_it_simple:_stop_the_foreclosure_crisis_with_the_right_to_rent/

A Nationwide Solution:
By Mary Rose Kaczorowski

This article (link above) is still a timely piece.

My question is:  What if OCCUPY  nationwide  asked all landlords,  investment property limited corporations, banks holding properties, etc.  to lower  rents? 
Not too long ago it was possible to work  part-time  or 3/4 time  and still afford rent and food. We need to go back to using rental housing to house people not as investment schemes to squeeze out the most profit possible but to house people.  The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognizes that  the inherent dignity and that of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Article 25 of this document states:

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Imagine lowering all rents and  that generosity going to help house people here in the U.S.?...and maybe we can then inject some of that cash tied up in high rents as a "spending" injection  into the local economies nationwide?

Maybe it is time for landlords and investment companies to sacrifice for the good of the nation- to give back to the local community.
.
Lower the rents! Make this a nationwide voluntary effort.

It is time that this country that claims to practice many faiths  to act as people of Faith, to walk in compassion and generosity  and  to take care of the low income folks and elders and people loosing their homes to foreclosure.
It is the right thing to do.

RE: OCCUPY Oakland- My Response to Those who Justify Violence

http://hellaoccupyoakland.org/city-hall-intentionally-left-open-for-vandalism/
(This actually applies to those who insist on violence as a tool anywhere.)

Posted 2-12-2012 8:22pm PST

Peaceful ? OCCUPY Oakland. Non Violent?

I am reading Dr. King's letter from Birmingham Jail. Everyone should read it.

The Civil Rights Movement was and stayed a non-violent movement with dignity that rose higher than the violence that came at it and it still inspires the world-- despite police dogs, bombings and horrific violence conducted upon protestors by police.

From Dr. King's letter: " Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on non-violence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: 'Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?' 'Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?'...."My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and non-violent pressure".etc. etc.

I have been to several Bay Area Occupy Camps and I have witnessed many people leading in peace and there is also many arguing for their right to violence. The OCCUPY movement broke down with loosing a spiritual (not religious) center. Setting up to take care of the homeless and poor is noble but using the plazas to also at the same time fight "police" is splitting the focus. Fighting City Hall? A Mayor? What is OCCUPY about?

The Civil Rights, The Anti-Apartheid , the No Nukes Movements had goals and all used a variety of non-violent and peaceful approaches -- and they all achieved their goals with diligence .

Life is a journey - new generations and new issues come and go -- nothing remains static and I still believe OCCUPY can regain its place only through non-violence and coordinated respectful and focused goals. OCCUPY cannot cover every issue under the sun. OCCUPY will not win with violence be it words that hate police or smashing property.

The General Strike in Oakland was an example that had many issues crying for attention -- the two free speech
microphones that were set up were in constant use with many causes asking and competing for justice.

Eckhart Tolle in his book "The New Earth" refers to much of what we bring along in our lives....This could be a handbook for OCCUPY-- in what Dr. King refers to as a self purification...and in relation to what Tolle writes about is our recognition of "pain" that controls our thinking and how to release from that as a step in the evolution of consciousness on our planet . And I believe that has to happen ALL over the planet -- A GRAND Awakening where the daggers and bombs and smashing and killing and drugs and abuse and sexual slavery etc. stop everywhere.

As Tolle mentions... we are a society that pays to see violence as entertainment (Films, Video Games) and thinks that is ok.

There may a come a time when we cannot stomach the pain that drives us to shameful acts of violence and we will wake up to that. I hope to live long enough to see that happen.

Report From Capitol Hill- End Blowing up Mountains

I just returned back to our temporary HQ at the church parish hall down the Street from the House and Senate Buildings here on Capitol Hill.

I wish I can have Jane from Wiles County Virginia sit down and talk to you and tell you what it is like to live with the blowing up of mountains and where over 25% of her County has been surface striped mined. Wendy from West VA. operates a CSA farm and there is an application out for Mountain Mining 2 miles from her mom & dad's house.

Then there is Dorothy who brought us photos of the layers of coal dust covering her porch and newspaper stories of the boulders flying out from the Mountain Top Blasts that have killed people or crashed thru roofs in houses. In 2004 3 year old Jeremy Davidson was asleep in his bed when a boulder rolled off a rock slope where there was coal company road access construction work at night happening above their house -- and the boulder smashed thru the wall of his house and killed little Jeremy.

Then imagine dirty water coming out of your taps in the kitchen and bathroom thatsmells like rotten eggs and looks like nasty foul tomato soup mixed with mud. Picture miles of mountains blown off and nothing left but a moon scape...familes forced to move...this is all due to strip mining on steroids! Please help-- The people here who came from Appalachia. They are counting on you and me to help stop this destruction.

Coal from blowing up mountain tops in Appalachia account for less than 5% of U.S. electricty generation according to the 2010 Department of Energy data. Many of the layers of thin coal seams lie deep below the surface and blowing up the mountains to reach the coal means scraping off the the trees and dumping them into the valleys or burning them then blowing up the mountains as far as 500 to 800 feet deep using millions of pounds of explosives- then the coal dust comes DAILY-- then the drinking water if polluted by heavy metals including aresenic, lead, mercury is ruined. The devestation cannot be repaired nor the trauma and harm suffered on the people of Appalachia be mitigated.

The Clean Water Protection Act can do the right thing for the people of Appalachia. No in this country should have to suffer the horrors of what our fellow American families in Appalachia are living with.

We are working hard to convince Congress to do the right thing and sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act that will be introduced into the House tomorrow and we are asking for co-sponsors and with the help of your phone callsyou can help by asking your Congressman to co-sponsor this Clean Water Protection Act-- The Bill # will be assigned tomorrow-- but no need to wait -- just please get to the phones and ask your Congressman to co-sponsor this Clean Water Protection Act--

for more info ----

http://www.ilovemountains.org/

Helping Moms and Kids- In Action

In this age of patriarchy-- that serves no one, am listening to the horrible misogyny and verbal attacks on Planned Parenthood and on women by the wacky pundits whose names I shall not mention ( why give them publicity?). Now, we all know Congress has gone insane. How can you be sane when you are spouting from a place of power over rather than empowering others?

Now I found this absolutely dear alternative to business as usual...watch this two minute video
than get off the Internet and call Congress and then kindly but diplomatically give them hell!
Then start working on the campaign for 2012 to make sure this Country does not go further right
to the wing nuts.

How about supporting moms and kids? I am tired of hearing about saving the unborn when we can't take care of the born and we keep trashing Mama Earth! Something is quite wrong here.

Make a Difference with MoJo!Click Here

So .... we have a choice you know...to sit by and do nothing or to make a difference. It does matter...you matter and you can contribute to stemming the nasty pollution of words out there.
Hmmmn..... visualize our grandmas washing out the mouths of Congress and those silly pundits with soap! And then nothing but bubbles come out every time they try to speak!

Please turn and around and look at the real issue and stop making Unions or workers scapegoats!

Please turn and around and look at the real issue and stop making Unions or workers scapegoats!-

by Redwood Mary on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 8:57pm

Union and Non-Union Workers and the public do not understand how unions are the fall guys and gals in this breaking of the banks...and the resulting huge distortion between classes and the gutting of the middle class needs to be understood. The financial sector, in essence , hijacked the everyday basic economy that you and I and everyone operates in and as jobs were automated jobs disappeared the wages went flat or dropped as profits insanely increased... the wealth that was accumulated was a disproportionate share ! Remember the Timber Wars in Northern California? -- as mills went into 24/7 production and timber was being cut unsustainably –clear-cut (as opposed to managing for sustaining the ecosystems--) to keep up….case in point Maxxam from Texas took over Pacific Lumber in Northern California -- financed with junk bonds -- and they pitted workers against so called environmentalists as Charles Hurwitz raided the pension funds of the Pacific Lumber workers to pay interest on the junk bonds -- all of a sudden the felled timber ( by the laborers) was being sent to Mexico and elsewhere .. but the timber companies were making money hand over fist and at what and whose expense? Corporate Timber cut and ran , raped and plundered just as we and many before us all predicted they would cut- gut it and run. -- As the forests were destroyed (by many Timber Companies) I recall CalPERS pension funds had invested $’s in these and other extraction industries and in other high risk financial market" products" as they are called . Note: CalPERS did not have “Prohibited Ineligible investments in Tobacco companies; Insider Trading or Restricted companies or any other Committee-approved restriction,” until 2010 yet they are still into derivatives.

All the while the watersheds were drying up and the salmon habitat was disappearing and this impacted the collapse of the once sustainable fishing industry--( the records are all there! ) We were trying to warn everyone and got laughed at for trying to show that our canaries in the coal mine- who were/are the marbled murrelet and spotted owls were going down and so were the salmon.

Back to the here and now--where did this new concentrated wealth go? Some wealth went to offshore tax shelters and hedge funds-- hedge funds and derivative markets were newly created thanks to The Maddoff tycoon types and with the blessings of cronies who were in SEC and of govt. Some of this excess money could have been taxed in way to benefit the communities --where the wealth was generated to then compensate for those workers impacted (transition, re-training etc.) or R&D for new technology which could bring new jobs ( like getting us off oil!~) or to hire people to repair the damage of rapacious damaging extraction industries and to repair public infrastructure that they all used such as highways, bridges, and for other community services- but was instead always asking for tax breaks-- and their profits invested into speculative high dollar risk ponzi schemes.

Remember this wealth was generated by labor or extracted from the earth—who rightfully owns the profits of labor?

One of the issues is to understand is how pension funds were then co-opted and thrust into the high risk derivatives/ hedge funds banking schemes and then bets placed on bets upon bets and so on.

The very pension trustees from all sectors – banks --unions to govt. officials (State and local ) gave their blessings and we need to ask why pensions need to be given to private players who invest in shares that speculate on your - our retirement?

The insanity of the mortgage- banking and home development industry story is another Chapter.

BUT of this ruthless out of control brand of capitalism... we can have a humane economics where stockholders, pension funds, MBA students, managers, corporate invest ment holdings, accountants and workers all ask and question is this good governance, and is making profits just for speculation by private firms to the exclusion of the common welfare justified? . Get this- back to Calpers-" If CalPERS staff determines that it is in the best interest of CalPERS,consistent with CalPERS fiduciary responsibilities, to (see their INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM – Attachment C Page 8 of 24 Copyright © 2010 by CalPERS) consider an investment that would directly impact California public sector jobs, staff will present the investment to theCommittee for consideration." CalPERS is just one example.

Someone please turn and around and look at the real issue and stop making Unions or workers scapegoats! The Tea Party doesn't understand it either... we need large scale reforms of the Financial Sectors' Ponzi schemes... reform the government POLICIES and all that supports this imbalance.

Feel Free to Share my blog ! Peace!

Mary No-Eyes & Mary Summer Rain

The wisdom that we need to hear is not on FOX News or CNN.
Mother Earth is calling to us- but do we hear?
I happened to be clearing thru my computer file clutter and found this amazing link to the
words of Mary No-Eyes ~ Purely by chance, renowned author Mary Summer Rain met No-Eyes, a blind Chippewa visionary gifted with prophecy.


According to the Audio Book Summary of the recordings:
Mary No-Eyes teaches Mary Summer Rain about the history of the Chippewa people& shares her wisdom and perspective on life and offering startling but compelling visions of the future, including some upheavals on the horizon. Listening intently to her teacher and new friend, Summer Rain learns about the unique relationship between the Earth Mother and the many creatures in her domain.

The Audio Phoenix Rising: No-Eyes' Vision of the Changes to Come is available at:http://www.theaudiobookstore.com/authors/mary-summer-rain/

And there is the book :

Spirit Song: The Introduction of No-Eyes [Paperback]Mary Summer Rain . Summer Rain, Mary: Phoenix Rising; 1987/1993, Hampton Roads Publg. Co., Norfolk, VA


The following is from those compilations where Mary No Eyes has said:

"Earth Mother in bad labor. She gonna give birth to something great. She already in first labor hours... She be in great pain now... It be great Phoenix that gonna rise up again just like all times ago. He already here... He been forming for years now. He all ready to break out of Earth Mother’s womb... She gonna give up great Phoenix soon..."
In her summary of The Phoenix Chronicles, Mary Summer Rain listed some signs of the times and the birth of the Phoenix:

Massive blue collar strikes, relocation of key factories overseas, computerization of factories, extended import & export embargoes & taxations, increased unemployment, widespread factory shutdowns, excessive taxation, small business failures, insolvency of many banks, stock market misdealings & decline, drastic construction decline, devaluation of real estate, increase in corporate crime, drop in level of manufactured goods, increase of corporate monopolies & takeovers, widespread layoffs, runaway credit purchases, cash as only accepted tender.

Several close meltdowns & leaks, seeping radioactive dump sites, two catastrophic meltdowns, radioactive pollution of land & rivers, several major accidents of nuclear missile trucks carriers and the transportation of nuclear waste, radioactive releases caused from geological instability.

People’s revolt and resistance movements, draft evasion, public's discovery of coverups, nuclear exchange. "Crouching/Massive Revolts & Government Turnaround, Taxation refusals, war resistance, policy disagreements within government body, major upheavals within governments.

And then Flying Free/Rise of the Age of Peace where there is Total equality among people, discontinuance of all meat ingestion, construction reforms, cessation of most severe natural disasters, pollution-free energy innovations by way of the Earth’s magnetic field, rise of the Indian nation through widespread adaptation of its Ways of natural living and deep human philosophy~

Musings on what sets us free?

Scandals....War...Politics...Stress...Tension...Markets are up & down...everything seems upside down?
Environmental Degradation...The Newspapers full of senseless unkind and insane acts of inhumanity. Hate. Rage. You even see it on the road-- people risking their lives to speed, pass and cut others off. Why?

What stories are we telling ourselves?

Time to step back and see where our stories as a collective body of people, a community, a family, as nations, a race, a creed, a gender have brought us.
Time to examine our stories and what stories we want to nurture or keep repeating from generation to generation.

I still love and re-read Eckhart Tolle's Book the New Earth- Awakening to your Life's Purpose.

" If you were not familiar with our contemporary civilization, if you had come from another age or another planet," states Tolle, " one of the things that would amaze you is that millions of people love and pay money to watch humans kill and inflict pain on each other and call it 'entertainment' "." Drama" .."The pain-body.. magnifies the ego's need for enemies".

Interesting. How many of us are even conscious of this thing called EGO? We are trapped in "Object"consciousness .... Most of our lives are cluttered up with things, material things to have or get or things to do, things to think about", he explains.

Is this freedom?

How do we cut through this? How can we bring sanity back to our planet?

First we have to be aware that much of what we do is in fact informed by stories that we carry on with....and with habits... or ways of doing things that we never question if they even make sense or if they really serve us. Gossip out of control? I sat at a table the other day and heard a person hold court with gossip and stories and gossip and finally no one was speaking as this person droned on and on with petty details of " he said.. she said".

We are trapped in our own insanity. Because we are evil? I don't think so.

Can we tolerate being quiet and still enough to examine the thought-less-ness that stands in the way of being aware of what a high price we are paying for carrying around egos of pain, hate, feeling less than, scarcity, greed, that empty spiritual hole that can't seem to be filled with enough distraction, activity, sex, drugs, noise, music,TV , Internet, video games cigarettes, success, needing to be the leader, the winner, the hero?? etc. etc.?

Why are we so afraid of quiet? of stillness? of nature?

"The greatness of life arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Everybody's life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment instead of pursuing greatness. " To read more of these easy to read concepts do spend time with Tolle's book The New Earth...a sin Slow time-- quiet time... aware of the ego talking to you as you read. Warning! Your ego may just kick and scream all the way through!
Just Read The book!

I rarely go to the cinema. I find many films just pure feeding of fear or keeping us feeling scared -- like the negative newspaper stories we read everyday. Where are the good news stories of people caring for each other? or Overcoming hate and fear or depression?

I just recently saw the film Invictus...it reminded me of the brilliance of how a leader helped a nation cross the lines of a horrible history together... where
(not perfectly and still imperfect) Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the first President of a free South Africa initiated a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land. He called upon the national rugby team to take on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Ah! He could have led with revenge and hate for the other. But who is really the OTHER?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley 1875

This poem gave strength and courage to Mandela while he was incarcerated.
Henley, at the age of 12, despite a severe bout with TB successfully passed the
Oxford senior student student exams in 1867. In 1875 he wrote the "Invictus" poem from his hospital bed after having his leg amputated after the disease progressed to below his knee.

See The Trailer! See The Movie: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1889666329/

and Learn about the man:
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/index.php

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Redwood Musings

Hearts beating, the earth is
virgin Forest trembling.
(how do I)
Sweep my arms
around the Trees to protect them?
--by Redwood Mary

EARTH SONG- Thank you Michael Jackson

A song for the Earth... Animal Rights, Human Rights, Earth Rights~ " What have we done" sings Michael Jackson? He gave us his heart in this song - asking us to wake up. R.I.P. Michael....the rest is up to us. How badly do we wish
to turn things around? It is up to us!



From LastFM " “Earth Song” is the third single from Michael Jackson’s album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. It is a ballad that incorporates elements of blues, gospel and opera. Jackson had a long-standing history of releasing socially conscious material such as “We Are the World”, “Man in the Mirror” and “Heal the World”. However, “Earth Song” was the first that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. The song was written and composed by Jackson; the task of production was split between Jackson, David Foster and Bill Bottrell."
Songwriters: Larson, Melvin E.; Marcellino, Jerry A.
http://www.last.fm/music/Michael+Jackson/_/Earth+Song

Planting Trees & Changing the Political System

Standing for Peace,
Taking Care of The Earth
Unbowed: A Memoir

by Dr. Wangari Maathai
hosted by Cody's Books and First Congregational Churh in Berkeley California
October 30, 2006

http://fora.tv/2006/10/30/Wangari_Maathai

I Want To Sit At The Left Hand of God

Songwriter & Musician Sharon Abreu's Original Song:

http://www.sharmuse.com/sharmuse/left_hand_of_god.mp3

.....Inspired by Michael Lerner's The Left Hand of God

http://www.ecospeakers.com/speakers/abreus.html

We Are All One - We Are The World - We Are All Brothers & Sisters- We Can Choose Peace

PEACE PEACE PEACE
FREEDOM

PEACE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit~Kahlil Gibran

Berkeley Oak Grove- R.I.P.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/06/BAJH12PDUE.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/01/30/MNGQUNRE281.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2007%2F01%2F30%2Fmn_treesit_040_lh.jpg

Thank you to all who helped in any way in this grand noble effort. Even though the Oak Grove is no more,

the spirit of what existed here is still alive. There are thousands of people who participated in the struggle over the two year endeavor to save this Beautiful and Healthy Grove. All who were involved have lived and experienced what so many are called to do—to participate in issues that are important to them and to the common good.

This website is a testimony to a Movement that brought together a whole community – The Save the Oaks effort was a convergence of a movement of residents, students, faculty, visitors, kids, moms, dads, grandmothers, grandpas, sisters and brothers and alumnae, to stand for something together. We did what many people talk or write books about: Making a Difference TOGETHER.

Did we fail? No? Did we win? Of Course we won? Why? Because we did what politicians have failed to do- we connected together in a common noble goal? We stood together outside of our own selfishness as human beings.

We stood for sovereignty of our local laws and community goals, we stood for our Oaks Moratorium Ordinance, and for environmental sustainability, for a safe site for the UC Student High Performance Sports Facility, for Native American Recognition and Land Rights, for saving an ecosystem that was a home to many species that could not speak for themselves and we stood for free speech.

We were perfect in our efforts? Maybe not—and in that, we proved to the world that we could include those of working class, those of means and wealth and even the homeless and poor, all colors and races, faiths, and abilities and professions and still have impact.

We did not Save the Oaks- but we showed what the University of California along with its elite corps of associated philanthropic powers had stood against.

This is how democracy works- it's messy and it's alive and not sponsored by a Corporation or a non-profit. We did not have a well funded Corporate Media Team. In many instances we did not even get fair coverage.

Be it known that this was a people’s effort funded by people’s money.

And most important of all this was all fueled by of love and to hold something sacred—the Trees, the idea of citizen participation and self determination to save this grove for future generations, to provide for nature to thrive, to honor Native Americans, Grandmothers for the Oaks and Veterans. This was truly an intergenerational Movement.

Show me a Movement that can speak to that.

Redwood Mary

Save the Oaks Supporter, Former Tree Sitter,

Monday September 8th, 2008

Friends,

We just heard that UC police are right now (5pm Monday) beginning to move to extract the treesitters.

Also, the treesitters released the statement below. We're passing it on.

===============

What the Treesitters Want
By Dumpster Muffin, Huckleberry Finn, and the Oak Grove Treesitters
(Call Ayr at 510 938 2109 for questions)

UC has cut down Memorial Oak Grove. Now that it’s gone, you probably want to know: what do they want? What do the treesitters want in order to come down?
UC has a systemic problem: it does not involve the community in its land use decisions. Community members can make public comments after decisions are made, but have no role during the brainstorm phase or planning process.
We are asking for UC to create a “Community Land Use and Capital Projects Committee” – which will be systematically involved in land use, land management, and development planning decisions, both at the conceptual phase of projects and on an ongoing basis. The committee will be comprised of students, community members, representatives from the neighborhood associations, a Native American representative, and city government representatives.
This committee would be a win-win-win for all parties. Community members would have substantial and serious input into decisions that affect their environment; and UC would ensure a more co-operative spirit and avoid the drawbacks of lawsuits and protests. UC is supposedly a public institution, and it should be governed in a more democratic way involving the public.
We are further asking for UC to set aside a non-trivial amount of money from future football revenues to be utilized to benefit land conservation as well as the Intertribal Friendship House, which serves Native American communities.
Finally, we want UC to return the remains of the “Grandmother Oak” – a tree who was older than the University – so that Native Americans will be able to make drums or other religious artifacts.
Our hope is that these proposals build toward a positive long-term future of a more sustainable, democratic, and co-operative University.
UC has claimed that we were on the verge of coming down Saturday, and the only reason we didn’t is that our ground supporters asked us to hold out for more. Nothing could be further from the truth. UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison told us Saturday morning that the local Native American community would be permitted to enter the grounds of the grove and place tobacco offerings and have a religious ceremony at the stump of the Grandmother Oak on the condition that we came down first. We saw this as an attempt to threaten us, and hold hostage the Native community’s religious rights. We never saw this as a serious offer. Furthermore, Harrison said that our presence in the trees made the ceremony impossible to hold, but we were right here when the Longest Walk was permitted to enter the grove earlier this year, which proves that Harrison’s attempt was simply to bully us.
UC told us that they would meet to discuss our concerns, but only after we came down. Tree-sit supporters have tried to establish a meeting with UC for over 600 days, and UC has continually ignored our requests. We had no reason to trust that UC would seriously address our concerns once we came down.
We remain willing and available to continue the mediation process to bring about an end to the protest and generate a positive outcome that respects the concerns of all parties.
We loved the Oak Grove dearly, as did so many others. Its loss will be a tragedy for this place. We hope that UC will find a way to do something good to show respect for those who dedicated so much for this sacred place.

______________________________

Time for Patriots to Take Back America!

It is BROKEN ! So FIX IT!

The Problem:
We are being ripped off, our health care is gutted and we are working harder and falling behind- while our constitution is being undermined, while our own government is fencing our borders and U.S. based gun and weapons manufactures and surveillance manufacturers and the Halliburtons of America are being fed fat contracts after fat contracts paid with our taxpayers money. Meanwhile we are supposed to shut up and shop-- tune into Ipods and bipods and HDTV and get sucked into the game of DENIAL.

It isn't about waving a flag and claiming to cherish our freedoms and a right to bear arms. What good is a gun when the air is polluted, you can't drink the water and global warming is whipping our you know what. PLEEZE ...-- What freedoms? Freedoms for mortgage companies to fleece the American People? Freedom to torture animals in laboratories? Freedom to build more Nukes? Freedom for drug companies and insurance companies to lobby away our rights to health and vitamins? Freedom for Corporations to sell and swap our private information? Freedom for union busters, freedom to build more prisons, fredom for sick elders to fall into poverty, freedom for children to go hungry because most wages can't pay the rent? Freedom for Developers to charge insane prices for apartment dwellings-- and for working people to scrounge while making minimum wage.? Condo Developers in San Francisco are touting 450 Square foot Condos and charging $250,000-$270,000 per condo and calling them a perfect starter home ... for those who don't own anything they don't even have closet! Get Real -- you are getting ripped off. Put down the beer, the Coke, the Evian, get off the stool at the wine bar. OK..I am ranting...but there are some great solutions....but first I need to rant some more.And don't get me started on the oil companies! Clean Coal? Yeah right!

I cannot understand how anyone in America can watch our health care disappear, our schools go on with brain deadening testing without creative thinking without creative arts and sports programs for kids. I can't believe the youth of America buys into the $60,000- $100,000 debt to get a 4 year college education. I can't understand how we can or watch our elders and veterans suffering with inadequate health care-- and we are still sending our kids off to a war...a war that was based on a BIG FAT lie and promising them that they will be heroes and defending what? Eight years of the Bush/Cheney regime? Enough is enough! Chemical spills, oil spills, toxic spraying-- toxics in or toys and food. How did this happen?
By the same Red, White and Blue Flag waving RICH Corporate fat cats - that have made money off all working people- and ripping off your pensions plans and now telling us to invest in their STOCK Market Ponzi game for our retirement! Get Real-- this is not what America is about.

And remember we are a nation of immigrants! HELLO! U.S.A was not founded by the First Nation peoples! We all came from somewhere else-- either booted out of Europe, or as indentured workers, slaves or expats who suffered a land grab, famine or unspeakable poverty- but that does that give us a right to screw others-- heck no! Stop the pecking order and the addiction to victimhood. We are all humans trying to get away from somewhere else to make a better living except there are fewer and fewer places to go. So here we are-- calling on Jesus, Allah and Buddha and there about 167 religions in the world fighting it out for your attention and some have guns or throw bombs in the name of their God when they get pissed off at you.


HOW TO START FIXING IT?

Most people are tired of this system of economic shyster hit men and women, be it religious fanatics, marketing bozos, and etc. People are tired of war after war and violence in the hoods. It is not about upbringing or environment-- it is about mindfulness and egos and emotional baggage and FEAR that we are all operating out of. We all make choices based on our own thoughts-- from joy to anger ... So when you get home from Burning Man or Disneyland or shopping or the war go read the New Earth by Eckhart Tolle OR listen to him and Oprah discuss it--- go to Oprah's Soul Series and give your soul inspiration and take a vacation from the negative fear based news. IT IS FREE! All you have to do is get to a computer sign up for the Webcast On Demand and listen to this groundbreaking international happening with

Oprah and best-selling author Eckhart Tolle leading 10 online classes that take you through A New Earth chapter by chapter. Watch the webcasts on Oprah.com or download them from iTunes and take them with you. Plus, get transcripts, listen to audio meditations and the theme song for the A New Earth Web classes. Then once you realize that you have power stop giving it away.

SPEAK OUT AND FIND YOUR TEAMMATES!


At the Speak Out on 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech San José State University students Latu Tapaatoutai and Diana Victa spoke out about the fading American dream after Hurricane Katrina expelled hundreds of thousands of residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. While the U.S. government has squandered a trillion dollars on endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, vast tracts of New Orleans remain devastated and deserted three year later. Tapaatoutai and Victa are members of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, which seeks federal funding to fully rebuild the Gulf Coast and enable all displaced persons the opportunity to return to their original communities and jobs. Check it out at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/31/18531443.php

GO GREEN!
Want to change the world? Stop doing the same old thing! Get a Green MBA, study accupunture,
organic permaculture farming and for goodness sakes stop shopping and giving your dollars to the very corporations that are poisoning our food, our water, our air, our environment and your mind!

And all you brillant young people -- don't fall for the same old trap-- don't let the corporate machine entice you and then spit you out after they use you. Create your own alternative economic system that recognizes natural capital and social capital not just elite capital that is sucking everything out of people, places and things until we have dead earth.

BE A HERO!
From U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich:

"On August 1st, I delivered to Speaker Nancy Pelosi; a petition bearing the names of over 100,000 Americans that, like us, feel that the President must be held accountable for abusing executive power and disregarding his Constitutional obligations.

Our voices have been heard and your support continues to send a powerful message to lawmakers. That is why I call on you again to help us in a new effort to deliver 1 Million signatures to Speaker Pelosi on September 10, 2008.

Send a history-making message to Congress:

1,000,000 signatures for impeachment.

On September 10, 2008, we want to deliver ONE MILLION signatures to
Congress urging them to exercise their Constitutional authority and mandate to
hold this President - and all future Presidents - accountable."

I say JUST DO IT! http://kucinich.us/

It Is Time For Change!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/politics/28text-obama.html

To Get Involved:
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Yes- I still entertain that a U.S. Dept. of Peace--(at the Cabinet Level) that Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced into Congress-- becomes a reality. Yes I do wish that America will elect more qualified progressive women (Hillary, Cynthia McKinney, etc.) to Congress and some day one will become President of the United States.

It is time for change – It has been eight miserable years with the extreme right wing Republican agenda undermining our constitution, destroying the economic stability of America and tearing this nation apart. This patriot has had enough! I want my Constitution, and health care back! I want veterans home from Iraq and taken care of as they deserve.

It is time to move forward and away from the political machinery that has undermined our Democratic process and the Corporate practices that are destroying our Earth!

It is time for America to regain our credibility and honor in the world. It is time to
abandon the belief and willingness that to use force is the mainstay of determining the basis of our foreign policy. America must turn around and lead the world away from
desolation of a doomsday arms race.

And another thing-- it is not OK to torture (and off the topic I wish the students at the University of California (UC) Berkeley would rise up and demand that John Choon Yoo step down from the faculty of UC Berkeley's Law School at Boalt Hall (--Remember Anita Hill who testified under oath that Thomas had made provocative sexual statements to her while being her supervisor?!...Yoo clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas )

It is time to end our stubborn support and dependence on environmentally lethal fossil fuels. pesticides and chemicals (derived from oil) and gas guzzling high speed cars. The oceans are choking with our plastic refuse!

It is time to support the backbone of America: small businesses and to end corporate socialism via tax subsidies when nearly two-thirds of U.S. companies and 68% of foreign corporations do not pay federal income taxes (according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress). Give those subsidies to GREEN Environmetally friendly innovative businesses!

OK—The acceptance speech by Barack was stellar. Yes—it was in a football stadium with all the hoopla and high tech that we could muster. But do we ever need a party with positive visions! Yes—there are a great deal of problems to solve and much to clean up after the Bush-Cheney mess. Yes, there are Corporations like Chevron, Halliburton, and etc. that should be hung by the noogies for their parts in highly reported destructive and deceptive modi operandi ("modes of operation") You can Google reports on all that!

Barack is now charged to run for office in a quest to lead our Country in a rejuvenation of multilateralism and to engage us back to international cooperation and honoring our international obligations.

Here at home America is being surrounded by fences—rooted in the fears and propaganda that the right wing machine and its pundits have fed us rather than a bridge between neighbors and return to a model of persuasion and generosity.

But Barack cannot do it alone. We are called to the front of center of this American life –

It is time to get cracking –to embrace tolerance and celebration of diversity rather than cutting ourselves off geographically and culturally and get that man elected.

It is time to get off the blame game, pull each other up by the boot straps and help others get those boots if they have none and teach ourselves to make boots that fit!

And on this historic day with Barack accepting his party’s nomination for President of the United States on the 45th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech I think we should step up to send Barack Obama and his family to take their place at the White House

By the way Kathleen Hensley Portalski, Cindy McCain's Half Sister, in her recent interview with US magazine stated:

"I wouldn't vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat," http://www.usmagazine.com/news/cindy-mccains-half-sister-im-voting-for-obama

Rock Star Bon Jovi will be hosting a mega fundraiser at his house in NJ. How about you?

It is all about attitude- I invite you to go out and make some positive change of your own at the local Senior Center, literacy center or hospice care or animal shelter.

Everybody Needs Places To Play And Pray In...

Everybody

needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul. - John Muir

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.- William Blake, 1799, The Letters

“See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Theresa of Calcutta ( 1910-1997)

The more we pour the big machines, the fuel, the pesticides, the herbicides, the fertilizer and chemicals into farming, the more we knock out the mechanism that made it all work in the first place. David R. Brower

and I say "SAVE THE OAKS....AT UC Berkeley"s Memorial Oak Grove ...We Can Have A GYM (at another appropriate site identified by the City of Berkeley) and Save The Oaks Too!! go to : www.saveoaks.com

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir