Crowdog
03-24-2002, 09:07 PM
Don't let these wackos get more power with an elected office. Get out and vote!
Crowdog
www.crowley-offroad.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Environmentalists trade protests for politics
Year after publicized tree-sits, Bloomington activists are busy seeking votes for public office to change policy from within.
By George Stuteville (george.stuteville@indystar.com)
March 24, 2002
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Environmental protesters who took to Bloomington's streets and briefly took control of several Monroe County forests a year ago are again out in force.
This spring, however, they are searching for votes in an attempt to influence local politics.
Instead of brandishing posters with angry messages to motorists, they are handing out pamphlets to pedestrians. Instead of chanting slogans outside the local courthouse, they are talking at community meetings. And instead of handcuffing themselves to sewer grates, they are shaking voters' hands.
"There was something exciting about the demonstrations," said Joshua Martin, 26, who helped organize several of the forest protests last year.
"Now there is just as much urgency about the issues -- maybe more -- but it is more focused on how we can actually change the outcome of these decisions that affect the public."
Martin, a field representative for the Midwest American Lands Alliance, said activists began switching from confrontational tactics last summer after police dismantled a tree-sit in Bloomington.
That protest began on March 24 a year ago, when 19-year-old Tracy "Dolphin" McNeely took up residency on a wooden platform 60 feet above woods that had been slated for the site of a $15 million apartment complex.
In a 10-day period shortly after McNeely climbed to her perch, activists from the hard-line environmental group Buffalo Trace Earth First! took up the cause, shackling themselves to a car at a shopping center and climbing on bicycles and snarling rush-hour traffic in a clash with police that resulted in several arrests.
Another group, led by Martin, took over a tree on a ridge in Yellowwood State Forest that had been slated for a lumber sale. There, the group staged a tree-sit that lasted nearly nine months, ending peacefully after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources dropped actions to sell the land.
Bill Hayden, 59, a longtime Bloomington activist, retired teacher and leader with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, said the protests sowed the seeds for political action this year -- especially on such issues as urban sprawl.
Hayden is running as a Democrat for the Monroe County Council. The Monroe County Green Party is fielding candidates as well: Julie Roberts for County Council and Jeff Melton for U.S. Congress.
Lucille Bertuccio, 66, was among 14 protesters who were charged with trespassing or resisting law enforcement last year when police ended the tree-sit at the apartment complex site. Now she, too, is seeking office, campaigning for County Council as a "green" Democrat.
Bertuccio, an IU ecology instructor, said she was inspired by McNeely's dedication.
"We leave it to young people to make hard decisions," she said. "We send them to war and will leave it up to them to fix polluted lands. Some of us old people need to make these choices, too. We need to put our bodies on the line."
As for McNeely, she left her perch last June to care for her ailing grandmother. She is now living near Eugene, Ore., and is a student at a local community college.
McNeely says she is pleased that when she yielded her perch, others climbed up to carry on her cause.
"When you sit up there for so long, you wonder if anyone cares," she said.
But the continuing activism in Bloomington has convinced her that "what we did mattered," McNeely added. "I would do it again."
Indianapolis developer Jeff Kittle, whose Herman-Kittle Associates is constructing the 18-building complex, said he still believes the tree-sit was unnecessary.
He said every attempt has been made to preserve trees and natural habitats at the complex, where some units will be available next month for low-income residents.
"I don't know what was accomplished by the tree-sit," Kittle said.
Jim Allen, the Department of Natural Resources property manager at Yellowwood, said he never agreed with the tactics of the tree-sit there and often worried about the safety of the protesters in the remote woods. But he doesn't deny that it had an impact.
"It brought the issues to the fore," he said. "People are more aware. That's a good thing."
http://www.indystar.com/article.php?enprotest24.html
Copyright 2001-2002 The Indianapolis Star
Crowdog
www.crowley-offroad.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Environmentalists trade protests for politics
Year after publicized tree-sits, Bloomington activists are busy seeking votes for public office to change policy from within.
By George Stuteville (george.stuteville@indystar.com)
March 24, 2002
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Environmental protesters who took to Bloomington's streets and briefly took control of several Monroe County forests a year ago are again out in force.
This spring, however, they are searching for votes in an attempt to influence local politics.
Instead of brandishing posters with angry messages to motorists, they are handing out pamphlets to pedestrians. Instead of chanting slogans outside the local courthouse, they are talking at community meetings. And instead of handcuffing themselves to sewer grates, they are shaking voters' hands.
"There was something exciting about the demonstrations," said Joshua Martin, 26, who helped organize several of the forest protests last year.
"Now there is just as much urgency about the issues -- maybe more -- but it is more focused on how we can actually change the outcome of these decisions that affect the public."
Martin, a field representative for the Midwest American Lands Alliance, said activists began switching from confrontational tactics last summer after police dismantled a tree-sit in Bloomington.
That protest began on March 24 a year ago, when 19-year-old Tracy "Dolphin" McNeely took up residency on a wooden platform 60 feet above woods that had been slated for the site of a $15 million apartment complex.
In a 10-day period shortly after McNeely climbed to her perch, activists from the hard-line environmental group Buffalo Trace Earth First! took up the cause, shackling themselves to a car at a shopping center and climbing on bicycles and snarling rush-hour traffic in a clash with police that resulted in several arrests.
Another group, led by Martin, took over a tree on a ridge in Yellowwood State Forest that had been slated for a lumber sale. There, the group staged a tree-sit that lasted nearly nine months, ending peacefully after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources dropped actions to sell the land.
Bill Hayden, 59, a longtime Bloomington activist, retired teacher and leader with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, said the protests sowed the seeds for political action this year -- especially on such issues as urban sprawl.
Hayden is running as a Democrat for the Monroe County Council. The Monroe County Green Party is fielding candidates as well: Julie Roberts for County Council and Jeff Melton for U.S. Congress.
Lucille Bertuccio, 66, was among 14 protesters who were charged with trespassing or resisting law enforcement last year when police ended the tree-sit at the apartment complex site. Now she, too, is seeking office, campaigning for County Council as a "green" Democrat.
Bertuccio, an IU ecology instructor, said she was inspired by McNeely's dedication.
"We leave it to young people to make hard decisions," she said. "We send them to war and will leave it up to them to fix polluted lands. Some of us old people need to make these choices, too. We need to put our bodies on the line."
As for McNeely, she left her perch last June to care for her ailing grandmother. She is now living near Eugene, Ore., and is a student at a local community college.
McNeely says she is pleased that when she yielded her perch, others climbed up to carry on her cause.
"When you sit up there for so long, you wonder if anyone cares," she said.
But the continuing activism in Bloomington has convinced her that "what we did mattered," McNeely added. "I would do it again."
Indianapolis developer Jeff Kittle, whose Herman-Kittle Associates is constructing the 18-building complex, said he still believes the tree-sit was unnecessary.
He said every attempt has been made to preserve trees and natural habitats at the complex, where some units will be available next month for low-income residents.
"I don't know what was accomplished by the tree-sit," Kittle said.
Jim Allen, the Department of Natural Resources property manager at Yellowwood, said he never agreed with the tactics of the tree-sit there and often worried about the safety of the protesters in the remote woods. But he doesn't deny that it had an impact.
"It brought the issues to the fore," he said. "People are more aware. That's a good thing."
http://www.indystar.com/article.php?enprotest24.html
Copyright 2001-2002 The Indianapolis Star