8:23 am "just passed a protest... with signs that read CITY LIES TREES DIE..."
@MinkavB: This is not wacky Cambridge. This is people standing up for injustice and arbitrary decisions by city employees
Gilmore Street, Cambridge.
There were old, shady pear trees that leaned
The city said they leaned too much
So much that they must be cut
The Cambridge Tree Stewards
filed lawsuits
Unfortunately they were not local enough
since apparently
no abutting neighbors stood up for the trees
Cambridge Chronicle article
The fight went to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
It did not work out for the trees.
Apparently even the arborist
hired by the Tree Stewards
said the trees need to be braced.
This was enough for the city.
The email battle
Inspiring passionate protest:
To honor these trees, and as final tribute to them, I will drag myself out of bed in 3hrs and go down to Gilmore Street, and if necessary, I will tie/chain myself to those trees. I know that their fate is my fate, and I want to stand in solidarity with them. I am not so arrogant as to think that this simple act of Civil disobedience will matter to anyone. Nor do I have any delusions that it will stop the Ol' Mighty Mr. Healey from from striking his blow, if he so choses. But I have to do something, and in the time that's left, it's the best I manage. It's also the least I can do. And besides, I know that if I were in trouble, the trees would do the same for me. They always have. ;-)
As Chief Seattle(maybe) said: "Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. "
Care to join me? Anyone? I hope to see you there!
It's interesting to think these women are the last vestiges of the local protest movements of the late '60s/'70s, and for better or worse, they have no replacement. No local young people had this very specific Lorax complex that compelled them to get out of bed at 8am that day. That includes me. It didn't help that I found this particular "cause" to be completely ludicrous. I think even if I wanted to through my weight behind something my way of showing support wouldn't be through signage with ABAB rhyme scheme, it would be a blog post. Not unlike this one. Or even lazier, a text about it like the one I sent you at 8:23am.
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