This is the end of what is recognized by the (Forest) Regulatory Agencies as Marbled murrelet nesting season. Marbled murrelets are sea-going birds that nest in the high branches of old growth Redwood trees (and maybe old Doug Firs). So, this is the time of year when Pacific Lumber goes into particular ancient forest areas to cut the murrelet’s habitat. Please keep that in mind and look for alerts regarding forest defense actions. One
such home area for murrelets is (in trees) near Nanning Creek (tributary
of the Eel River). There are currently treesits that protect some 600-1500 year old trees!
Please check out saveancientforests.blogspot.com
“Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”
The rallies in Arcata and Eureka on Friday and Saturday August 11th and 12th respectively drew more people than many expected. I attended the Eureka Rally on Saturday at the court house and my amateurish video. It is a large file, 120 Megabytes and it is quite blurry but works and you should be able to watch it out a dirt road in the hills connected with a modem on your phone line. It includes almost all of the speakers addresses. Speakers included Ellen taylor, Shane Brinton, Jack Nounan and a number of other knowledgeable local voices. Meanwhile the main Washington D.C. rally drew about 30,000 protestors. The Eureka rally received local coverage in the Eureka Reporter and the Times Standard which included this photo on the front page of it’s Sunday edition;
For those who think that street demonstrations are passe due to ineffectiveness I beg to differ as do those who attended these rallies and many passers by who honked and hooted their approval. Only a couple crude characters offered negative feedback from the passing traffic. A much higher ratio of positive to negative than a couple years ago. The fact that the portion of the American population that still supports this aggression has dwindled to less than 40% in spite of the massive propaganda machine seems strong evidence that we have had a powerful effect on the electorate along with increases in “alternative” media which I think we can also claim an influence upon. The surest sign of our success, however, will be an attack from the extreme right wing neocons in the run up to the mid term elections. The loss by 3 term senator Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary specifically for his support of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and his support of G.W. Bush will not be taken lightly by the authoritarian neocons and their win at any cost, democracy be damned, philosophy of self righteous greed.
There was some talk of an October 5th rally and a September 11th rally, the latter to address questions concerning the wild 911 conspiracy theory; the one our government has foisted off on us that defies common sense, the laws of physics and, in the case of the investigation, the law of the land.
Friday evening August 11th at 5 PM on the Plaza in Arcata
Saturday August 12th at noon at the court house in Eureka
International ANSWER and other pro-democracy and anti-war groups are orchestrating demonstrations in Washington DC, San Francisco and other locations on Saturday August 12th to protest the escalating aggression in the middle east in which the United States Neocons and Israel’s Likud party are the aggressors along with those they have duped with propaganda. They are targeting civilians and are doing so with total disregard for international law, international sentiment or the desire of large portions of their own populations. People on the North Coast who wish to express their sentiment against this atrocity being comitted in our name and also the increasing violence in Iraq which is being minimized in the corporate press by dint of being overshadowed by the aggression against Lebanon may do so by coming to two days of rallies in Eureka and Arcata.
Map and driving directions to the Eureka rally.
Map and driving directions to the Arcata rally.
This is not about left and right this is about right and wrong.
Bodies in Lebanon
Demonstrations work!
If not for street rallies, the internet and alternative media people would have only Fox news and the rest of the near monopolistic propaganda machine for information. Bush’s poll numbers would be at 90%, people would believe that everything was just peachy in Iraq and all sorts of fairy tails that are used to keep us in the dark while a small minority create misery for the vast majority of the worlds population for the sake of their own greed and megolamania.
