Julia Butterfly Hill "Pro"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzabaYqS-O4&list=PLN-ZVQ9Hc8I7M1c6535cR_3J3PRs656Fy
one
of the things I tell people is that we've gotten so good at defining
what we were against that what we were against is beginning to define
us. that we have an anti-war movement and when I go to rallies and I
hear people's voices and their tone and their voices it feels like war.
people get caught up they get angry. in forest activism where my
awareness was was sparked there were times when we be trying to decide
what the appropriate action was to take and all of a sudden people would
begin to disagree and start fighting. and then I heard the chainsaws
and our voices and I thought how can we ever stop the clear cuts in the
forest if we're so effective at clear-cutting one another? and it was
one of the light bulb moments for me in that tree.
and
since coming down is that it is okay to point out what it is wrong but
it is more important to stand for what is right. led by standing for
what is right we cause our world to come in that direction. we manifest
what we focus on. so the more we focus on what is wrong we shouldn't be
surprised that we get more of it. this does not mean close our eyes and
pretend like the devastation of the planet is not happening that
injustice against people is not happening. but rather that as we open
our eyes and our hearts to what is wrong we are standing for and
co-creating what is right. that our energy goes into what is right.
while
I was in the tree I was able to begin to befriend loggers and people in
the Pacific lumber community because I did my best to never create an
us and them to never create an enemy. because if you create an enemy
than you have war. and if I don't choose to create an enemy then even if
someone sees me in as an enemy that doesn't mean I have to play in
their game called war. that I can see them as a human being and keeps
calling out their humanity even as they're trying to create a symbol out
of me to create a box for me to stick. and I'm the granola munching
tree hugging tofu eating radical extremist wacko hippie foo-foo New Ager
know that the bog triva want to stick me in. and refusing to stick
other people in boxes just kept calling for us can we please be human
together can we please find what is best in us what is what is in common
instead of what is different.
a year after I came
down Luna was attacked by someone with a chainsaw and a lot of anger and
a lot of fear. Luna became a symbol and symbols are often times attack
for what they stand for. so that person attacked Luna to trying to
tackle in the stands for. but one of the most incredible things that
happened is the team that came together to help heal Luna included
Pacific lumber employees who came in over time to create the metal what
her bandages holding the wound together. Pacific lumber has a metal shop
and it was specific lumber employees who were part of healing Luna. and
one of the things that they told me was: „you know Julia we don't
necessarily agree with what you did but you all what you did you did in
an honorable way. and who the person who did this did a dishonorable
Act. and in so doing made all of us look dishonorable. and it's
important to us that we try and help because the way that you always
treated us even if we don't agree with you politically even if we don't
agree with what you stand for the way that you approached it the way you
came to it we can honor that.“
and it was very
profound and it still touches me to this day that Luna is still standing
and thriving and doing beautifully. and it was all kinds of people
structural engineers biologists treetops canopy arborist Native
Americans and Pacific lumber employees, all came together to create the
healing community that allows Luna to still be standing and thriving.
