Journalism: My Favorite Class in College. To Actually "BE" Woodward & Bernstein for a Semester. I Interviewed June Moxon & Went to an Earth First Tree Sit Eviction.

June is one of the Main People at the Kinetic Sculpture Race. She was Holding a Fundraiser Open House at the Kinetic Sculpture Laboratory and I Published my Interview BEFORE THE EVENT so Maybe Students That Read the Lumberjack Newspaper WERE MOTIVATED to buy a ticket and Go... My Article Might have Helped Finance the Event! and The RACE!

 I Learned a Couple of things in that Class. 

If You see Something and Say Something that's an "Opinion" Piece. If You Ask Three People What They Saw... That's a "News" Piece. 

I Also Learned to Say Everything You Have to Say in ONE SENTENCE. Then, Say Everything You Have to Say in ONE PARAGRAPH. Then, Say Everything You Have to Say in the Rest of the Article... 

The Reader May decide that the Subject is NOT INTERESTING after One Sentence... and Move on to the Next Article... OR they May Read One Paragraph... and then Move on... RARELY do they Read More than That... 

I took that Class because My Guidance Councillor said That The Lumberjack Newspaper was Going to Create an Online Edition and the Journalism Department Needed some Computer Experts to Help Them... 

Dr. Hal Campbell Said: "This will be an excellent REAL WORLD Learning Experience. Someone Wants Something Done On the Computer... and You are Hired to Make it Happen."

The Allegory of the Cave by Plato:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nHj3gL_JN0

One thing I Never Did was to Interview a Hostile Witness... Woodward and Bernstein were Famous for getting people to Talk that did not want to Talk... 

I Always Interviewed People that Were GLAD to See Me... Like: "I'm a Reported for the Lumberjack Newspaper and I'm Writing a Story About What You Are Doing Because It's Interesting."

Earth First! Movie: "Who Bombed Judi Beri?" In 1990 the FBI Bombed Activists Darryl Cherney and Judi Beri. The FBI was Fined $400,000 but Did Not ADMIT Guilt... and they Never Paid a Penny... 

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2022/08/who-bombed-judi-beri.html

Trump Pardoned Michael Milken... Greed FREAK Mikey did Evil in Northern California... Loaning Charles Hurwitz enough JUNK BOND Money to Buy Pacific Lumber in Humboldt County... and Then Hurwitz Cut Down Thousands of Old Growth Redwoods... Once the Highly profitable trees were cut, Hurwitz stole the Pension Fund, Declared Bankruptcy and went back to Texas... and Kept all the Money...

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2020/02/trump-pardons-michael-milken-he-did.html

Virtual Journey: Trinity Alps, CA, USA - Simulates a Drive on the Bigfoot Highway (299) From Arcata on the Coast to Redding in the Central Valley. White Water Rafting! Gold Rush Ghost Towns!
We Start the Journey in Arcata's Central Plaza... Home to Farmer's Markets, Live Music, Parades and Spontaneous Drum Circles when it's Sunny!

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2022/04/highway-299-virtual-journey.html

The Headwaters Forest Coloring Book... Illustration by Mykol Blackwell. Text by Darryl Cherney. (C) 1999 Environmentally Sound Promotions. CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM BIGGER AND DOWNLOAD, PRINT...

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-headwaters-forest-coloring-book.html

Photo of what the plants look like FIVE Years after a Redwood Forest CLEARCUT near Eureka, California... MAXXAM SUXX - Earth First! Treesit Eviction Documented...

Taken on Greenwood Heights Road in Freshwater, California... The Pampas Grass THRIVES on all that brand new SUNSHINE... after MAXXAM cut down the Old Growth Redwoods, this hillside became Sunny and Warm.




It is easy to find this Location to see what it's like today... Simply Turn into the Freshwater Valley from Old Arcata Road and Take the First LEFT at the School... Drive up the hill in the Dark Forest... When it gets Sunny All of a Sudden, Park... That's the Location of the Clearcut...

MY NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:
Tree Sit Ecology Protest at Freshwater, near Eureka, CA 2003 - Earth First! - Complete Text of a Newspaper Article I wrote for the Humboldt State University Lumberjack. and Photographs...

HEADLINE: 8 arrested March 18th in Freshwater tree-sit. Trees chainsawed to death.

Freshwater Clearcut Logging near Eureka, CA

This morning I drove to Beautiful Freshwater (near Eureka, California) to visit the Tree Sitters. There were 10 sheriff's cars and 5 highway patrol cars. I saw 3 people handcuffed and then put in a sheriff's van. One person down the road was handcuffed and in the custody of a different sheriff. This lady was wearing "press" dogtags and was complaining that all she was doing was taking photographs. There were about 40 people standing around, talking on cell phones and playing drums. I could hear the sound of chainsawing. Then a large tree fell over. It makes a tearing sound then a big thump and a wail arose from the people. When four highway patrol cars stopped in the middle of the crowd and turned on their spinning lights, I left.(I was afraid of the police...protect and serve...corporations) As I was walking to my truck I noticed another highway patrolman writing tickets. I asked a citizen what that was all about and he said "don't worry about getting a parking ticket, none of these people will pay them anyway". I am concerned about the highway patrol being there. THERE CLEARLY WERE NO HIGHWAY RELATED PROBLEMS THERE. What's up with parking tickets? We were in the middle of the forest.









...this part written later that night...
We went to a protest to defend redwood trees today. There are 8 people that are camping at the top of redwood trees to prevent loggers from chainsawing the trees. The owners of the forest (Palco/MAXXAM) hired a guy (eric schatz)to climb up the trees and forcibly evict the trespassers. Then the Humboldt county sheriff's arrest the tree-sitters and send them to jail. Yesterday, there were 7 tree sitters and the police arrested 3 people. Then, during the night, 4 people went up. The grand total of people INCREASED. The loggers started chainsawing at the bottom of a tree that had people camping in it. This action enraged the crowd. We feel that if a logger cuts down a tree with a person in it that it is dangerous to that person. The loggers cut away a 2 foot circle of bark all the way around the tree. Someone said that was called "girthing" and the purpose was to kill the tree. My wife decided that some medicine was needed for the tree, so we went to the hardware store and bought a bucket of "tree wound" compound. It is used to seal the bare wood after pruning. We drove back to the ecology protest and she (with help from others) spread the healing compound on the bare wood. I got to spend a lot of time talking to a knowledgeable fellow named "Atilla". He said that the MAXXAM corporation has to cut down redwood trees in order to pay the interest on a giant "junk bond" debt. MAXXAM, a texas corporation, purchased the Pacific Lumber Company about 10 years ago in a hostile takeover financed by "junk bonds" that they got from Mike Milken. (remember, Ivan Boesky and Mike went to jail for wall street fraud) I saw on the News tonight that our governor, Gray Davis, has ordered the highway patrol to work 12 hour shifts to help defend the state of California from "terrorist" attacks. GEE, WHY WERE ALL THOSE CHPs OUT IN THE FOREST TODAY ? WHAT TERRORIST ATTACKS WERE THEY DEFENDING US FROM ? Atilla also told me why there were large trucks that look like they carry sand. They are used to haul gravel to build logging roads. After I left the protest in the morning, I drove way back into the woods and noticed large orange trucks with PALCO on the doors. The reason Palco hired a subcontractor (eric schatz)to do "tree service" is to protect themselves from lawsuits in case anyone gets hurt.
How to get there: From highway 101 traveling North, Take the Myrtle ave exit in Eureka and drive to Freshwater road. Take a right and then an IMMEDIATE left onto Greenwood Heights road. Drive 2 miles. When you see all the sheriff cars, you are there. From Arcata, travel south on 101 to Indianola cutoff. Take a left and drive to Myrtle ave. Take a right on Myrtle. Left on Freshwater road.


Pile of Wasted Trees


Logging Road near Eureka, CA

View of Humboldt Bay from Greenwood Heights Road, Freshwater, CA




Great Books: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey Illustrated by Robert Crumb



This Book Inspired the Ecology Organization Earth First!
Read it and be inspired too.
http://www.earthfirst.org/

Earth First! Movie: "Who Bombed Judi Beri?" In 1990 the FBI Bombed Activists Darryl Cherney and Judi Beri. The FBI was Fined $400,000 but Did Not ADMIT Guilt.

 Official Website: https://whobombedjudibari.com/

Who Bombed Judi Bari? is an American historical documentary about an assassination attempt on the life of Judi Bari, an American environmental and labor activist, which occurred on May 24, 1990 via a pipe bomb in her car.^[1][2] It was directed by Mary Liz Thomson and produced by Darryl Cherney. He is also an environmental activist and was traveling with Bari that day, but was not as severely wounded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Bombed_Judi_Bari

While driving through Oakland, California on their way to a benefit concert for the Redwood Summer campaign to save California's coast redwood trees, activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were injured when a pipe bomb detonated under the driver's seat of Bari's car.^[3] Bari, who was driving, was critically injured.

Oakland police and the FBI approached the explosion as a terrorist incident, and arrested Bari and Cherney. In their investigation, they tried to prove that the activists were transporting an explosive device that accidentally detonated. The two were never charged with a crime

They filed a civil rights lawsuit in 1991 against these law enforcement organizations for violation of their constitutional rights. In 2002 they won the lawsuit (Bari had died of breast cancer in 1997). Cherney and the late Bari's estate were awarded $4.4 million, to be paid by the FBI and Oakland Police Department.^[4] The authorities allegedly did not investigate any other suspects. Discovery during the lawsuit revealed crime scene photos that clearly showed the bomb was located under Bari's seat, not in the back seat as investigators had alleged.^[1]

https://www.northcoastjournal.com/Blogthing/archives/2015/05/19/who-bombed-judi-bari-25-years-later-we-may-find-an-answer Sorry, No Answers Found...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754621/

Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were falsely arrested for car-bombing themselves on May 24, 1990 while on an Earth First! musical organizing tour for Redwood Summer. They sued the FBI for violations of the First Amendment, claiming the FBI knew they were innocent but arrested them to try to silence them. Having survived the bomb but now stricken by cancer, Judi Bari, a leader of the movement to save California's old growth redwoods, gives her on-camera, deathbed testimony about the attempt on her life and her colorful organizing history with the radical environmental movement Earth First.

http://www.judibari.org/

Jury's message to feds in $4.4 million verdict for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
(revised 6/19/02)

On June 11, 2002, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers. 

The jury unanimously found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants tried to frame Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer. That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests. 

"The jury exonerated us," said Darryl Cherney. "They found the FBI to be the ones in violation of the law. The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted. Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw." 

"It's really beyond our wildest dreams," said Darlene Comingore, Judi Bari's friend and executor of her estate who stood in for her as co-plaintiff in this suit. "We hope the FBI and Oakland and all the police forces out there that think they can violate people's rights and get away with it are listening because the people of the state of California and Oakland today said, 'No, you can't. You can't get away with it.' "

Lead attorney Dennis Cunningham said the message he hopes the verdict sends is that: "Ashcroft is doing precisely the wrong thing to abandon the (Levi) guidelines and let the FBI go after dissent with a free hand. It's clear that their intention is not about fighting terrorism, it's about suppressing dissent. That's what the FBI has always been about. Hopefully it will make Congress think twice about giving them a free hand." 

Please click here to continue reading this article, with more interpretation of the meaning and importance of the verdict by the media as well as by individual participants and observers, including one of the jurors.