Thursday - May 25, 2006

Out On A Limb

Joan Baez. Sitting in a tree. In Los Angeles. Singing protests songs in Spanish. To Mexican immigrants. Who have appropriated a city park and have been growing vegetables there since 1992. Developer wants to build a warehouse on park land.

Let’s see ... what else do we need to make this farce complete? Hmmm, how about Al Gore arriving to blame it all on Bush? Naw, that would be anti-climactic. You’ll have to forgive me on this one, folks. I can’t believe Baez is still alive much less skinnying her scrawny butt up a tree to sing “We Shall Overcome” for the gaziillionth time ... en espanol. Aye, caramba!

Joan Baez Joins Tree-Sitting Bid To Save LA Garden
_{Wed May 24, 4:57 PM ET}

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Folk singer Joan Baez sang “We Shall Overcome” from a tree-top perch in Los Angeles on Wednesday in a bid to save a community garden from demolition.

Baez, 65, who gave voice to civil rights and anti-war campaigners in the 1960s, joined Julia “Butterfly” Hill, an anti-logging activist, in taking up residence in the tree in the 14-acre (5.7-hectare) fruit and vegetable garden in gritty south Los Angeles.

Baez will take shifts occupying the tree with Hill, who spent two years in the late 1990s sitting in a northern California redwood to highlight the plight of ancient forests. The threatened Los Angeles garden is tended by some 350 farmers, many of them immigrants, who have been growing fruits and vegetables there since 1992.

“It’s an extraordinary community of people and creativity in this industrial part of the city and it literally gives life every way,” Baez told reporters, after singing a verse of “We Shall Overcome” in Spanish.

The farmers are threatened with eviction after a court battle over ownership of the land between the city of Los Angeles and a developer who wants to build a warehouse there. The developer has offered to sell the land for $16 million but no one has yet come up with the money.

Actress Daryl Hannah, a keen environmentalist, joined a small group of supporters who have raised some of the money. “We’ve come up with $6 million, which is unbelievable. If everyone in the city just gave one dollar, this place could be saved,” she said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/25/2006 at 02:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Environment • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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