Spring 2012 Reflection on: July 10, 2006 Earth First! Rendezvous Action

I had read of Earth First! in a book my spiritual sister had given me in yet another rough patch of high school. I had waited to read the novel, The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Child until after graduation. It was about a young woman who climbed a Redwood tree to protect the forest in an act of Civil Disobedience.
The newspaper article was like a wish come true. A herd of younger activists had fallen at my doorsteps. Fifty young adults committed civil disobedience, occupying Carbo, a power plant less than 40 miles away, that supposedly “kept the lights on” even for me.
When I was called by a family friend, I was excited and honored. Steve Brooks said they were interested in meeting me, these people who put their bodies on the line for nature.
The Bristol Herald Courier made sure to paint a polarizing/tabloid-esque picture of the “radical activists,” extremists,” and “eco-terrorists.” I cannot deny that I thrive on conflict. Everybody isn’t an activist, I concede. Maybe that’s the problem.
• People with names like Lyric and Storms.
• A woman with a pit bull named Burtha. • A memory of three young women of the 1970’s on the cover of Steve Fisher’s book. Maxine Kenney and two others sitting in the scoop of a bulldozer.
• My time in the light. Steve Brooks’ call is a calling, a summoning in grand.
• Other than “eco-terrorist” these terms come to take a hold in a serious part of my identity. • I take off my shoes. I want to feel my radical roots.