Maggie Hess February 23, 2012 PSJ 205 Milking a Wise Yack: Maggie Hess Interviews Eric Blevins I 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. I loved Julia Butterfly Child as I respected the great authors whose works lined the bookshelf walls of my parents’ house. At that point of my life, I was unaware that activists of this kind might make their way into my life.
On July 10, 2006, 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 Storm.
• 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.

I interviewed Eric Blevins primarily because I think he has found a way to pursue activism over a long period of time without becoming too drained emotionally and secondarily because he is a long time friend. So I asked my friend if he felt he had found a way to sustainable activism. Over the course of his seven or eight year stint at activism, he says he has “been doing it without draining (himself) too much.” Eric continued to tell me his tricks to the trade. These include “doing things that are renewing to my soul such as yoga, playing with friends, and going in the woods.” He also said he is aware that if he is unable to work on a specific project, things are still going to get done. This was especially good for me to hear because I have often felt guilty when I stepped back in my own activism. I wondered if his place of residence, outside the coal fields, but close enough to see the beauty of Appalachia, is related to his sustenance. According to Eric, his home is related to his sustenance, but there are forms of oppression near where he lives. Eric’s activism began when he was a student at Middle Tennessee State University and took a trip to West Virginia to see what was happening there. On that trip, he both was able to hear people who were impacted by it and see a mine site. In the same general time, he went to a Mountain Justice summer camp that encouraged him. He said that “seeing all those young activists, (he) really felt called to work with this issue.
Eric is a terrifically tall, mountain of a man, with hair to make Rapunzel jealous, and a presence that expects respect among his peer groups of anti-Mountaintop Removal activists. His sense of humor is a bit sarcastic and confusing but it is funny, nonetheless. Until this interview, I always had thought he tended on the pessimistic side of the hopefulness continuum. After all, he always liked Derek Jensen, an author and film maker who (in my opinion) seems to think the end of humanity was just around the corner. But when I asked Eric his educated guess and forcast for the future of MTR, his words inspired me. “No one really knows what’s going to happen.” He began. “MTR has been slowing down a lot because of a lot of actions that have been happening.” The advice he suggested for a young activist included “enjoy yourself when you are doing activism and do things that are fun and change in a positive way, and always push for fundamental, radical change.” I loved his finishing words to that question: “Because we need to change a lot.”
Eric is one of my activist friends who has put his body on the line in civil disobedience. Though he crossed the line at a couple actions at mine sites and a “die in” in Knoxville, he only experienced serious physical risk once. In the fall of 2009 he partook in a tree sit on a platform in a Mountaintop Removal site in West Virginia. I wondered how he felt during this action. “It was scary but also empowering. More empowering than scary.” On my end of the phone, it felt good to hear him say that. He continued to tell me some things he has learned as an activist. “The established institutions of our society are very resistant to positive change and try to maintain their power with violence. And sometimes it can seem the changes we work for aren’t having an impact. But they are impacting the environment we are trying to protect.” His words were both sincere and powerful and listening to Eric speak it occurred to me I have a serious wealth of wisdom in all my friends.
------------------------------------------------------------- These following italicized words are not my own… Eric sent me them from the reflection he wrote about his tree sit.
“We sat in trees at the edge of a mine site for 9 days in the middle of the Appalachian winter in West Virginia on Coal River Mountain… We stopped blasting for 9 days within sight of the Brushy Fork toxic coal waste impoundment that holds over 7 billion gallons of black sludge above the Coal River Valley. Massey Coal says that if the impoundment's dam fails it will kill approximately 998 people in that valley, and Massey impoundments have failed in the past… Then I climbed a beautiful tall oak tree with stirrups made of climbing rope attached to a climbing harness I was wearing, which I kept on for 9 days straight. I had to break a few branches off the tree on the way up, and I kissed that tree several times during the whole set up process… When I came down I was very dizzy and disoriented while first walking on solid ground for the first time in over a week. We spent three days in jail before getting bailed out. As much as jail sucks, it can be a very empowering experience. All the prisoners I talked to about what I did were very supportive, though some probably thought I was crazy. They don't like seeing the land destroyed either. One of them was very knowledgeable about wildlife and hates seeing beautiful habitat destroyed.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Al Gore once said that Climate Activists (like Eric Blevins) are the heroes of this time. I know Eric as a friend and an activist hero. We joke and play and we support each other now and then when I need a shoulder to cry on or when he needs to climb a tree for justice. When I am afraid to cross the line, I take Eric’s advice knowing there will be someone else willing to cross the line for the cause of Mountaintop Removal, saving the world, and such.
I knew I was important my whole life. But as a kid I never fathomed I would have friends as brave and dignified as Eric. Sometimes I feel the corporate control of the world has its’ strangle hold on my emotions. But more often now, I think of people whom I know, and I grip onto my own power. This is why I chose Eric to write about. He encourages me to self empowerment – people like him are the hope for the world.