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The Nuclear-Free-Vegan-Save-The-Trees Zone in its present state (that is, complete with tree-sitters) celebrated its one-year anniversary on Sunday. Since last Dec. 2, Memorial Stadium’s oak grove has been occupied by hippies with a radical agenda against UC Berkeley’s plan to cut down some trees and replace them with more trees and a fancy new athletic facility.
As tree people know, the university has no right to do what it will with its own property, including kick trespassers off it. Oh, wait.
We’re sure no one is happier about the cheap lease than leader of the pack Zachary RunningWolf, who seems to think the estimate of the university’s site-specific expenses published Friday is low, and yet we find $367,000—about $1,000 per day so far—to be a bit much for the university to just toss at sustaining guests who have far overstayed their welcome.
Surely the money must be going somewhere important.
The Chron points us to the “self-righteous cause” that the tree people are upholding. Says one such self-righteous protester:
People call us crazy monkey hippies, but this is the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I feel like I’m truly alive.
Aside from missing the part where “Shem” actually addresses the “crazy monkey hippie” characterization (remember, for the former debaters out there, silence is concession), we find it hard to believe that vandalizing trees, campaigning against fellow cause supporters and ignoring 23,000 other trees on the university’s chopping block are among the greatest things this protester has experienced.
Nevertheless, we toast to the tree people’s efforts to sustain a really annoying, probably pointless but surprisingly newsworthy year up at the NFVSTTZ.
From the Clog to you, oh tree people, we give you a ream of paper—the traditional one-year wedding anniversary gift—as a symbol of the print the press has wasted writing about you and the paper that could be made from all the trees and platforms you folks are sitting in.
Image Source: Edited by Krista Lane
Campus Releases Protest Spending Estimate [Daily Cal]
Protest Marks One Year in Grove [Daily Cal]
One year into protest, UC Berkeley’s tree-sitters firmly planted [SF Gate]
Tags:NFVSTTZ, one-year anniversary, tree-sitters, Zachary RunningWolf
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