Lowbagger--Letters to the Editor

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editor@lowbagger.org

Bush protester reflects treatment
While protesting Dubya and everything he stands for outside of the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls, Mont., I was privileged to receive some brilliant insights from the pro-Bush crowd. <>“You’re wasting our resources by breathing,” and, “Kill ‘em all,” were some of the comments directed at those of us protesting. One member the moral majority even spit on a protestor. That’s probably what Jesus would have done, too. These comments are easy to ignore, as they are so idiotic. But, I heard some other comments that were down-right disturbing.

Preparing for Bush’s motorcade to pass, I over heard a yuppie woman tell her young daughter that we were rude and disrespectful. No matter what, she continued, you should always respect your president. First off, none of our signs were disrespectful, unless you are offended by such words as “Patriot for Peace”. Secondly all we were doing was exercising our first amendment rights under the constitution. You think that if these patriots love our country so much that they would love the rights guaranteed under our constitution. It’s fascinating how the right has embraced the second amendment so fervently but wants, with equal fervor, to oppress the first amendment. The scary thing is that this brainwashed way of thinking is getting past on to the younger generations.

As we were chanting “No more war,” while Bush’s’ motorcade was leaving the Arena, another woman with several small children looked at me and said in a very timid voice “Don’t say that. You have to work towards peace”. I am not sure how people construe invading a sovereign nation and killing of civilians as working towards peace. This particular lady exemplifies a dangerous attitude present today in America: extreme passiveness. It is easier to eat fast food and watch TV than it is to think about your government’s actions for yourself, and not just believe what they tell you.

All in all though, it was a fantastic day. We got to meet other like-minded and concerned citizens from across the state and spoke our minds. We were even joined by a local fifth grader who spoke the most intelligent words I heard all day. He said that you have to think about the kids and how what you do affects them. The most satisfying achievement of the day is the knowledge that W. saw our cry for peace. As the motorcade pulled up to the Arena, the shoulder of the street was filled with chants of “No more war,” and Bush rode by in the back of a limo. He gave us his trademark smirk and pointed.

John Fothergill,
Missoula, MT

Lowbaggers more mooches than monks
Dear Lowbagger,
Pardon me if I affend you lowbaggers, but it seems like you forgot to mention a few things about lowbaggers. Such as always managing to get other poor activists to buy the drinks (even if it's your birthday). A lowbagger will return his hiking boots that he wore backpacking and everyday for two years that had no defects just to get a new pair via REI's liberal return policy, even though his own organization recieves funds from this company and he know its employees depend on its pofitablility for thier bonuses and are paid meagerly. When helping you move he will look at your best piece of furniture and tell you "I'll give you everything I've got in my wallet for that." which as always is nothing. The lowbagger can always be counted on to extend the term "borrow" for items such as headlamps and sunglasses, to something more like "adopt". A real lowbagger doesn't live like a monk!

Todays lowbagger doesn't have to rely on the cheesy standby "I forgot my wallet." These crafty types know how to secure a couch and meals without such amatuerish tricks. You have to give them credit, they know how to have a good time, and how to pay little or nothing for it. This is an outsider's view, but you know I am right. I could never afford to do some of the things certain lowbaggers I have covered do. It is an art form. You should teach a clinic.

Increase the peace,

Kitty Klitzke

Subvert the Dominant Non-Profit Paradigm
Dear Lowbagger,

Mike has distilled, in this short paragraph, what is so horribly wrong with professional environmentalism. It really is an Enron-worthy scandal.

"While eating my Thanksgiving falafel, Jake called and was still bugging me to fly to D.C. for the big, forest strategy meeting. I didn’t want to go. These things are like meetings of the Elks Lodge. People usually have strange titles and say things like we should be massaging our messaging and developing iconic placed-based proactive engagement scenarios that build capacity in the communities. One learns that at the end of the day, the bottom line is that in order to push the envelope out of the box we have to all be on the same page. It really does drive me crazy sometimes."

Great job, Mike. "At the end of the day," Mike's always there "where the rubber meets the road."

What is it with all these "social change" nonprofits that internally themselves don't reflect any society worth backing?

Michael Donnelly

Roselle's philosophy holds throughout decades
Lowbaggers,
Great to read your thoughts and tales on Lowbagger.org, and I look forward to more.
Just for comparison, I read something Mike Roselle wrote for the Alliance in 1985.
To your credit, Mike, your personal metaphysic hasn't shifted nary a bit.
See it below; it's a reaction to Cecelia Ostrow's announcement that she
was bailing out of Oregon and heading for the southwest. (Also included is her
response. You could call it Songs of Innocence versus Songs of
Experience, as manifested in your present day prose like Satan is My Co-Pilot.

Ron Huber
Rockland, ME

Mike Roselle wrote: (in the August 1985 issue of the Alliance)
Don't discourage struggle
Editor,
Whether or not the trees have told Cecelia Ostrow that the critical boundary between wildness and destruction has been crossed is not for me to decide. However, it strains my imagination to ponder the notion that their spirits may have migrated to Arizona,so many retirees in motor-homes. Let us not forget that the old growth forests of the Arizona Rockies are also under attack by the same agencies
and corporations as are Oregon's. They, too, need our help.

Critical boundaries are crossed daily. For the Dodo bird, the passenger pigeon and wild herds of Bison, those boundaries were crossed years ago. For the Spotted Owl, the California Condor and the
Whooping Crane, who knows? Maybe we have a chance to reverse their decline and eventual extinction by struggling on their behalf.

But if we allow ourselves to be discouraged, to feel hopeless; then we have already lost. And so have they. As ecologically concerned activists, we are the only hope they have of finding their way into the next century.

The Native American peoples were also cut down, like a forest, at the hands of the Timber Beast, but their spirit has not died. It lives on in their daily struggle for self-determination and survival. Only when
they surrender does their spirit die. We may learn a lot from them, if we listen.

Today, I fear that living in harmony with nature means struggling in unison with nature. In that way we become part of the forest, or the river, the sea, the desert. We witness the Earth as Self. Her struggle becomes our struggle. Her life, our life. We are the resistance, the underground. We must never abandon hope.

Earth First!
Michael Roselle

Ostrow replies:

I agree with everything you say.

I wrote what I heard in the woods. It was hard for me to decide to publish what I heard because I was afraid people would take offense or be discouraged about fighting for wilderness or old growth.
Finally, I decided to publish it because I believe what I heard is real. It's not right to squelch thoughts that seem to conflict with our version of reality. We'll never find out the truth that way.

The natural earth is a conscious being. It speaks. If more of us would listen to it we could figure out what to do. That's why I share my piece of what I hear, to encourage other people to listen and share
theirs.

I listen to the trees because I love them. I would never abandon their cause. I spent last year working fulltime with the Cathedral Forest Action Group. I support the efforts of CFAG and Earth First! with
all my heart.

I am trying to see reality as best I can. I see how much of the forest is gone. I see the small turnout of people who are willing to protect old growth. I have to deal with my real fear that we cannot save
enough old trees in time to save the wilderness.

I agree with you about Arizona. If you will re-read my column, you will see I am not implying that environmental struggles are easier in Arizona, or anywhere else. There is no escape, in that sense. The
thing I am hearing is different from all that, and I don't know fully what it is. It has to do with community, as I said. I am listening and waiting with an open mind, as the forest told me to do. I'll share any new thoughts I get along these lines in future Alliances.