Posted on 04/21/2002 8:27:04 PM PDT by Glutton
Activists jarred but not beaten by sitter's death
By The Associated Press
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Some said her death - which happened the same week the U.S. Forest Service canceled the controversial Eagle Creek timber sale - makes them more committed than ever to stopping logging on public land. Others voiced anger that protesters must risk their lives to change federal forest policy.
And most said cancellation of the timber sale and O'Brien's death have stirred irreconcilable emotions.
``It's your absolute dream and your worst nightmare, both at the same time,'' said Emma Murphy-Ellis, 18, a Cascadia Forest Alliance activist.
The Portland-based alliance, which led the Eagle Creek protests, held a memorial vigil Sunday at Mount Tabor Park that drew more than 200 people. On Tuesday night, close friends of O'Brien gathered for a private wake.
Two nights later, O'Brien's death was the subject of many conversations at a monthly meeting of the alliance.
``I haven't been able to process it all,'' said a bearded young activist who gave his name only as Oin. ``It's a really awesome thing and a really horrible thing.''
O'Brien, who was 22, moved to Portland 10 months ago from Santa Rosa, Calif., and quickly became involved in a number of causes. A member of Food Not Bombs and a proficient cook, she made meals for the homeless, sometimes using food salvaged from Dumpsters.
She and two others organized a rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square last summer after an Italian activist was killed by police at a meeting in Genoa, Italy, of eight major industrialized countries known as the Group of Eight.
She attended Santa Rosa Junior College for two years but was more interested in helping people than making money, said her mother, Melinda Ellison, of Santa Rosa.
While she lived in Santa Rosa, Beth often traveled to San Francisco to cook at homeless shelters. She wrote poetry, played the banjo and read widely, her mother said.
``The thing about Beth, she was beautiful on the outside, beautiful on the inside,'' Ellison said. ``I don't think I ever heard her say anything bad about anybody.''
O'Brien died the night of April 12 after falling from a tree that the logging protesters called ``Truth.'' Protesters have occupied that tree and two others nearby for almost three years.
O'Brien had hiked into the area on snowed-in forest roads with another person, said Sarah Wald, a spokeswoman for Cascadia Forest Alliance. They were carrying food for the activists occupying platforms high in the trees, which are about six miles from the nearest open road.
O'Brien had spent about an hour climbing a rope to the lower platform of the tree, which is about 100 feet off the ground, and fell while climbing a rope ladder to a second platform higher in the tree, Wald said.
Activists said the timber sale, which the Forest Service proposed in 1991 and sold for $10.3 million in 1996, was too close to a wilderness area, targeted too many large trees and threatened a watershed that supplies drinking water to about 185,000 people in the Portland area.
The sale was canceled after the Forest Service and Vanport Manufacturing of Boring, which bought the timber, failed to agree on modifications recommended by independent reviewers last summer.
Cascadia Forest Alliance activists now are dismantling the platforms. The activists said they would turn their attention to more than 100 other logging sales proposed in the Mt. Hood and Gifford Pinchot national forests.
``We're all mourning together,'' Wald said. ``But the death doesn't lessen the victory at Eagle Creek.''
Copyright © 2002 The Register-Guard
California exports a lot of things...It now appears we export wackos!
The lawyer would be lucky to find anyone with intact pockets, let alone an organization with "deep pockets"! LOL
Dumpster deli delight. I wonder if any of the homeless experienced any sever stomach cramps after that little happy meal?
Here is an idiot ---
"I haven't been able to process it all," said a bearded young activist who gave his name only as Oin. "It's a really awesome thing and a really horrible thing." ----- why kind of psychobabble crap is that?
It takes patience, courage and dedication. I admire all those things.
I don't agree with those people but I do respect them.
Portland also has "The Sisters of the Road Cafe" that serves good, cheap meals. If I were in PDX and homeless, I would rather go there then to rely on FNB.
I imagine the next time Portland updates, the death of Beth O'brien will be talked about on their page.
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