Attention Supporters!

Dear Women In the Woods and Supporters:

Stand-off!
Threatening letters from the contractor given the right to destroy Eagleridge Bluffs have come and gone but no injunction or police have appeared.  And we're partying tomorrow (Saturday).Nature walks, music, fund raising salmon BBC.  Come and help us celebrate!
Love Betty K

Hello Eagle Ridge Bluff Supporters

Hello Women in the Woods and Supporters,
I bring you good tidings from the tent city at Eagleridge Bluffs. The last few days have been beautiful with lots of visitors. We still don't know what will happen in terms of if and when some of us will be arrested, but certainly the blockade here has so far been very effective as it has stopped the actual blasting that would begin the road across this beautiful bluffs. Do come out and join in a hike across the bluffs and wetlands. See what we will all be losing if this 4 lane highway goes ahead. I'll keep you posted on developments.
Love, Betty

Word from the Front!

Dear Women in the Woods and supporters:
(message from Betty via Marion)
The blockade at Eagle Ridge Bluffs is going well, and more is planned on that front.A couple of hundred people kicked it off this past Monday, and there has been a steady presence up there since then, including Betty, of course.There has been much support on-site (with people bringing food and checking in frequently to see how things are and if anything is needed), and on the coalition's website (www.eagleridgebluffs.ca).In one 24-hour period they received over a thousand e-mails supporting the cause. There has been some good press, and, as always, some distorted pressPlease do what you can to lend your support -- the fight is far from over. You can join us for a few hours; camp out if you're able to do so; plan to get yourself arrested or not; write letters to government officials or to the editor (see links on the coalition's website); or vote in The Province's on-line poll (see The Province at www.theprovince.com).This coming Saturday, April 22nd, is Earth Day, and a celebration is planned up at the Bluffs on that day, from 10am onward. Bring a picnic lunch and come join Betty and the Eagle Ridge Bluffs coalition for the afternoon. There will be activities for children,tours of the Bluffs for anyone interested, and hopefully some dancing and music.Please bring drums or instruments any time you're able to come up to the blockade -- musicians and dancers are very welcome, as is everyone. See coalition website (above) re parking information and shuttle from parking area.
Happy Earth Day!
Marion

Gaia's blood

Before I take off for Eagleridge Bluffs tomorrow with my tent in tow, I want to answer publicly an email I received rebuking me for criticizing Terry Glavan's reading from his new book last week. Ordinarily when I attend a university sponsored reading or lecture I don't agree with, I do what most people do, discuss it briefly with friends and then simply let it pass. After all,universities have their own reason for being. However, I think this attitude has been a big mistake. Why? First, because so many readings and lectures are held in university environs it gives the speakers an aura of authority that is not necessarily always warranted. And I want to use Mr. Glavan's reading to illustrate what I think has been happening to the environmental movement.

The environmental movement used to be a people's movement. But it's potentially mighty back has been bowed to the breaking point. And one way this has been done has been through intellectual apologists for the status quo. And in my opinion, from writers like Mr. Galvan, who while using provocative language (the sub title of his book "Is this the Sixth Greatest Extinction?) that would portend his total sympathy for the earth being trashed by corporate values, nevertheless ever so subtly supports the status quo.

Right off the bat, before there was even any discussion entered into during the evening, Mr. Galvan stated that he didn't want to hear anything about Gaia mentioned. So here this esteemed writer and professour, blatantly advising that he does not consider the concept of Gaia, this most ancient of concepts, this concept particularly relevant to many women, is off bounds for any following discussion about the possible extinction of the natural world as we have known it. Which is what we have come to hear him talk about. Okay, then what do we have to consider?

Mainly, Mr. Galvan seems to want to consider that people who are known or who consider themselves environmentalists are terribly wrong by definition because this very categorizing sets up a division between people and other people and people and nature. As everybody has to live in our environment everybody is of necessity an environmentalism, in my own thinking, but those of us who engage in defense of the environment by physical action other than letter writing, is, in Mr. Glavan's mind in a separate category that of being, goddess help us... ENVIRONMENTALISTS! And therefore automatically put in a separate category by Mr. Glavan that is divisive and bad for the environment. I note that Mr. Glavan calls him a conservationist. There's obviously a huge difference in his mind.

This is, in my opinion, convoluted thinking. And it makes the situation hopeless as people can't really do anything then but write letters. And while one of my critics said that he heard Mr. Glavan state the was indeed in favor of peaceful civil disobedience,and even went further, I didn't hear that, and while my eye sight may be fading with age my hearing is acute. Mr. Glavan's entire thrust of presentation was that while the earth may very well be dying we did not need a social revolution that peaceful civil disobedience might imply. And when a woman spoke up and said many more letters were need Mr. Galvan praised her warmly and suggested that yes, even in the face of massive ecological disaster, more letters are truly the way to go. So everybody could go home, comforted, knowing that all they had to do was to write one more letter.

This kind of thinking has seeped insidiously into the thinking of what used to be a people's movement. The environmental movement has now been at least partially co-opted by the universities. When a people's movement dies it goes to the universities and becomes a subject one can get a degree in, like Women's Studies. And sometimes, even in it's final resting place in the universities, it can make side forays into popular spiritual retreats, not so much as a subject of study, but one of contemplation. Let's not let our movement become a subject of university study or the subject of one more contemplative retreat. Let's live our movement!

I don't despise Mr. Galvan personally. I don't even know him. But I do know the subtle status quo apologist line he was expressing that evening and I reject it. Soundly. So let's march on to Engleridge Bluffs.

Hello Everyone!

Good Tidings All!
This post is a subtle exploration of high tech preparedness and logistic readiness.
My name is Forest Saver and it will fall to me to ensure that Ms B's communications reaches your ears and eyes when she might otherwise be - ahem... "incommunicado" - whilst doing what she knows needs to be done.
So please be advised that if you are receiving this missive via email it is only because I have it on good authority that you have been deigned as one of a chosen few to do so.
You might be pleased to note that it is also being transmitted simultaneously to Ms B's Blog, so that oddly echoing phenomenon you may experience upon visitng her blog (http://bettysearlyedition.blogspot.com - if you're not already here) is not some erroneous literary stuttering. We meant to do that. Really.

I hope and trust that all receivers of this "test' understand its necessity and appreciate the efforts our own "BK" exhausts in revealing the "Whoppers" we're all just a little fed up with.

We are ready to roll Ms B!

Arbutus, recently cut, Eagleridge Bluffs

FINAL CALL TO EAGLERIDGE BLUFFS!!!
This is going to be a stand-0ff. And it's time. It's way past time. Citizens have been traumatized by the way Gordon Campbell's government has cut and burned a swath through what's left of our eco-systems like Atilla the Hun. And that was their intent from the beginning ,their attitude toward citizens was to hit'em hard, below the belt, stun'um and while they're still reeling from all of the eliminations of environmental controls over everything that grows, swims, flies, breathes and moves, close in for the kill. But first give'em something, like a promise to protect part of the Great Bear Rainforest, a promise that can be taken back later and logged like the provincial parks are now open for logging. But the promise will shut the buggers up and they in turn will shut up the other loud yappers by splitting and demoralizing the rest of the environmental community. Oh, so
clever! Because it works!

Last evening I listened to a lecture by Terry Glavan who is a renowned writer and conservationist and I couldn't believe my ears. After citing all of the profound ecological disasters taking place (one of the names of his lecture was IS THIS THE SIXTH GREATEST EXTINCTION?) in the discussion following he put down, way, way, down, any suggestion of considering peaceful civil disobedience, saying that writing letters was the way to go. Writing letters! He seemed to equate anything else with revolution. He was very opposed to revolution. In fact, I think it would be accurate to say that Mr. Glavin was revolted by any suggestion of any kind of action that might be construed as revolutionary. And he wasn't pleased that I kept trying to bring up the history of peaceful civil disobedience. And that a revolution in participatory democracy is, in my opinion, exactly what we need.

Perhaps it isn't quite time for a big revolution, but smaller ones seem to be breaking out. Revolutions in democracy, in participatory democracy. So let's all journey to Eagleridge Bluff on Eater Monday at five pm for a celebration of participatory democracy. We'll stand by the fallen Arbutus trees that are now cut, trashed, discarded, devalued, only in the way of a provincial premier whose only need of the area is to facilitate the Olympics, this man who promised "the greenest games ever!" If you can't make Monday, perhaps you can Tuesday. The celebration will start again at noon. And go on indefinitely. Join us!

Women in and of and around the Woods! And all supporters! Alert bulletin!

I am now personally committed to the preservation of Eagleridge Bluffs in Horseshoe Bay. This is a rare eco system, complete with wetlands and various plants and creatures that go with wetlands. Many of the animals and plants there are already blue listed in the area and will turn to black like death if Gordon Campbell has his way.

Gordon Campbell's way is the Olympics Way at all costs (he is destroying the bluffs to make way for a huge overland highway for the Olympics) and everything in his value system such as money for child or environmental protections can to to the Hades place. But the group of dedicated citizens composing the Coalition to Save Eagleridge Bluffs (Dennis Perry is the president and one of the main organizers along with some incredibly talented and astute women and other men) prefer not to go to the Hades place. Instead they will pitch their tents in front of the entrance way to the area to be logged and dynamited to keep the destruction from moving in to Eagleridge Bluffs. And that means they will be putting the rest of their bodies where their mouths are. And I will join them and am urging other friends of rare eco systems to come with us. Please look at the website www.eagleridgebluff.ca for details.

We were in Victoria yesterday meeting with public officials and the press about the issues at Eagleridge Bluffs. However, the guard wouldn't let me go into the building along with a small group to speak to minister Kevin Falcon. It seems I've been banned from entering the legislature building. But the coalition didn't need me anyway because they are brave and brilliant and have a clear vision.

But they do need some more committed people from outside, people who will come to the blockade and sing and dance and visit with us and make a good, solid presence. How does Easter Monday sound to you brothers and sisters who are tired of the destruction of this province and have a day or two to lend us? And your province? Can you come visit? And those who can stay overnight maybe bring their tents? Email me. Let us know. We have no idea how long a blockade might last so pencil us in on your calendar. Let us hear from you soon. My love, Betty