PHOTO BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
NEWS BRIEFS
Learning to climb trees at action camp
ACTION ON THE ELLIOTT
MALL RATS
DEMYSTIFIED
Bailey Ellis-Wiard was 17 years old
when a homeless man stopped her on the
downtown mall and asked for a penny. They
were of a similar age, and she took the
interruption in her errands as a chance to ask
a few questions: How long had he been
living on the streets? Why? Where did he
sleep?
A week later she ran into him again, then
again. The two unlikely compatriots became
friends. Ellis-Wiard used the two months of
their friendship to try to understand the
world of this 20-year-old ex-Marine and
homeless alcoholic. She was introduced to
his court of Kesey Square street kids and
became fascinated with the issue of teen
homelessness. She met kids who were
homeless by choice.
“For some it’s a rite of passage,” Ellis-
Wiard explains. “They can live on the streets
for a few weeks and return home, but for
most it often leads into homelessness not by
choice due to substance abuse.”
Then her friend disappeared, and in the
space of two evenings Ellis-Wiard pounded
out the rough draft of a play. “It was awful,”
she says with chagrin, “but I didn’t
necessarily think of it as something that
would be performed. Maybe (the play) was
just something that could document what
had happened.”
She showed the play to a few friends as a
way of sharing her experiences. Within a few
years she had carefully rewritten the script
and held a staged reading. She was supported
by the likes of Patrick Torelle, Ralph
Steadman and Trial by Fire Theatreworks.
She finds herself directing an 18-member
cast at LCC’s Blue Door Theatre this
summer. “Rhea Gates has been the biggest
help!” Ellis-Wiard says of LCC’s Student
Production Association president, who is
also playing the lead role based on Ellis-
Wiard.
The hardest part of being the director of
her own script? “Getting my ducks in a row,”
Ellis-Wiard says with a sigh. Competing for
actors, shaking folks down for props, trying
to set a rehearsal schedule that accommodates
everyone’s work schedules, cobbling
together costumes — Ellis-Wiard has had
her hands full staging the show.
Ironically, sharing what is a very
personal story has not been at all difficult.
“This isn’t about me,” Ellis-Wiard says.
“It’s about the very important issue of
teen homelessness.”
The few times most of us have ever
stopped to wonder about the street kids
hanging out around Kesey Square, our
thoughts are primarily centered around
getting through them with our change still in
our pocket and our conscience unrattled.
Shannon: Based On A (Maybe) True Story
offers us a chance to explore the world of
teen homelessness through the lens of a
young woman with no agenda, only curious
compassion.
Admission is by donation ($5
suggested) and all proceeds will go to
Sheltercare, but Ellis-Wiard stresses that
anyone can attend the play, regardless of
ability to pay. “What’s most important is
that people come,” she says.
Shannon plays 8 pm Aug. 4-14 at
LCC’s Blue Door Theater; info on
Facebook at http://wkly.ws/139 and at
http://wkly.ws/13a — Anna Grace
ACTIVIST ALERT
• The Eugene Veg Education Network is sponsoring a free talk on “Personal Food
Choices and Climate Change” with speakers Dale Lugenbehl and Sandy Aldridge at 7 pm
Thursday, July 28, at the McNail-Riley House, 13th and Jefferson.
• The next volunteer clean-up at Civic Stadium will be from 10 am to noon Saturday, July
30. Bring hand tools, gloves and water.
• Controversial issues in Oregon will be the subject of a new weekly series on
Community TV, cable channel 29. It begins at 7 pm Saturday, July 30. The first program
debate will review “Is Israel Justified Being in Palestine?” and debaters will be Barry
Sommer and George Beres. Future programs will include politics, religion, athletics and
election reform.
• ELAW will be the featured nonprofit at the 7 pm Thursday, Aug. 4, Em’s baseball game,
which means ELAW makes $3 on every $9 ticket they sell, and folks can use the tickets as
a voucher for any game this season. Contact ELAW’s Michele Kuhnle at michele@elaw.org
or 687-8454 ext. 14.
• A Hiroshima-Nagasaki-Fukashima Commemoration will be from 7 to 9:30 pm
Saturday, Aug. 6, at Alton Baker Park near the duck pond. A community potluck is followed
by an 8 pm program featuring Japanese Koto music, Taiko drumming, Obon dancing,
origami making and a call to action by Mayor Kitty Piercy. The event will close at dusk with
the floating of candle lanterns on the duck pond while Koto master Mitsuki Dazai plays
traditional Japanese music. The event is free but donations can be made to benefit
Japanese tsunami survivors. Contact Michael Carrigan of CALC at 485-1755 or calcpeace@
efn.org for more information.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
The effort to save Oregon's state lands from logging ramped up in the predawn hours
of July 26 when the Cascadia Forest Defenders, Earth First! and other activists put up
tree sits and blockaded access to several timber sales along the west fork of the
Millicoma River in the Elliott State Forest.
As of press time, one of the three tree-sit platforms had been knocked out of the tree
by an unidentified man on a bulldozer.
The Oregon Department of Forestry is planning to increase the logging on the native,
previously uncut forest, which is home to Endangered Species Act-listed marbled
murrelets. CFD and Earth First! are using direct action campaigning to stop the
clearcutting.
The protest is the culmination of a four-day “action camp” to train forest activists and
support nonviolent direct defense of the coastal rainforest.
“Direct action is one of our most effective tools for creating change in this country,”
says Kim Marks of Rising Tide North America. “Just ask the suffragettes, the
Underground Railroad and the unions, which created the eight-hour workday and ended
child labor camps.” Marks led workshops on strategic campaigning and on renegade
blockades at the action camp.
At 93,000 acres the Elliott State Forest is the largest original coastal forest left in
Oregon, according to conservation group Cascadia Wildands, which has been working
to defend the Elliott through lawsuits and public comments. The group says ODF not
only plans to start clearcutting on the previously intact western half of the forest, but also
the logging on the forest could increase to 1,000 acres a year.
Jason Gonzales of CFD, and one of the organizers of the action camp, says the group
wants to send a message to ODF that “we’re in the fight to win.” He points out that after
years of “relentless direct action” the Forest Service had to change its ways. He says that
agency still has its problems, but has made vast improvements, where “ODF as an
agency has been going the opposite way.”
CFD organizer Meredith Cocks called the clearcutting on the Elliott “really
atrocious.” she says, “A lot of people in the group are really passionate about it.”
The camp, which was partly supported by donations from local businesses, at its
height drew over 70 participants both local and from across the country. Many attendees
came from the recent Earth First! Rendezvous in Montana, which culminated in a protest
against Big Oil at the governor’s office that made headlines across the country.
The CFD camp, deep in the Elliott off long and winding forest roads (that got certain
EW reporters a little lost), had workshops ranging from educating activists about the
Elliott to wilderness survival and tree climbing to fighting oppression. Participants also
learned informally from chatting with more experienced activists about the nuts and
bolts of living on a platform in an old-growth tree. Games were used to train participants
in running on steep slopes and through the forest’s understory.
CFD organizer Emmalyn Garrett says that the trees of the Elliott are of more benefit
to Oregon’s schoolchildren if left standing. The logging, she says, generates only a small
percentage of school funds.
The Elliott State Forest, which is also used by Oregonians for recreation, is part of
Oregon’s Common School Fund lands. A report on the Elliott by economist Eric Fruits
that was presented to the State Land Board states, “Department of State Lands
management of the Elliott State Forest yields returns of less than 1 percent.” The State
Land Board is made up of Gov. Kitzhaber, the Oregon secretary of state and the state
treasurer.
There is “a deep-seated issue of politicians and wealthy timber interests colluding to
make a buck at the cost of Oregon’s future,” Garrett says. “Our group is really committed
to being out here and having a sustained presence.”
The protesters have issued a list of demands including stopping the use of herbicides
in the forest and stopping the logging of native forests on public land in Oregon.
Some of the camp’s attendees not involved in the current tree sit and blockades will
be heading to the third Annual Cascadia Trans’ and Womyn’s Action Camp July 27 to
Aug 1. For more info go to http://twac.wordpress.com/
For updates on the action in the Elliott, go to blogs.eugeneweekly.com and see next
week’s issue. — Camilla Mortensen
LIGHTEN UP
BY
RA FA E L
A L DAV E
Obama has already given away the store
to the Republicans in the negotiations
over the debt ceiling. What’s left to give
them? Bo, the White House dog?
EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 28, 2011 9