Dear HCN:
Last November, I was in
the White House, having secured an appointment with the Clinton
administration to talk about the salvage-logging rider. I wore the
same suit as when I was arrested for civil disobedience two days
before – now somewhat scuffed up. We started into discussions about
the terrible impact of the rider, and it was friendly as it had
been in the past, but going nowhere. I finally exploded: “Look, we
are all here in this comfortable place, talking the polite
Washington talk as if this were just another issue. But I have been
there … there is pain and anguish out there … we must repeal
this rider.”
I told the stories, especially that
of 17-year-old Melissa Wilmoth, who was one of about a dozen high
school kids arrested Oct. 30, along with former Indiana Rep. Jim
Jontz and Charlie Ogle, Eugene, Ore., businessman and Sierra Club
chapter president for Oregon.
Melissa and I had
been chained to trees for about eight hours, and at one point she
asked me if all this was hopeless, if all the old trees would be
gone and no great forests left. There were tears in her eyes. I
have never seen such brave people as these kids. We were all scared
that day but they never showed it.
I told Melissa
that we had taken on the industry and would beat them in spite of
their money and their bought politicians. Now, 11 long months have
passed and we have not yet repealed the rider (HCN, 9/2/96). Still,
Clinton and Gore have acknowledged that signing it was a big
mistake, and Republicans are running for cover. I believe it is
because mainstream America keeps saying: “Stop it.”
Brock Evans
Washington,
D.C.
Brock Evans is a
consultant to the National Audubon
Society.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Logging protests go mainstream.
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