Where We Live

Protesters have been sitting in trees near the University of California, Berkeley campus for nine months now, in order to prevent the construction of a new football stadium and other athletic facilities. The current stadium, Memorial Stadium, is seismically challenged. The new stadium would require chopping down the suddenly important trees.

The site is very close to Helen's business school; on the business school tour in May, taking a look at the tree-sitters was a new attraction.  I must confess that I don't have revolutionary fervor f0r this protest--it feels like protest for protest's sake, and just another example of how Berkeley is weird.

Although the trees are on university property, for months campus officials have treaded softly so that they couldn't be accused of violating the protester's civil rights. But a few weeks ago officials ordered that a fence go up around the grove of trees, claiming that it was for the safety of the protesters who would soon be surrounded by drunken football fans on Saturday afternoons.  Others see it differently, and have labeled the fenced-in site a "Guantanamo Berkeley" which will starve the hardy protesters to death.  But as of today, everyone in the trees is still alive.

This tempest in a teapot is partially funny, partially exasperating. But it's all Berkeley. Every now and again I shake my head and think to myself, "Wow...this is where we live."