Redneck Nation by Michael Graham

Author:Michael Graham [GRAHAM, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446569590
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2009-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

I TALK TO THE TREES…

The tree lady is Julia “Butterfly” Hill, the St. Joan of the modern American religiosity, who lived in a tree and etched her name in the Book of Saints of our new Redneck Nation. I met Julia Hill on the set of Politically Incorrect back when it was on ABC. She was on the show to promote her book, The Legacy of Luna, which describes her 738 days sitting atop a California redwood (Luna) to save it from the woodsman’s ax.

I was on Politically Incorrect to sit in the token conservative’s chair, the sacrificial goat for the smug Hollywood types who sit on the panel. If you ever watched the show, you know the format: They bring out a conservative, tie us to a stake, and leave us there bleating while they set the three lefties and Bill Maher (okay, make that four lefties) loose to devour us for the pleasure of the twenty-something TV audience.

When Julia (“Butterfly” if you’re nasty) and I were on together, the topic was “the environment,” which sounds much more profound than saying that five slightly famous adults are going to sit around talking about trees. Which is what we did.

If you could reincarnate the Prohibition-era Anti-Saloon League and the old KKK (back when U.S. Senator Robert Byrd was a proud member), they would be the environmentalists, the pro-choicers, and the Smoke Nazis of today. Trees, tobacco, and the right to choose are the Holy Trinity of the new American zealot. Like good southern-style evangelicals, these true believers are immune to facts and science. It’s strange to discover that the typical environmental activist has no more interest in actual scientific research than a Baptist preacher has in the newest edition of the Origin of Species.

When the TV cameras rolled, I tried to offer a few facts—the relative stability of global temperature, the reforestation of the American East Coast, the improvements in water quality that have come with new technology. But it was a waste of breath, because Julia Butterfly’s position was based entirely on, for lack of a better term, religion. She knows the earth is hurting because she feels it in the Earth Spirit. The trees are being “murdered,” the water’s fouled, and the Earth Mother is trying to get us to become one with Her and live in peace.

Julia Butterfly knows this because the trees tell her. That’s right: According to her book, she talks to the trees. And unlike Clint Eastwood in Paint Your Wagon, they did listen to her. They even talked back. Here’s how Butterfly described conversing with a giant California redwood in a recent interview:

“When I was [ending the tree sit] I had to leave part of myself behind and it hurt. And so I prayed and asked, ‘How am I going to be able to keep the clarity that I’ve gained up here from this literal perspective that I’ve had for two years? And how am I going to handle losing the best friend

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