Backyard Bonfires and Eco-Terrorists

what a relaxing weekend. unbelievably, the temperatures were in the low 60's this weekend in upstate new york. it was time to turn down the heater in the house and go outside and build a fire. i don't know what came over us, but we had a million leaves to stuff into bags and load on the curb of our street so that city workers can pick them up at some unknown day and time. apparantly, there are different rules to deal with dead things in one's backyard - leaves go into paper bags, and must be placed on the street by your house. twigs, limbs and other tree parts can be placed without a container on the street by your house. i have no idea why, but that's how it goes around here. anyway, we were so tired of lugging dead vegetation that we decided to build a bonfire in our backyard and burn all of the twigs and tree limbs, as well as a couple of boxes from our summer move.we ended up spending about 5 hours saturday night in front of the fire in our backyard. it was so pleasant, and felt to good to be able to do this in mid-november without gloves, hat or scarves. global warming has its advantages, no? i love spending time in my backyard- it's amazingly beautiful and peaceful. it's like a sanctuary for me, and I love the smells of the trees, green grass, and the sound of the creek, which is so high now that i saw someone kayaking down it a couple of weekends ago. I can't wait until spring when i can plant flowers back there, and perhaps create a rock garden and a place to sit and meditate.

speaking of nature, last night 60 minutes did a piece on earth liberation front, which they labeled as "domestic terrorists." elf is an ecoterrorist group that engages in all sorts of actions designed to throw monkey wrenches into business practices deemed environmentally unsound, or those that abuse animals through testing. they have burned down labs at michigan state university, set loose wild horses in the west, burned car dealerships that sell suv's, and a massive housing project in san diego, which they said contributed to urban sprawl. in all of their actions they leave behind messages and their sig tag - elf - so that people will know this was an act of eco-terrorism, and not some random act of violence. the elf has no centralized authority - they operate like traditional terrorist organizations with cells in different parts of the country, and the identities of individual "members" are concealed. it's fascinating stuff, and makes me think about the purpose and intent of social movements and actors. i'm not necessarily an anti-violence person because i don't think systemic, social change can occur without violence of some kind. in essence, there can be no revolution without a violent overthrow of the current system. anti-violence stances are good in theory, but impossible in practice given what we know about humans and the societies they create. anti-violence, imho, is naive and untenable. having said that, i think there is a place at the table for groups like the elf. whether its civil rights, anti-imperialist, or environmental movements, it's important to have a range of debate and action - we need the radical presence as well as we need the liberal, middle of the road presence to start debates and to work for change.


jb