Town Hall Coalition in the News
Environmentalist Hill urges individual activism
Mary Callahan
(Press Democrat, 3/28/02)

Overwhelmed by the world's problems? Start with something small -- say turning off lights or eschewing disposable containers, suggests activist Julia Butterfly Hill.

Her 2-year protest atop a 1,000-year-old Humboldt County redwood notwithstanding, Hill says even the smallest of actions can have an impact.

Speaking to about 150 people Wednesday night in Sebastopol, Hill also encouraged her audience to find courage for larger acts, the kinds that change the course of a community.

She told tales of a 5-year-old Alaskan girl who stood in the road to stop logging trucks; a 15-year-old Ohio teen-ager who blocked construction of an oil pipeline; a 53-year-old grandmother who sat in an Arkansas tree despite a fear of heights.

"Each and every one of you are powerful beyond your wildest dreams," Hill said, after mapping her own life to activism in the tree she called Luna.

Hill, who has written a book and gone on the speaking circuit since her headline-making protest, appeared at the Sebastopol Veteran's Building for a benefit for a youth conference sponsored by the Occidental-based Town Hall Coalition that will be held April 12-14.

She called on "youth and the youthful" to recognize the interconnectedness of the environment, social and economic justice and to act on it.

She concluded, in part, with a Turkish proverb: "No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn around."

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