By Cherie Hall Santa Monica
I was sitting in a park in June and I saw men cutting down a huge tree. The man who worked at the park on Seventh and Wilshire in Santa Monica told me the trees had a disease in the roots and they were cutting them down so they won’t fall on people. Hmmmm, fall on people? Well, then why don’t you close the park instead of bulldozing in parks where people are walking and kids are playing basketball and homeless people are laying on the ground? I saw bulldozers coming towards me and other people. There were children nearby. Ask me what is wrong with this. Many things, actually. I am angry with Santa Monica park attendants for allowing this activity to happen while there are people around. This could’ve been a dangerous situation. To who? You and I — the citizens of Santa Monica. Why? It takes too many people in a park to see a tree being killed. Last count I had was three. I am not sure because I left there. Here is the equation I saw — people laying on the ground, kids on the basketball court, and children playing in the playground and the bulldozers taking dead trees away after chainsaws cut them down. An officer of the law asking me to move from one of the trees because they were going to cut it down. Sure, she wanted me to be safe. But wouldn’t we be safer outside the park? In another park somewhere else? Yes, probably. They should have closed that park. I don’t believe them. The trees that have red tags means a red flag and certain death. Some trees are not sick, so don’t cut them down. If the trees are ill, then treat them. Cure them, please. We need trees. Think about it. We are important and so are trees. So the equation is this — children watched that happen. So now they will probably think killing trees is acceptable. I don’t get it, do you? So look at what we are teaching children. Look at how the people at the park were endangered. The trees were here before us. They have rights. Trees are for everyone. Wake up people. Please remember trees need people
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.