I got this message today. I do not live in America and cannot verify
all the details. However it seems a bitter irony that people should
seek to protect an oak tree planted in memory of a one-time tramp and
socialist....from homeless people and people seeking social justice!
>Dear Fans of Jack London Everywhere
>
>People
>
>Tonight, with a plea from the bottom of my heart, as one of Jack London's
>great grand daughters -who usually shies away from the role for personal
>reasons: I appeal to your basic humanity - please step forward and give
>whatever support you can muster *right now* to the good
>people who are on a hunger strike for social justice, equity and
>education shelteringbeneath the Jack London Oak Tree
>at 14th & Broadway in Oakland. They are there, sheltering in place,
>beneath the Jack London oak tree (see below) because their
>basic rights to protest are threatened. Their basic rights under the
>first amendmendent of the constitution of the United States of the
>people to peaceably assemble is again threatened. Their protective
>equipment (sun shade etc) has been confiscated by the police, so
>logically, they have taken shelter under a tree.
>In spite
>of promises by Oakland City Council Members, they have been harrassed by
>the Oakland Police Department and tommorrow they are threatened with
>being fenced or evicted or whatever to save the "sacred tree". The sacred
>tree was planted in honor of my great grandfather, Jack London in
>1917, a year after his death(see below). I will be there starting
>at 6 am tommorrow to say that Jack L ondon would have supported this
>heroic effort and more. There will be a community support rally Saturday
>(5/15/04 at 11 am, I will be there then too, as soon as I can.
>Please someone get the press there?
>
>The harrassment of Cesar Cruz & the March4education.org folks by the
>Oakland police is certainly reminiscent of my town's (RICHMOND)
>"anti-camping" ordinance which begs to be repealed. It is reminsicent
>of one of Jack London's pivotal political
>turning point when after deserting from Coxy's Army of the Unemployed,
>he went bumming, got educated by radical "bums" (unemployed"), was
>arrested for vagrancy, denied the right to self representation by a
>judge, sent to the penitetiary for 30 days where he witnessed horrific
>brutatlity against a black inmate. Oakland police department's
>confiscation of portable toilets (paid for in advance), sun/wind shade
>equipment , right to sleep in the public park etc. is just the same old
>"bum's rush" that <bold>Jack London</bold> was given when he was on the
>road. Cesar Cruz and the other hunger strikers are making this sacrifice
>to <bold>save the education of the children of Richmond whose education
>is compromised by budget cuts</bold> (www.March4education.org for
>details). They marched on foot 70 miles (including 4th graders through
>adults) from Richmond to Sacramento, during the spring break, where
>they were denied audience with Governor Schwartnegger, who at the same
>time, purportedly , met with school children from an affluent distrcit
>
>I am a librarian at the City of Richmond Public Library where half of the
> library staff is laid off effective tommorrow(5/14/04). We will go from
>a proud and healthy 58 open hours a week to a paltry 24 hours a week
>(branches closed) starting Monday May 17, 2004. <bold>A light goes out
>in Richmond. Don't let it be permanent. The cities and counties of
>California are being fiscally raped by the state, Richmond is simply in
>the forefront, we are all being raped by the cost of the war in Iraq.
>The physical abuse of the people of Iraq is being paid for by us. Our
>financial ruin is paying for this outrage, We must stand and say NO MORE
>to this war. Eating our children is not acceptable.
>
>JL Oak tree history :
>
>
></bold>THEY are survivors, every one. They have eluded the ravages of
>time, the forces of nature and the wrecking ball of mankind. They have
>stood and watched as history traipsed beneath their branches, from the
>quests of early explorers to the high jinks of turn-of-the-century
>college students. Some have endured battle scars still visible on their
>trunks; others even bear the last remains of their owners. In honor of
>Arbor Day, an annual holiday dedicated to the planting of new trees, we
>offer a salute to the historic Bay Area trees still standing right in our
>back yard, trees that have defied expections and inspired devotion.idents
>still like to post birthday and anniversary messages ... \
>
>Jack London Oak -- Oakland Dan Gallagher, Oakland's city arborist,
>bristles at the thought that the Jack London Oak might be an also-ran to
>the Danville Oak. "I'll put up our tree against their's any time," he
>shouts indignantly, in a call placed on his cell phone from beneath the
>oak tree in Oakland's City Hall Plaza. In 1917, the year after Jack
>London's death, the oak was dug up from Mosswood Park and replanted at
>its current location as a form of commemoration. When the plaza was built
>several years ago, there was extensive design work to preserve the tree,
>including a specialized drainage system and a concrete wall. This
>afternoon, Gallagher reports, Oakland's denizens are basking in the
>tree's shady ambience, strumming guitars or eating an afternoon snack. "I
>bet you don't see anybody sitting under the Danville Oak tree," he
>chortles, referring to the tree's location on a roadway median. And
>although it's not much of a boast because his tree is probably a couple
>of centuries younger, he is also confident the Oakland oak will be the
>last one standing. "I bet the Jack London Oak will outlive the Danville
>Oak," he says. "I'll bet my career on it."