by Dennis Fritzinger

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How has it related?

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In Susan Zakin’s Coyotes and Town Dogs, the only biography of Earth First! so far, Susan mentions Dave Foreman’s discovery of a poem about a ball of masonry that  summed up Dave’s world view.

This poem by Stephen Crane is why Dave wrote, “Where would the anti-war movement have been without its poetry and songs?”

So there was a deliberate attempt on Dave’s part to tie Earth First!’s fortunes to music and poetry. Wisely so. A movement without the arts never becomes a movement.

Poets and musicians get inspiration from everyday events, as well as other poets and musicians. They’re practiced in communicating ideas in a language that is both memorable and rememberable. Poets influence musicians, who in turn influence poets. This naturally works better when you have a critical mass of musicians and poets. And the poets and musicians inspire everyone else.

So Earth First! is, essentially, a movement led by artists. Even Dave Foreman, when he was around, was an artist–he excelled at oratory, which is basically speech and poetry rolled up together.

And as the artists leave, the movement loses steam and becomes directionless. Or new artists sign on, and change the direction of the movement.

You can see this happening if you compare “The Li’l Green Songbook” with “The Earth First! Songbook” and the later “Hootenanny”. There is a definite change–both of focus and of style. The threads that were everywhere in “Li’l Green” are scarcely present in “Hootenanny”, which has a much wider and softer focus–Women’s Issues, Prisoner Issues & Animal Lib. & Gender Issues outnumber more traditional EF! issues like habitat, wilderness, and wild.

In the midst of this, the warrior poets society has remained firmly on course. Poetry submissions do occasionally come with gender and prisoner issues (or animal rights) as their subject, but since the poetry page has an editor (unlike a stage, demonstration, or, alas, the Journal) it is easy to refuse to run them.

My attitude is, when all the endangered species, habitat, ecosystems, wilderness & the wild have been saved, then we’ll have room for other issues. Earth First!

(1934-2011)

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Hello,

I have written an account of David’s burial for those who could not attend, with input from a few close participants. In death, as in life, David wanted to show an alternative way. It was David’s last action “For the Earth”. You can read “A deep green burial” at: http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/A_deep_green_burial.pdf

Regards,
Helga Hoffmann-Orton

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For The Earth – David Orton (1934-2011)

David’s death occurred on the morning of Thursday, May 12^th, 2011 at his home in Watervale, Pictou County. David was born in Portsmouth, England on January 6^th, 1934.

He lived in Canada since 1957. David was an activist and deep green philosopher, who dedicated his life to developing the theory of Left Biocentrism within the Deep Ecology movement.

He was uncompromising in his fight for the Earth and set a high standard for others to follow. David believed in living simply, where the richness of human life was defined not in material values, but within a deeper spiritual relationship with the Earth.
A green burial will take place at a later date.

His body of work can be found on the Green Web:

http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/index.htm

Here’s a video that gives a sense the most popular Rendezvous, an event that saw not hundreds but over a thousand…

1987 Grand Canyon Round River Rendezvous & Uranium Mine Action

Andy Caffrey the Virtual Candidate | Myspace Video

Andy Caffrey: “This is the one video clip that probably means the most to me, and I didn’t shoot it. I did record audio of the Sagebrush Patriots Rally that year and release a 96-minute cassette of that music a year later, “Battle Cries From The North Rim.” But I think these four clips were a big inspiration for me to go to video in 1988. Hollenhorst liked us, and the four clips almost make a single “How to take over a uranium mine” how-to video. And I thought that was pretty cool!

Later, I thought, people 180-feet up in redwoods, might make inspiring video. And I even got used in several places, raising a fist among the marchers wearing a blue monkeywrench bomber long sleeve t-shirt that “we” gave to Don Hodel at Hetch Hetchy Damn a few months later when we couldn’t fiind any clean ones to give to him and Dianne Feinstein. And then Michelle Miller, Janaka (who would come back two years later with Bodhi Seed as Emu and tour Turtle Island as The Wallys) and I sing Bill Oliver’s song “Holes” with Bill and Glen Waldeck, a shot they used over and over!

I met John Hollenhorst at the rendezvous, and hung out with him quit a bit, pointing him to good interviews, and straightening him out on things like biocentrism, Deep Ecology, Miss Ann Thropy’s “Hooray AIDS!” letter, “No Compromise,” etc. So after the RRR I contacted the southern Utah news stations, who put me in touch with copying services, and $80 later I had these four clips. Unfortunately those tapes were destroyed in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm.

But I had made a copy as part of a compilation to show in the reception area at a Portland EF! event, and that copy was part of the tapes I rescued from the fire. This and over 300 hours of similarly invaluable video of Earth First! culture that I have shot and collected since 1985 is now very aged and at risk of becoming unplayable. This is the single greatest archive of its kind in the world.

In fact, there is nothing at all like it in the world. Most of it is now over twenty years old on tapes that deteriorate at fifteen years. I am trying to professionally digitize it all. If you would like to help me with that effort, please let me know. If you can help with a contribution of money or expertise, you can also reach me at Andy Caffrey P.O. Box 324 Redway, CA 95560″