Money On Trees
“Shunka’s a wingnut,” Cherney said over the phone last Friday, sounding cheerfully vitriolic. “I have a 10-verse song about Shunka.”
Here are the last few verses:
*Who’s at the co-op spanging a donation
Shunka, Shunka
Who’s got a lawsuit ‘gainst the Trees Foundation
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka
Who’s gonna keep on fighting the fight
Shunka, Shunka
With four of his friends at swimmers delight
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka (Shunka voice: It’s the last of the revolution)*
There’s no other word for it but “mean.” But Cherney and Shunka have history — not all of it sour. Cherney said Shunka laughed when he heard the song, at least the first time.
“I met Shunka in 1998,” Cherney said. “And I know he knew Julia [“Butterfly” Hill, whom Shunka had come west to find]. That was a good thing, helping Julia. That was good Shunka.”
Cherney had even pushed for Shunka to go to Houston to talk with Charles Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. bought out the old Pacific Lumber company back in 1985 and quickly became the forest activists’ number one villain. Shunka went.
But now? “The current status of Shunka and me,” Cherney said, “is that Shunka has sent me five or eight or nine e-mails threatening to sue me. Shunka is a joke.”
Cherney can talk for hours about the problems he’s had with Shunka over the years. His main point, though, is what has Shunka done for the trees lately?
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on the cover
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Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
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Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
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Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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THREE Comments
Comment / By Jeff Muskrat / June 8, 2009, 12:24 a.m.
It’s a shame what money and greed can do to people.
Comment / By Shunka Wakan / June 16, 2009, 8:28 a.m.
Heidi didn’t hang out long enough to see me walk away with the one forest defender who had the nerve and morals to sit on our side in the courtroom while I testified. As we walked down the sidewalk, he listened to my side of the story, something that most of the other activists wouldn’t do. Even while one of the female activists clung to him, and tried to discourage him from listening to me, he continued to show true friendship and heard me out. This brother has since left the area, so it seems that the divisive ways of “EF! Humboldt” has driven away yet another good activist. Heidi’s article reads more like a soap opera recap, and tends to miss the point. This should have been a story about how a big “non-profit” (who pay themselves $15/hr. to skim off active groups’ donations) robbed a grassroots organization of $185,000. Instead, she chose to focus on the divisions within the movement, something you would expect out of the corporate media. The simple facts of the case: The donor approached me, asking how to go about making a large donation to Earth First! I sent her to the Trees Foundation, since they had been funding NCEF! offices for years. The donor makes the donation via the Trees Foundation. The donor and I have lunch to discuss how the donation will be used. I have lunch with Barbara Ristow and Doug Wallace, of the Trees Foundation, at which point they act surprised that I think the donation is for NCEF! Barbara promises me that the donor will be contacted, to clear up the confusion, and that the money will not be spent until the donor is contacted. The Trees Foundation never contacts the donor, sinks the money into money market accounts (before the recession), and then cuts off NCEF! affiliate account. The donor finds out that NCEF! didn’t receive the donation, contacts Trees Foundation, who refuses to put the funds into NCEF! affiliate account. The donor sues, and Trees Foundation denies having ever funded or supported NCEF! Traitor activists side with Trees Foundation, in hopes of getting funding in the future. Donor loses jury trial, thanks to idiot jury, and traitor activists get funding for their new group, “EF! Humboldt.”
Comment / By Jeff Muskrat / March 28, 8:09 p.m.
“Shunka Wakan, in his North Coast Earth First! Media office on Samoa Boulevard in Arcata. Photo by Heidi Walters.”
It’s always been YOUR office…