Read the book. This is how the new Jim Crow works. There are other ways to police than deploy military style tactics and target minorities and the poor.

Have you ever looked into how much of your tax dollars go for war? For fossil fuel subsidies? For weapons?

This is propaganda, not news. Will it replace live broadcasts of the board meetings?

She talked with Equip and was told they would not take her case. They said to call Prairie States. If you know someone at either place, tell them to read the blog post above. Perhaps she did not explain her situation fully.

Thanks for your comment. Vickie cannot attend a workshop in another county because she has no transportation. She lives in Peoria in housing for the disabled, but not housing controlled by the CWTC.

She didnt have an off day -- she just didnt have a focused, organized speech. A couple of people in the audience that I spoke with after the speech ageed with me. We all like AD, and she had some interesting things to say as my comments show. But believe me, it was not organized. She told the audience that she forgot to set her timer, and she also asked someone, from the podium, what the title of her speech was. Weird. But dont take my word for it. Heres Peoria Journal Star critic Gary Panettas take on the talk. http://blogs.pjstar.com/panetta/2010/03/10/reflecting-on-angela-davis/

I dunno why they picked this location. Maybe they thought they would be welcomed there. But the most interesting thing about this is the attempt of the police to get rid of them. Didnt work.

I didnt say they were corrupt. I said that when actions make no apparent sense we should look for other motives. To me cutting down those trees made no sense. There are other things they could have done that likely would have been cheaper and better. (Prune the trees, bury the electric lines, install screens over intakes if thats a concern, those the trees have been there for years.) So why do it? Kickbacks? Stupid? Hate trees? I dunno. Did you ever even see those trees? I saw them every time I left my residence. Now theyre gone. The evergreen trees they had planted last year or the year before around other parts of the site are small, boring, and some of them are dead. The trees that were cut down were all grand trees, including huge irreplaceable trees that flower every spring. They provided shade for the property. Now theyre gone. Just a little bit of beauty wiped out. And for what reason?

Hummm -- guess you spent more time than I did looking up the ordinances. I am on vacation and just left Charleston where a licensed tour guide yesterday told our group that trees are not cut down. I also checked and found an ordinance in effect. Not sure what you mean about proposed ordinance. No time to research it tonight. Do you defend the right of utility cos to cut down anything they want? What does that prove other than greed rules all? What about my ideas, to bury their lines? I saw nothing about invasive species in the Charleston ordinance I saw on line. There are plenty of what are apparently non native trees in Charleston. Maybe theyre not considered invasive but beautiful. Locusts are not invasive either, and are beautiful for about 10 days each spring. Not any more. I dread returning to Peoria and seeing those trees gone. Maybe Ill move to Charleston, or another place where trees and historic buildings are valued instead of destroyed.

An arborist? Guilty, I guess. No facts? Not guilty. The facts are on my side.

Ah, the non-native excuse to cut trees. Anything to cut them down, right? Makes you feel like a tough guy controlling nature? Or some type of ecological farmer? More enlightened cities protect all trees, not just so-called native trees (native to what period in the history of the planet?). In Charleston SC, no tree can be arbitrarily cut down without undergoing all kinds of scrutiny from local officials. Theres no native test. That city knows the value of the tree canopy. I have 2 locust trees in my back yard. Woodpeckers and other birds love them, and apparently find insects to eat there.

Any time something weird happens that makes no sense, I look for other explanations. I didnt say it happened, just that its one explanation. There are others, of course, including stupid. Cutting these trees makes no sense. The water co could have buried the electric lines on its property, built a shed over the generator or taken other action to protect the site from any falling limbs or flowers from the trees. (Screen wire for example.) Why didnt it do that? Who profited from this job? This is Illinois, isnt it!

Oh please. The tree endanger property? Then lets cut them all down, right? May someone open a pig farm next to your property, and well see how long your libertarian views last! Trees are as important to our community as fresh air. In fact they contribute to it. They benefit everyone, and this benefit overrides the its my property Ill do what I want to argument.

Ok, lets cut down all the trees in the city and see how that will look. Power bills will go up, birds and other wildlife will be even more imperiled, oxygen less abundant. Just because a tree is on private property doesnt mean it lacks implications for the entire city. Other cities protect trees because they benefit everyone. As for my being a responsible person, thats an interesting ad hominem (personal) attack, and has nothing to do with the arguments and issues. I could say you must be a selfish SOB but I wont. As for me Ive worked from age 16, have an MA plus from a major university, have been a college teacher, a kindergarten teacher, a journalist, publisher of a literary magazine, and am a wife, mother of two successful adults and grandmother of four, all of whom are good students, never in trouble. What about you? E.H.