Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes
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"I HAVE GIVEN UP MY SOCIETY WORLD SELF:" SELF AND OTHER IN THE JULIA BUTTERFLY TAPES by Geraldine Goldberg A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts In Sociology August, 1999 "I HAVE GIVEN UP MY SOCIETY WORLD SELF:" SELF AND OTHER IN THE JULIA BUTTERFLY TAPES by Geraldine Goldberg Approved by: Elizabeth Watson, Ph.D., Major Professor Date John Gai, LCSW, Committee Member Date Jerrold Krause, Ph.D., Committee Member Date Elizabeth Watson, Ph.D. Graduate Coordinator Date Ronald A. Fritzsche, Ph.D. Date Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Abstract "I have given up my society world self:" Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes Geraldine Goldberg The purpose of this thesis is to provide access to and social analysis of a set of live weekly radio conversations, as a case study of a woman living in a tree, as a nonviolent direct action. The Julia Butterfly Tapes result from the live radio conversations between Julia "Butterfly" Hill and me. As no other research will ever do, the tapes document the historic tree sit of this courageous and outspoken environmental activist. The tapes have been completely transcribed as a verbatim account of a year and a half in Julia's life in the tree from which her point of view may be determined. The information in this account/ethnography has been edited from our live radio conversations to comply with the requirements for the Master's degree. A broader scope of sociological inquiry concerning this unique case study remains for others throughout various disciplines for interpretation, analysis and further understanding. iii Acknowledgements Through my radio work with Julia "Butterfly" Hill I have been privileged to interact with so many wonderful members of the community. I appreciate all of the knowledge I gained in conversations with various forest activists and members of the Humboldt Watershed Council. Several colleagues from KHSU who were invaluable to the live on-air aspect of my work include Lynn Evans, Terry Green, and Katie Whiteside. For the superb transcriptions of the ongoing "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" I am extremely grateful to Ali Gross and Eric Thomas. Ali and Eric skillfully transcribed some challenging material, and they have been very supportive of my work and Julia's tree sit. I thank them both for their heartfelt insights as well. Thanks also to my friends and family for understanding my priorities, especially to my son Harry Simpson, who helped me with the computer so many times and also sacrificed some at-home time during my long writing process. For their support and encouragement throughout my tenure at Humboldt State University but critically during this thesis work, I gratefully acknowledge my professors, Betsy Watson, John Gai, and Jerry Krause. iv Dedication This work is dedicated to Julia "Butterfly" Hill. Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Dedication v Introduction 1 Part I: Methodology: An Application in Everyday Life 13 IA. In the Beginning 15 1.2 The Audience 16 1.3 Fieldwork 17 1.4 Longitudinal Qualitative Interviews 19 1.5 The Tapes of the Live Broadcasts 25 1.6 Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes 26 Part II: Setting the Scene 31 11.1 A Sense of Place 31 11.2 Self and Family 38 Part III: A Case Study of a Woman Living in a Tree 50 111.1 Living in a Tree: Julia's Everyday Life 51 111.2 Forest Activists 78 111.3 Some of the Ways Julia Participates with Society 86 III.3.a Phone, Pager, and Planner 87 III.3.b Julia's Radio 91 III.3.c. The Beacons 93 111.4 Some of the Others Who Have Joined Our Conversations 95 III.4.a Kristi Wrigley 96 III.4.b Nate Madsen 99 III.4.c Dale Hill 102 111.5 Sometimes We Talk about Other Issues in the News 105 III.5.a Iraq 106 III.5.b Jonesboro 107 III.5.c Yugoslavia 111 111.6 Sometimes We Talk About Other Media Talking about Julia 113 Part IV. Some Emergent Sociological Themes 119 IV.1 Universal Human Solidarity and the Dignity of the Self 120 IV.2 The Value of All Life 127 Part V. Conclusion 137 Notes 145 References 146 Figure 1 14 Introduction The purpose of this ethnography is to present analysis of the research I conducted through radio conversations with environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill. Ethnography provides an authentic, realistic account of lived experience. Postmodern ethnography includes the lived experience of both the writer and the written about. As I discovered through my conversations with Julia Butterfly, the role of interviewer/writer is critical to the analysis. Scholars have talked about "a new, local and public ethnography joined with a public journalism." (Denzin, p. 274) This is a form of radical democratic social practice and may include "civic transformations in the public and private sphere (Denzin, p.277)." Universal human solidarity, the dignity of the self and the value of human life are goals of the new ethnography, and they are the emergent sociological themes I discovered through the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly." This account is the result of my analysis of the live radio broadcast conversations between Julia Butterfly and me. Julia is a 25 year-old environmental activist who lives alone, high atop an ancient redwood tree on Pacific Lumber land. She has pledged to remain in the tree she calls Luna until she is certain that the tree will not be logged. Julia's tree sit began on December 10, 1997 as an action of the radical environmental group, EarthFirst! Julia's personal spiritual journey began, 1 2 prior to climbing Luna, after recovering from a near-fatal car accident, when she sold all her worldly possessions, bought camping gear and headed west. When she arrived in Humboldt County and saw her first redwood trees, she fell to her knees and cried. That is when she really knew that everything in life is connected, and that love is the key ingredient. I strongly embrace the power of public radio to provide access to the airwaves for unheard voices and for ideas that might otherwise not be discussed. I am very interested in my community and in the environment. Following my second bout with breast cancer I began a spiritual journey, which brought me a deep understanding of the need for a clean and healthy environment. At that time I also became aware of the concept that everything in life is connected, and that love is the key ingredient. Julia and I have never met face-to-face, although our conversations are a regular, once-a-week part of each of our everyday lives. Julia, of course, speaks from a cell phone, high atop Luna, while I am at the on-air controls at the KHSU studio. The conversations are also regular for our radio audience. Potentially, there are 120,000 people listening at any one time to the radio broadcast of this telephone conversation between two women. Although the conversations are ongoing, those included in this analysis occurred between March 1998 and July of 1999. Except for two, non-broadcast hour-long interviews, all conversations were broadcast live on KHSU-FM as a feature of the Tuesday Home Page, a radio magazine.' The archived text resulting 3 from our ongoing live broadcast conversations provides the data for this and future qualitative analyses. Throughout the body of this work, I have indicated the date of each specific conversation and I have organized the conversations by topic. Under each topic, the edited conversations follow in chronological order. The questions I ask Julia are minimized for clarification and are indented and italicized in this document. Julia's specific answers directly follow those italicized questions. KHSU-FM The opportunity for me to create the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" came about through my involvement with KHSU-FM. KHSU is the public radio station licensed to Humboldt State University. The station's mission is to serve the needs of the community by offering a wide variety of information and music programming. One of the offerings is a weekday radio magazine, the KHSU Home Page. Interviews and discussions of local interest are the mainstays of the program. I have hosted the Tuesday Home Page for several years. In addition to broadcasting an east-county weekly update and the community calendar, I host the KHSU "Community Garden Club" on the air and the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly," all within the half hour allotted the Home Page. 4 April 2, 1998: KHSU is fund-raising right now. We are trying to raise fifty thousand dollars, and we have two more days to do it. What might you say to our listeners in order to get them to contribute to the station? Well, I encourage them to contribute. KHSU is doing an incredible job of allowing the local concerns and ideas of the communities to be brought forth in a public forum. That is really important in our community. It is really important that people be informed and have a place to talk about issues that concern them, and KHSU is doing an incredibly wonderful job of that. So I would encourage people to call, I believe the phone number is 826-4805. It is! There's a room full of people applauding. I wish you could see this! Well, thank you! I appreciate it. You've allowed my voice to be heard. I'm one hundred and eighty feet above the ground. I could yell at the top of my lungs, and my voice might only barely make it down to the bottom of the hill.