Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Hope to Hopeless

Leave it to the 'Powers That Be' to take one of the most endearing symbols of hope--a yellow ribbon tied around an old tree--and turn it into a symbol of death and destruction.

E Pleasant Street Sugar Maple in the Public Way

Yes, in the arbor genocide currently taking place throughout Amherst the victims are marked with a yellow ribbon--in some cases resembling the ribbon-like tie that was so popular as a car magnet to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Corner Triangle Street and Kellogg Avenue: Red Maple in the Public Way

South East Street Friday
South East Street Saturday
South East Street Friday
South East Street Saturday
The Grim Reaper

UPDATE 7/13/12 Looks like they found some different colored ribbon:

Shays Street

8 comments:

  1. I am the only person who remembers the inane Tony Orlando and Dawn song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree" that spawned a national custom and ritual? Now I can't get it out of my head!

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  2. Tell me about it! I've been humming it all day.

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  3. Quit your whining. When the next snowpocalypse comes we'll all be the better for it.

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  4. And exactly how often do those snow apocolypses (sp?) come? One in a century??? And for that we have to put up with this wanton destruction of perfectly healthy trees? Look at that yard on Southeast street? They totally tore up the steps that were next to the tree!!

    I was out of my house for a week due to the October storm - no power for a week! I will gladly put up with that inconvenience again than see this wanton destruction take place.

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  5. You may be able to leave your house for a week to admire snowy trees (that likely would be destroyed by such a snowstorm anyway?) and contemplate your crunchy granola brand of ecofriendliness, but others, like me, have obligations and lives that refuse to/cannot stop because of some snowpocalypse taking out power.

    So yeah, I'll gladly have some trees knocked down if that saves me from some major inconvenience in the future, and allows me to stay warm, showered, and comfortable in my own home while nature rages on outside. I like living in civilization and the perks that brings with it, and I'm not sorry for that. I'm sure new trees will get planted somewhere, at some point, to make up for the loss of these ones—and I hope the tree warden will make sure that they'll be a little more strategic about the new trees' location.

    Or, you know, Amherst/WMECO could invest in underground power lines, instead of having to apply this costly bandaid of cutting down trees every so often.

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  6. The tree had two large cavities- one still visible in the stump. The steps were forms for concrete and have been rebuilt.

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  7. You are a strange bird, Kelley. "Genocide"? Really? Have you ever thought deeply about genocide? Do you have any idea of the depths of that horror?

    For someone who considers himself a wordsmith, you are very casual with words.

    Yep, go ahead and beat me up for not using my name.

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