Story and photo by Saki Kambe
On Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, Save Our Sequoia hosted an event named Infinite Hope which drew a community of more than 50 people to Lion’s Club Park; along with the felled Sequoia tree, known as Hope.
Compassion Campaign of Clallam County steering committee member and a Recruitment Coordinator at Peninsula College, Hilary Powers, presented a line from the King’s speech: ” Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Powers explained that this line is a great visual for her.
”Spiritually, there is a light in all of us, and when properly and carefully nourished it can shine brighter than we will ever imagine, ” Powers said.
”I also don’t think you have to be ‘spiritual’ to experience this”, she kept, ’it’s much harder to use love and light towards people who harm us and others and who we don’t think deserve such kindness.
But the kicker is that it’s not our role to pick and choose who gets and doesn’t get love. Showing love, giving love, and being love is the ultimate challenge for everyone.’
Powers related that the King embodies what so many of us seek- light and love, and that he was a man who became what he believed, not just spoke of it and for that.
She is forever grateful for the fact that he took it to the streets and committed to nonviolence and love no matter how brutal and violent others were.
”There is courage in true love, and I want that to be my guide every single day.” Powers said.
Devon Graywolf, 64, who was arrested on Jan 3 for resisting to leave the park after it had been closed for the Sequoia tree cut-down on the same day, watched the event from outside of the park. She was standing, with a rose and a candle for the Hope in her hand.
She was restrained at jail for nearly 15 hours, and her friend Tyson paying $1,500 of bail resulted in the release. ”Condition of my release was to not come into the park, and it’s very unfortunate,” Graywolf said.
”It was a total shock because I thought we were very close to saving our tree”, said Graywolf. She expressed the cut-down ”citizen’s arrest” and that it was an act of ecoterrorism.
”One of the last things we did is that we held a six-foot peace sign to the top of the tree with a battery pad, and we lit it up. It was on the full-moon around Christmas and was very cool.” Graywolf added, with a little smile on her face.
Although because Infinite Hope was on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, focused on civil rights, it also made the community to rethink not just about civil rights but ecology, affordable housing, education, and other issues.