Humor from the CHE: Berkeley Tree-Sitter Falls, Breaks 2 Limbs

The repsonses are great, so I thought I would share the whole thing.

Berkeley Tree-Sitter Falls, Breaks 2 Limbs – Chronicle.com

November 12, 2007

Berkeley Tree-Sitter Falls, Breaks 2 Limbs

A protester broke his arm and leg after plunging at least 30 feet Sunday night while trying to exit a tree in an oak grove that the University of California at Berkeley plans to raze, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Nathaniel Hill, 24, mistakenly thought he was connected to a cable when he stepped from his perch to see his father, who had stopped by to visit. Mr. Hill was among a group of protesters who are living in the trees in hopes of blocking the university from felling them to make way for a $125-million athletics center. He is not the first protester to take a tumble; a woman broke her wrists in a fall earlier this year.

The university has been sued over the planned tree-cutting, and a court decision is anticipated as early as this week.

Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman, said Mr. Hill’s accident was “very regrettable but to state the obvious, completely avoidable.” —Don Troop

Posted on Monday November 12, 2007 | Permalink |

Comments

The headline (perhaps intentionally) did not say whether the tree-sitter broke his own limbs or the tree’s. Thank you for clarifying in the opening sentence.

— CU Alum    Nov 12, 11:16 PM    #

Sounds like the young man suffered from premature ejection, which can happen when your Dad shows up unexpectedly. Quite embarrassing.

— S. Britchky    Nov 13, 03:29 AM    #

Forget the hippy. Is the tree ok?

— Jones2    Nov 13, 04:03 AM    #

Meh…Just burn the tree’s down with the tree hugging hippies in them, solve two problems at the same time.

— doriangrey    Nov 13, 10:45 AM    #

His dad just “stopped by”? He didn’t say – I don’t pay for college so you can do this crap! Get out of the tree you hippie moron!?

— woodman    Nov 13, 11:17 AM    #

Getting hurt to save oak trees? That’s not even a rare tree. Go camp in a bog or something.

— Chip    Nov 13, 11:29 AM    #

Isn’t he a little old to be climbing trees? At 24, he better have his doctorate by now. When are these hippies going to grow up?

— BW    Nov 13, 11:37 AM    #

For the the hippie-haters in the crowd who rejoice in the suffering of others, trees do have functions aside from being places to hang nooses.

— coal_train    Nov 13, 12:15 PM    #

coal_train:

Obviously they have more uses…. dog toilets, carbon-credits, nailing posters to… or, in your case, barking up the wrong one.

— practical_joe    Nov 13, 12:27 PM    #

If a tree-hugger falls in a forest…

— beefeater    Nov 13, 12:41 PM    #

How do you get a tree-hugger down from a tree? Wave to him.

— beefeater    Nov 13, 12:46 PM    #

…re-pave paradise, put up a wealthy donor’s wishes.

— marci    Nov 13, 02:39 PM    #

Since the injury was suffered on the job, can he apply for disability insurance?

— Lawrence S. Lerner    Nov 13, 03:29 PM    #

CU Alum:

The San Jose Mercury News did report this as “breaking news.”

— ironmite    Nov 13, 03:43 PM    #

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