Activists Give Peace a 3rd Chance, Plant Tree in Santa Monica Park

Santa Monica is giving peace a chance--for the third time.

Twice before, a tree planted in Palisades Park as “a living monument to peace” was destroyed by vandals. On Tuesday night, the eve of the 17th Earth Day, environmentalists and peace activists gathered at the south end of the park overlooking Santa Monica Pier to try again.

“You just have to keep putting it back, just like you have to keep cleaning up the graffiti until those people get the message,” said Dorothy Green, president of the countywide coalition Heal the Bay.

Green and other speakers urged about 70 people attending the tree-planting ceremony to get involved in local, state and national efforts to eradicate pollution and nuclear arms.

Looking Like Throwbacks

Dressed in tie-dyed dresses and sandals, several people in the crowd looked like throwbacks to the 1960s or to 1970 when Earth Day was first established to raise public awareness of environmental issues. But their concern was for the future, not the past.

“We are literally breathing the worst air in the country, according to an Environmental Protection Agency annual air-quality report that came out last week,” said Kelly Hayes-Raitt, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air. “Earth Days are more imperative now than ever.”

“The Earth is not passe,” said Santa Monica Mayor James P. Conn. “It’s in more jeopardy than ever before and we need to do everything we can to save it.”

At least two people in the audience questioned the practicality of the message.

“I just think this is the height of idealism,” said Robb Wagner, 21, a television production coordinator, leaning on the handlebars of his bicycle.

‘Stop the Commies’

“It’s fine what they’re saying about the environment, but they’re wrong to say the U. S. military should not intervene in Nicaragua,” said Tom Edmond, 38, an electrician and Vietnam veteran, in a loud voice that could be heard above the speaker. “If someone doesn’t stop the commies in the southern hemisphere, they’ll be at the border in Tijuana before we know it.”

But both men agreed that whoever destroyed the first two peace trees had acted maliciously.

The first tree, planted on Earth Day, 1983, was kicked down, said Jerry Rubin, director of the Alliance for Survival, the peace and nuclear disarmament organization that sponsored the tree planting.

In 1984, a second New Zealand Christmas tree was planted. A month ago, someone sawed it off at ground level, said Paul Horiuchi, Santa Monica ground-keeping supervisor.

“The second time wasn’t as bad as the first,” said Rubin, 43, who is not related to the former Yippie leader. “I guess you get desensitized. I was in tears when I heard about the original tree, because my wife and I were married under it.”

Losing Trees

Doug Stafford, park superintendent for the Recreation and Parks Department, said the city loses 10 to 12 of its 26,000 trees a year to vandals.

“Most of the ones we lose are outside of bars,” Stafford said. “Considering that end of the park is loaded with drug dealers and alcoholics, it doesn’t surprise me.”

Stafford’s department donated the third tree, which is 9-feet high and stands near an 1861 iron cannon in the park. The location of the tree is not accidental. Rubin, who is fasting to protest the production of war toys such as laser guns, said he hoped the tree would serve as a symbol that the world can outgrow war.

“I feel really optimistic,” Rubin said, as the crowd formed a circle around the tree. “I think it’s going to make it this time.”