‘Progress’ Uproots Tree Known as Old Glory

Re “Tree Sitter Forced Out of Old Oak,” Jan. 11: It resonates with tree sitter John Quigley, the protesters and somewhere deep within the American psyche that land development will bulldoze anything out of its path in the name of progress, expansion and money to be made.

Old Glory must have been around long enough to have witnessed millions of buffalo being slaughtered within a five-year period in the 1800s in a very young America, and it probably had the wind ripple through its leaves during the horrible years of the mass killings of Native Americans.

For 10,000 years the Indians were the original tenants of this country and were virtually evicted -- wiped out by settlers and pioneers with the often-corrupt backing of the U.S. government -- in a 300-year period. Old Glory is a symbol of “progress,” a single tree that must now move out of the way. Again. Let us remember our true history and watch that tree.

Christine L’hotsky

Pasadena