Per UTVoter's excellent diary, "Holiday oil and gas sale & civil disobedience" and the Salt Lake Trib article, "Impostor disrupts lands bid: Civil disobedience » U. student drives up bids, may face charges", Tim DeChristopher is a hero.
Tim DeChristopher, 27, faces possible federal charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on more than 10 lease parcels that he admits he has neither the intention nor the money to buy -- and he's not sorry.
"I decided I could be much more effective by an act of civil disobedience," he said during an impromptu streetside news conference during an afternoon blizzard. "There comes a time to take a stand."
The Sugar House resident -- questioned and released after disrupting a U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease auction of 149,000 acres of public land in scenic southern and eastern Utah -- said he came to the BLM's state office in Salt Lake City to join about 200 other activists in a peaceful protest outside the building Friday morning. But then he registered with the BLM as representing himself and went to the auction room.
Thanks to bythesea, here's a photo of Tim DeChristopher. He looks the part.
Effective Action
Not only did he disrupt oil and gas lease sales, DeChristopher provided an important and effective example of modern civil disobedience. He came up with a creative, effective, pragmatic solution--one that would not disrupt, inconvenience or anger the general public on whose behalf he was acting--and then summoned the courage to act on it.
Legal Consequences
David Thoreau would be proud.
In addition to disrupting the sales AND providing a good example of civil disobedience, DeChristopher's may have a legal consequence, which is in fact a customary feature and one of the points of civil disobedience: to demonstrate against law of a state that would allow a particular injustice to take place.
Most acts of civil disobedience lead to a night or a few in jail. In DeChristopher's case, as the Trib article notes, the federal charges may lead to larger penalties. Only time and the courts will tell what the outcome might be. No matter what, however, the risk Tim DeChristopher took on behalf the current and future general public for having "monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday" was substantial, calculated and taken.
Responses
We owe Tim DeChristopher a great debt of gratitude.
- As we follow this story, we should consider and act to raise funds, as necessary, for the following expenses, if any:
* legal defense leading up to and during the trial,
* legal defense during his prison stay
* fines
* loss of income (if any)
Whether or not these funds are needed, IMHO, he deserves a financial demonstration of gratitude, to him or in his name.
- This event is also worthy on many levels of a documentary:
* To expose the Bush administration's 11th effort to enable private entities to plunder public lands and wreak environmental havoc pursuing more carbon-based fuel.
* To document the sale event itself: the preface, including public outcry, including voices such as Robert Redford's and Terry Tempest Williams; the event, including footage of the protest at the location, and a review of the transactions and DeChristopher's involvement; the aftermath, in terms of what happens to DeChristopher and the parcels he impacted with his action, what happens to the other parcels, and what happends to DeChristopher.
* To shine a light on modern civil disobedience. This country is in definite of information and educaton; i.e., voting is not the only responsibility or answer. Direct action and civil disobedience also have had, have and should continue to have important roles in civic involvement.
I will be contacting the following and encourage you to do the same:
Geralyn Dreyfus, Executive Director, Salt Lake Film Center
Sundance Film Institute
Robert Redford
Marshall Thompson, "A Soldier's Peace"
Michael Moore
I urge you to contact anyone/everyone you know who could help make a documentary happen.
- It might also be worth considering raising money over time to one day acquire a plot of land near Arches and put up a small monument commemorating and expressing gratitude for his act. This may sound over the top, but raising awareness for and inspiring direct action and civil disobedience is no trivial matter, especially with so many significant problems weighing on us. We need activists to spur and accelerate progress.
Thank you, Tim DeChristopher.
UPDATE:
- I inserted the photo above, provided by bythesea.
- As I commented in UTVoter's diary, I had hoped that Redford or someone like him, or a group, would buy up all the leases. Redford has bought hundreds of thousands of acres in UT, mostly around his Sundance Institute and the ski resort, and donated them as public lands. I'm going to bet that he became intrigued with UT and ultimately took up residence here because of the filming of "Jeremiah Johnson." I know from insiders and direct calls to wealthy donors on behalf of state candidates that Redford and his kind of celebrity activist poured tons of money into the election, especially for Obama and the push for 60 seats in the Senate, so perhaps that stopped them from bidding on the leases? Or could it be Madoff or other economic woes, real or anticipated? I don't know, but over a hundred leases were sold for about $7.5M, which does not sound like a lot. And DeChristopher accounted for $1.8M, 24%, of that!!! What an awesome accomplishment for one U. student.
- Added Michael Moore to list of people to contact re: documentary.
UPDATE 2
- KSL.com, the website of a local NBC TV/radio affiliate.
"He's tainted the entire auction," said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.
Hoffman said buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids if they think they paid too much.
EXCELLENT!
Also, sales of rights on another 80 parcels of land were apparently delayed for a month by local group efforts involving Redford.
Conservation groups sued Wednesday challenging 80 of the 132 lease parcels set to go up for bid, but the groups reached an agreement with the BLM one day later allowing the auction to go forward, according to the National Resources Defense Council.
The agreement filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., stipulated that the government wouldn't issue leases on the 80 parcels for 30 days, giving a federal judge time to consider whether to block the leases.
UPDATE 3
- Here's Tim's Member Page on WiserEarth ("Toward a Just and Sustainable World Created by Community").
UPDATE 4
- As of 1PM MDT: A Google search of "Tim DeChristopher Utah" (there's a Northampton, MA, artist with the same name) indicates that, in addition to the Salt Lake Tribune and KSL, the story has been picked up by:
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Deseret News (also out of Salt Lake City)
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WTOP.com Federal News Radio FM
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1500AM
Federal News Radio AM
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ABC News
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USA Today
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Yahoo News
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Forbes
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Fox News
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Breitbart
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Seattle Examiner
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Austin American Statesman
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AOL
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SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle)
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Columbus Dispatch
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Macleans.Ca
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Standard.net
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CNEWS
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Utah Business
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Current.com
UPDATE 5
- Tim DeChristopher and the University of Utah Campaign for Sustainable Energy:
Sustainable Holiday Gifts: Giving windpower
At the suggestion of a U of U undergraduate student, Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah Campaigns for Sustainable Energy has created a program for giving the gift of a windpower donation.
UPDATE 6
- While I did not do a thorough search on Update 4, I did notice that this story has hit The Huffington Post.
- Also, Robert Redford posted a blog on HuffPo about the agreement reached between the BLM and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) to put 80 parcels targeted for sale on hold, pending additional hearings.
As Redford remarked:
As I've written previously, words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.
Utah's Red Rock country is one of America's few remaining wilderness treasures. It's our land, it's our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren?
I had remarked briefly on this vector of activity in Update 2, as it parallels the effort of Tim DeChristopher.