Welcome, everyone. My name's Michael Hamburger. I'm a geologist and I'm a professor at Indiana University.
I'm a 14-year resident of Bloomington and, well, a friend of Lake Griffey. On behalf of the Protect
Griffey Alliance and on behalf of the 500-plus faculty members and 2,500 or so students and staff and
community members,
who have stepped forward to speak out on behalf of Lake Griffey and on behalf of just a few endangered
Indiana bats and Cerulean warblers and coppers hawks and about 25 or so red-backed salamanders and 200
box turtles and 7,000 bullfrogs and 500 bluebirds and about 8,000 bluegill and a couple thousand crappie
and a bunch of wild onions, orchids and ginseng and all the other wild grasses and trees and reptiles
and amphibians and birds.
and even a couple hundred thousand chiggers that live in the Lake Griffey watershed. I want to welcome
you to the first annual, that's my idea, Concert for Lake Griffey. Let's hear it for the great
Commander-in-Chief. I want to tell you that it is a magnificent honor for a humble geologist like me
to be up here with some of the bright lights
of Bloomington's cultural landscape and for all of us to celebrate the beauty of one of the jewels of
our natural landscape, the Lake Griffey watershed. So what we're going to do tonight is share
an extraordinary array of spectacular entertainment. We're going to use this evening to celebrate the
incredible beauty of Lake Griffey. We're going to educate a little bit about the environmental hazards
that are facing this fragile watershed. We're going to try to motivate
try to stimulate, try to vibrate, consecrate, and perhaps, if absolutely necessary, we're gonna castigate,
humiliate, and or repudiate. Before we move on to the details of the vibration portion of the show,
I wanted to take a few minutes to share with you a little bit of the complicated history of the Lake
Griffey debate.
and about why many of us feel so strongly about it. This is just a few minutes of kind of primer about
Lake Griffey. There are some wonderful, very well-informed, very intelligent people out there manning
the boots, and I encourage everybody to take a few moments to read a little bit, talk a little bit,
and learn as much as you can about this important debate. Okay, first a little bit of background for
those of you who haven't heard it before, and I apologize to those of you who have,
This piece of land that we're arguing about is part of an enormous, at least to us, 900-acre tract of
land that's just north of the bypass that was purchased by IU in the 1950s during the administration
of President Herman B. Wells, anticipating what has come to be correct, that the campus is continuing
to grow north and east of the present campus. What is remarkable about this land is not just its position
on the edge of campus,
but also that it's contiguous with a remarkable tract, 1,200 acres of preserved wild land in the middle
of a Midwestern city. This is something I don't know if I've appreciated until now. There are very few
cities around the country of our size that can boast this wonderful resource within the bounds of the city.
Now, this 900 acres, half of the land is currently used, the present golf course, university school,
the cross-country facilities and so on. There's about 450 acres remaining that were considered, quote,
unused. Of course, the land is used by lots of animals and plants and birds and a few biologists and
geologists and so on. But to the administration of IU, this may have been considered to be unused land
that's long been sought after for a site for a new
championship golf course and this is what happened in the summer of 1999 the IU administration announced
plans with very little warning to anybody on the academic side of campus that 311 of these acres were
to be leased in an unusual quote public-private partnership
with a private developer that has incorporated only about a month or two ago, according to the reports,
with a very strong reputation in history. It's called Indiana Club LLC. And the idea is that they would
build a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, perhaps a clubhouse, perhaps swimming pool, perhaps tennis
courts, perhaps condominiums. We don't really know because the plan has never been laid out on the table
for us to examine.
The idea is that this private organization would operate the cost, operate the course. They would pay
for the development. They would control the operations. They would provide access to the IU's golf team.
And they, for a small number of members of the community, with a four-figure membership fee limited
to about 2,400 members, would become part of this Indiana club. Monthly rates anywhere from $100 to
several hundred dollars.
And profits from this great proposition are to be shared with IU, returning money back not to the academic
part of the university, but back to the athletic department for perhaps the next layer of development
out in this part of the campus. It's intended to provide a site for the golf team. It's intended to
put us on a par with some of the other great golf schools like Alabama and Auburn and the University
of Tennessee. It's to make Bloomington a golf destination
where wealthy visitors will come to play golf and perhaps spend a few dollars at our restaurants and
hotels. And perhaps it's intended to bring wealthy alumni back to Bloomington where they may put in
their estates some money for the university. So what's the big problem with this? What's all the fuss?
To put it simply, it comes down to three principal questions. First of all, there's a series of environmental
questions that come down to the question, is this appropriate stewardship of public land?
Make no doubt about it, when people tell you that they build golf courses in other sensitive places,
there are probably few places as sensitive as this Lake Griffey watershed. A habitat to hundreds of
species of plants and animals, a site where there's very thin soils, karst topography and very rapid
flow of contaminated water through the groundwater system and into Lake Griffey.
a site with very high risk for toxic contaminations from the tons of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides
that are applied to the golf courses annually. And it's an environmental hazard because the waters that
flow from this heavily fertilized land flow downstream into the Griffey watershed to feed nutrient and
algal blooms
in the waters of Lake Griffey, and anybody who's been there in the summertime knows that the lake is
already choked with algae, probably largely from nutrients from the current golf course. If you get
into discussion with anybody about them, remind them that this is not the 1950s anymore. It doesn't
do, it isn't enough to simply say we're going to use the best techniques available. To date,
None of the detailed management plans for this course have been laid out on the table for even the most
rudimentary environmental scrutiny. Don't let anybody get by with the phrase, it'll all be taken care
of. Second, we ask the institutional question, is this an ethical and appropriate use of the university
resources?
This is a very valuable piece of land, and this is a great public university. And there's a big question
whether we should be using one sixth of the available land on this university campus to support a private
country club. This effort was done without even the slightest pretense of paying heed to the tradition
of faculty governance on this campus to examine impacts that might affect the academic mission of the
university.
How will this affect the image of our great public university to the prospective students and the taxpayers
and the legislators of this state if we are giving away our land for private development? One question
that has not been answered is, what is really the viability of this economic proposition to build this
private resort on our campus? We have to get the message across that we expect more from America's great
public university, and we're not going to let this move forward as it's currently planned.
Finally, the one that really burns us up on the faculty is the most simple question, how does this golf
resort serve IU's academic mission? The primary mission of the university, we're told again and again,
is to educate our students, is to advance knowledge through academic research, and to serve the residents
of the state and country with our knowledge.
This is an extraordinary resource to have a piece of wild land that's contiguous with a great campus
and we should be using it as an outdoor classroom for our students to learn and as a natural laboratory
for our researchers to learn about natural ecosystems.
We have to be cognizant of the existing uses of the land by the departments of biology and geography
and geology and psychology and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. And we have to look forward
to the 65 years of this land lease and make sure that this land is preserved to advance the academic
mission of the university.
finish up with a couple of thoughts that just came to me today. I think you'll see as you walk around
town and as you're in the elevators and the ladies rooms and the grocery stores you're gonna
hear conversations about the golf course coming up again and again and you're gonna hear a few phrases
repeated over and over again that I've heard over the past couple months and I want to ask each of you
when you hear this phrase to perk up your ears and stop somebody and make them explain. The first is
This golf course will improve the environment. This is the 21st century, and we need to educate our
colleagues and friends and neighbors that the environment means more than bumping into a flock of geese
around an artificial water trap in a pesticide-ridden monoculture of foreign-introduced grasses.
to teach them that a healthy environment consists of stable, sustainable ecosystems rich in diversity,
from microscopic organisms to fungi to native grasses to healthy, that means not cut down trees, to
insects and birds and frogs that only have four legs, to fish without high levels of lead and pesticides
and herbicides in their systems,
to a lake that is not filled with sediment and algal blooms and toxic chemicals. We need to teach that
all of the elements of the ecosystem are interconnected and that you can't put a golf course on the
top of the hill and not expect it to influence the plants and animals that live downstream from the
top of that hill.
We should not be arguing about whether or not Griffey is formally recognized as a secondary water supply.
The fact is that there is no such legal definition of a secondary water supply. The fact is that this
is a valuable jewel in our community and we should insist that the water quality of Lake Griffey is
good enough that we can drink it.
Bottom line is, don't just say this will improve the environment. Put the cards on the table. Let it
be subjected to a standard environmental impact assessment, and then let us decide whether it will,
in fact, improve the environment. Second, phrase number two, this is just a golf course. This is not
just about a golf course. This is about 311 acres of university of prime
public university land. It's the most valuable resource we have and we're making plans for the decades
ahead. It's part of a fragile, endangered, and important ecosystem. And it's part of a resource that
could be extraordinarily valuable for the academic mission of this university. This is not just about
a golf course. This is about the heart and soul of the university and the jewel of the Bloomington community.
the last one that I've heard so many times the last few months and it drives me crazy. This is a done
deal. There is no such thing as a done deal. The trustees and the corporate administrators and the lawyers
thought that this was a done deal a few months ago, but when 500 faculty members and 2,000 students
and community members
And hundreds of people turned out for a public forum and faced them with our rage about destruction
of this valuable place. They backed off for two months and gave us a chance to look at this question
a little more. I want each of you, whether it's something big or something small, putting a safe Griffey
sign in your yard, writing a letter to a trustee, signing a petition, talking to a neighbor, calling
up Terry Claypacks or one of the trustees at home and having a heart to heart discussion about it.
Take a minute to make sure that this is not a done deal. OK, that's enough inflammatory rhetoric. I
want to close with something that perhaps Chancellor Gross-Lewis would appreciate, a 19th century English
poem. But if you listen a little carefully, I think it's a little bit inflammatory.
And I think it's pretty much written about the story we're talking about right here. It's a poem by
the great English nature poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and it's called Inverse Nate. And I have not had
a good translation, but I'm told by one friend who studies Gaelic that it has something to do with take
your golf course and stuff it something else. Okay, so what I want you to do as you listen to this poem is
You can close your eyes if you want, but I want you to imagine walking from the top ridges of the Lake
Griffey watershed down along one of those little ravines into the Griffey Creek, not into the Griffey
Creek, along the Griffey Creek and ending up by the shores of Lake Griffey and imagining the flow of
the water through that watershed. And I want you to listen carefully to the last line because I'm hoping
that this is going to be one that people are going to be chanting for months ahead at the
the sample gates in front of campus. Okay, here we go. This darksome burn horseback brown, his roll
rock high road roaring down in coop and in comb, the fleece of his foam flutes and load to the lake
falls home. A wind puff bonnet of fawn froth turns and twindles over the broth of a pool so pitch black
fell frowning. It rounds and rounds to spare to browning.
Digged with dew, dappled with dew are the groins of the braze that the brook treads through, wiry heath
packs, glitches of fern, and the beebunny ash that sits over the burn. What would the world be once
bereft of wet and of wildness? Let them be left. Oh, let them be left, wildness and wet. Long live the
weeds and the wilderness yet. Thank you.
It's another great honor for me to be here to introduce Vida. Vida has moved Bloomington audiences for
many years with their expressive vocal blend of world music compositions. They've recently been signed
by a New York management company which should open many more ears to their wonderful music. Please join
me in welcoming Vida.
It may be when I build a golf course on the top of the Union. Or like building to building, like have
little bridges going over campus. Yeah, wouldn't that be an exciting golf course? Skip the bridges,
just put them down. So we want to sing the next song in honor of this event. This is one of my favorites.
It's a wonderful song by Gene Richie. It's called Now Is the Cool of the Day.
One last one, and it's called Somsei. Som, somsei, som, somsei, som, somsei, som, somsei, som, somsei,
som, somsei, som, somsei, som, somsei,
Some say, some say, some say, some say, some say, some say, some say, some say, some say, some say,
some say, some say, some say,
Some say, some say, some say
My name's Kara Reagan. I'm an IU student. I'm also among the few group of people that was so infuriated
at the first public forum that we just had to get together, do something about it, form the Protect
Group Alliance, and the rest is history, I guess. I want to make sure that everybody is aware of all
the opportunities we have here tonight for you to get involved, things you can do here tonight that
are going to make a huge difference.
And I want to emphasize how important it is that these things get done tonight, that these things get
done this week. Because in all likelihood, the trustees are going to be voting on this land lease this
week. So they need to hear your voices. And they need to hear your voices loud and clear. And if they
make the wrong decision on Friday, the governor needs to hear your voice. The Commission for Higher
Education needs to hear your voice. Your state representatives need to hear your voice. And all that
information is here for you tonight, how to contact them.
In fact, you can even email them from here. We have email stations set up in the lobby and upstairs.
I also want to make sure that everybody here signs that petition. That's one of the most important things
you can do. We also have paper for those of you who are adverse to computers. I know some people are.
So write a letter. That works, too. Make sure you get a button. Make sure you wear it all the time.
We also have yard signs. The yard signs, we're asking for donations for those if you can. If not, take
it anyway. Put it up in your yard. It's important that those get sewn, too. Also, make sure that you
pick up all the information that we have. We have a trifold flyer that says protect her beyond the front,
and it has all the talking points. If you want to write a letter, if you want to make a phone call,
that should be helpful. Also, in the second half of our
program tonight, you'll be hearing a lot about other events that you can attend this week, things that
are part of our effort to stop this golf course. One last thing, and I hope that everybody's made a
sign. We have poster making tables in the lobby as well. So if you could all make a sign and bring it
back in here, because after intermission, we're going to have a photo op where everybody's going to
hold their signs up. And we're going to get a picture of everybody with their signs.
and also bring those signs back to the rest of our events this week, to the vigil tomorrow, and to the
rally on Friday, so that they could get reused. And so now, I guess I'm gonna introduce our next speaker.
We're all really excited that he's here to talk to us. Scott Russell Sanders has been a writer, teacher,
and devoted citizen of Bloomington for 29 years. His writing captures the limestone country, the woodlands,
and the landscape of southern Indiana,
evoking both dedication and a call to action on behalf of this place that we call home. Please welcome
Scott Sanders. Thank you. It's wonderful to look out on so many faces, so much energy. I wonder why
so many of us are here this evening.
I wonder why so many people get so riled up about protecting woods and a lake. I can't speak for you,
but let me tell you why I'm here. I'm here because I want to live in a community that makes room not
only for people, but also for foxes and butterflies and hawks, for sycamores and oaks,
for ferns and bats, dog-toothed violets, mayapples, big bluestem grass, warblers, eagles, salamanders,
frogs. I'm here because I want to live among people who believe there are some things
water, for example, or clean air, rich topsoil, and wild land within walking distance of our homes.
I want to live among people who take care of the land as they take care of their children lovingly,
tenderly, faithfully, with an eye for the long future. People who want to leave this place undiminished,
those who will live here after we are gone. I want to live among neighbors who understand progress to
mean improving the conditions of life for all people in the community and for the wild creatures who
share this place with us. I want to live among neighbors who measure wealth
not by the size of bank accounts, not by the height of buildings or the number of motels and cars, but
by the health of the citizens, by the beauty and safety of our streets, the quality of our libraries
and schools and parks, the atmosphere in our workplaces and homes, the delight we feel in greeting one
another after we've been apart, the joy we feel in returning to this place
after we've been away. That is true wealth. I want to feel proud of Indiana University, where I have
spent my adult life working and where I hope to work as long as I'm able. I want my university to be
celebrated for its devotion to research,
and teaching above everything else, above athletics, above entertainment, above profit. I want my university
to remain truly public, refusing to sell off pieces of itself to the highest bidder. I want my university
to be a responsible citizen,
respecting the laws of this city and this county and respecting the opinion of its neighbors. I want
my university to be known as a place that recognizes the earth is precious and sacred and endangered.
I want my university to lead the way in showing how to honor, protect, and restore the wildness on which
all life depends.
The Indiana University trustees have the chance to show us, to show everyone, this Friday, that they
are worthy of our trust. By voting against the golf course proposal, they can show they honor the academic
mission of the university. They can show they recognize how beautiful, fragile, and irreplaceable are
the Griffey woods. The trustees also have a chance on Friday to consider an alternative proposal.
drawn up by a number of faculty members, a proposal to establish the Griffey Watershed Research Preserve.
This preserve would occupy land surrounding Sycamore Valley and University Lake, including the land
proposed for the new golf course. It would be protected from development forever.
and would be dedicated to research, teaching, and community outreach. It would serve as an outdoor classroom,
as an outdoor laboratory, as a home for wild creatures and a wild space for future generations. The
Griffey Watershed Research Preserve
offers the university on parallel opportunity. It is within walking or bicycling distance of the center
of campus. It contains an extraordinary diversity of life forms and habitats. It borders on the existing
Griffey Lake Nature Preserve owned by the city and thus creates one of the largest contiguous blocks
of wild land in any American city.
It offers the opportunity for demonstrating how to clean up hazardous waste and heal damaged land. Already,
this land in the Griffey watershed is being used for classes, enrolling something over 1,000 students
every year. With the creation of this proposed preserve, that number could be significantly increased.
I know the trustees care deeply about Indiana University, and they want it to flourish.
If they vote against the golf course proposal this Friday, they will be showing their affection and
respect for the university and the community and for the land itself. If they decide to pursue
the alternative proposal for the Griffey Watershed Research Preserve, they will deserve our applause,
our gratitude, and our help. However the vote turns out,
On January 21st, I hope we can keep struggling to protect the Griffey watershed and every other wild
space left in our community. There's much work to be done and every hand and every mind is needed in
that work. So let's support the efforts of our city and our county to plan sensible use of the land.
Let's donate money and time and effort to the Sycamore Land Trust, to Heartwood, to the Indiana Forest
Alliance, the Sassafras Audubon Society, the Center for Sustainable Living, the Hoosier Environmental
Council, and so many other local and state and national groups dedicated to working on behalf of nature.
Let's work to heal the wounds in our community and in our land.
Let's keep this good energy going. Like Michael, I'll leave you with a poem. It's by one of my favorite
persons on earth, by Wendell Berry. It's called The Piece of Wild Things. Many of you no doubt know
it. When despair for the world grows in me,
And I wake in the night at the least sound and fear of what my life and my children's lives may be.
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I
come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water, and I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their
light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free. Let us do our work. Let us preserve
the still waters. Let us dwell in the grace of the world and the peace of wild things.
Thank you. And now please welcome the Fourth Street Irregulars.
The trustees decided they needed a golf course and so they hired a consultant to scout out a place for
it to go. Punch 18 holes with little flags and holes in the ground. They looked around and saw...
Grippy Lake. Piece of cake. Nobody ever uses it, at least no one who counts.
Now it's a few hikers and a handful of deer compared to our need for a golf course. It's clear. Start
up the chainsaws. Chomp down the trees. We'll build the clubhouse nice and comfy with the fairway fees.
Oh, please. If you believe we'd rather have 60 acres of sand traps and manicured grass and rich old
farts quacking good at perchaballs,
around a special super duper jack-neckless design 18-hole-in-the-head golf course. Than woods and keys.
And trails. And slickers. And pink lady slippers in the spring. P.S. Where do you think all that herbicide
and fertilizer's gonna go when the rain hits the ground? It's gonna go in the water, you pucellanimous
pea-brained pedants. If you really think we'd rather have your private playground
public land, then you must think we're crazy. We don't want a golf course sacrifice. Maybe we value
what's already there. You can take all
your Indiana Club LLC partnership. The highway department said we need a new interstate, a ribbon of
progress. The profits will aggregate on lovely new terrain, a lane track. It's clear that this highway's
the thing we all lack. Connect the dots.
We'll bring in lots of urban sprawl and brand new Walmarts! Where? Over there! Pave the woods
and neighborhoods. Grade the hills. Sell the farm. There's no need for alarm. Think of the jobs. Consider
the boodle. The folks who oppose this are out of their noodle.
Round down the rebar, get the asshole hot. When we finish her front porch, we'll be a parking lot. Madam,
my name's McAddle. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold it right there. If you believe we'd swap our homes
and towns and farms and forests for eight lanes of triple-reinforced concrete and guardrails with five
parking lots, four Burger Kings, three truck stops,
Too many malls. And the Shishi boutique selling the late 20th century equivalent of snake oil
in biodegradable plastic vials made from recycled petroleum products. And P.S. What's all this twaddle
about progress? Since when is more of what we've already got too much of? More cars, more noise, more
air pollution. Progress. And is a savings of eight minutes off the road trip from Indy to Evansville
Really gonna give us more quality time? Why, you'd have to make that trip eight times a day to save
a single hour! Eight? If you truly believe we'd spend three million dollars a mile trying to pave paradise
while 40% of the people in this country can't afford to see a doctor when they get sick, you must think
we're crazy. We don't want a new terrain highway.
out of your notions of progress. Your jackhammers, backhoes, and slick-in-dot slideshows. And blow them
out your draft environmental impact statement. The suits in Seattle stood on the street corner outside.
They said there's a meeting, but we just can't get inside. They said,
You've got the right to demonstrate, but don't interfere with our corporate state. We're late. Bring
out the Trenjans. Call the riot police. We've missed our launch, and there's a planet to fleece. We're
the harbingers of wealth, making everything serene from Coca-Cola and Nike to the Terminator team. Now
here's the deal. You work the jobs in all our factories while we arbitrage.
Commodities? What are you calling commodities? Food? Shelter? Air to breathe and water to drink? While
the Makila doors on the border are dumping 800 gallons of chromium hydroxide sludge into the Rio Grande
and your paid lapdogs in the press tut-tut about violence while the mayor of Seattle calls on the National
Guard? Since when?
is forcing children to work 14 hours a day for 20 cents an hour, so the shareholders can see a 2% rise
in the value of their stocks, not violent. Since when is marketing war... How about this one? Since
when is marketing war not violent? And since when is hiring military thugs to kill teachers and union
organizers, and whoever else gets in their way,
not violent. And since when is exporting war and famine and poverty all over this planet not violent?
Yeah. And P.S. If you believe we're all in prison on Prozac and peeing in jars so we've forgotten about
Bo-Khal and Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and Love Canal and the Savings and Loans window and Agent
Gange and PCP's and the Exxon Valdez,
You must think we're crazy. We don't share your nightmare, a free train. Maybe we value the dreams and
the ends. You can take off
order with their semiotics do smet selling environmental fratricide. Traders, hell, you're nothing but
pirates with websites. And blow them out door. Gross, national.
you by the neighborhoods you live in, the air you breathe, and the water you drink. There's a lot of
work to be done in this new millennium neighbors and we need to get on with it.
How are we going to follow that? You start. We have so many people to thank. This has been a really
wonderful effort. I have never worked on a campaign before where so many people have come out together
to work toward a common goal, that goal being the protection of our beloved Griffey Woods. We have a
list here of people we do want to mention, and I'm sure that we will forget some of the many people
who have been working together.
First of all, why don't we introduce ourselves? Okay. I'll introduce you. This is Harry Ford. And this
is Leah Gerlach. Can I have the translation of that? Thank you. We have, obviously, to put together
an event of this scale is a lot of work. And we have so many people to thank. Not only, obviously, the
musicians and all of the people who have helped all the speakers, but lots and lots of businesses and
individuals around town have helped.
Sure, sure. WFHB has been very helpful in getting the word out. Susan Bogoski and Jonathan Pope and
Marty Crouch for the radio show, our crazy radio spot that they helped us with. It's a lot of fun. And
the Bloomington Independent, Lisa Sorg and Mark Stalkup have both been very helpful in getting the word
out. Great articles. Community Access Television is here tonight. Martin O'Neill and his crew.
Larry Mungan for all of his computer wizardry. Focus it, Larry, up at the email stations and friends
up there. Photographers Mitch Rice and Greg Raisman. Thank you very much for being here tonight. Ned
Shaw helped prepare our poster. I think we have one here. Beautiful artwork. Pygmalions donated poster
board and markers. Thank you, Pygmalions.
Photography also helped a lot. Greg has a wonderful flash unit that's a very expensive flash unit that
Roberts Photography loaned us for the evening and we thank them for that. We also have a lot of volunteers.
When you came in the door, you saw volunteer people taking donations. We have ushers, info table sitters,
sign helpers, flyer hangers, display makers, and correspondence helpers with letters and email. All
of those folks are out in the lobby and around and thank them when you go by.
We also want to thank our backstage crew and the staff here at the Indiana Theater. We want to thank
EJ and Wayne Jackson for helping out with sound and other people who are behind the scenes workers who
for various reasons are remaining anonymous, but we thank them very much for that. We also have a couple
of others. We have many faculty members. We won't go down the list, but there have been
30 or 35 core faculty members who've been very involved in organizing the faculty, lobbying
the administration, and getting the word out. So thank you to all of you. And very importantly, the
Protect Griffey Alliance has been a group of local activists, students, faculty, staff, many people
who on a regular basis come out on Monday nights to our meetings
and have put an enormous amount of work toward getting the word out, writing letters, educating the
community, meeting with reporters. And it's just been an incredible effort, and it's been a wonderful
experience. And thank you to all of the people from the Protect Griffey Alliance.
Aside from playing this incredible music that we're having tonight, we also need to thank some of the
performers here tonight for another gift, which is that many of them have donated CDs. When you came
in the door, you might have seen the signs that there's a premium. We feel like we have public radio
or something here. There's a premium tonight. If you donate $25 or more, you can take your choice of
one of the CDs, Five Carry Newcomer or The Doodaddies or Malcolm Dalglish or Vita. And so that's just
a little incentive. So we have to thank them also for those donations. That's a really kind of gift.
It's a great chance to get some new music to take home with you. A couple more thank yous. We've been
teasing Michael Hamburger backstage saying that he's wasting his time talking to rocks. He's really
good at doing this work. He's just been incredible. We have to thank Michael Hamburger. We also have
a few other activists that are going to be talking tonight and sharing some words of wisdom. We want
to thank Kara Reagan, who was up here.
Josh Martin is going to be talking in the second half of the show, and we really want to thank Harry
Ford for all the work that he's been doing on this concert. And Leah, Leah has been also working for
the last few weeks on nearly a full-time basis preparing for tonight's concert, so thank you Leah.
a quick announcement. Natalie Karch, you lost your wallet. I have your driver's license. Your wallet
is behind the soundboard and I have your license, so come up and find me and I'll take it back there.
So other than that, we're ready to go. Sure, our next performer is Malcolm Dablish. Malcolm has been
composing and performing music for many years in Bloomington and all around the world.
He is a renowned dulcimer player and a composer and will be joined later by the Oolites. Please welcome
Malcolm Dalglish. I thought I would begin with a piece that's just about critters.
This is a song that I wrote a verse in it for Lotus Dickey, who's a beloved member of our community
and still is thought about often, especially in September when you have that festival. But we were visiting
him, and Lotus was a great observer of nature, and we were visiting him years ago, just before he was
going to the hospital for the first and last time, and he told us this story about looking at squirrels
once when he was very sick.
and seeing them flying about from the tree limbs to tree limbs and decided that the way he was gonna
heal himself was to eat a whole bunch of hickory nuts.
She's got a bushy tail, the possum tail is the bear. The raccoon tail is ringed all around it. Stompy
goes the bear. Stompy goes the bear. Stompy goes that old brown bear. The quail is a pretty bird and
she carries a speckled breast. But she steals off all the fun.
I'm
up our cemetery and rockin' on the ground. Look out brother down here below to shake some Simmons down.
Shake some Simmons down. Shake some Simmons down here to me. There's a little boy pickin' out hickory
nuts and pickin' them from the shelf. Wondering why
to take an opportunity to write a new poem, read a new poem, extolling the wonders of this place. And
there's no better time to do it in front of all of you who represent what the wonders of this place
is all about. You are truly the stewards of this wonderful place. So I wanted to, it's a poem about
bicycling and going slow.
which is the way I enjoy this place. Bloomington!
Every kind of people, preference, and persuasion. Every kind of employed and unemployed vocation. Every
kind of domesticity, family, and ethnicity, mentality, mobility, educational facility. Every kind of
fast food, slow food, or taste treat. Every kind of soup, sauce, pasta, plate, and pastry. Every kind
of weather, weather, in or out of season. And every kind of happening for any kind of reason. Every
kind of music.
every kind of show and every kind of every and some you'll never know. And if you're looking for any
Well, that's just a 10-minute bike ride from here, there, or anywhere to the south side of the courthouse
square, there, and back, and back, and there, and back out to the outback and the outskirts of this
town, where one might gaze upon the hilly Hoosier landforms and lifeforms that are there to behold,
should you decide to reside, ride, and abide proximal to the vicinity, multiplicity, and diverse newness
of people, polity that we call Bloomington. Yasco!
Hold on to the handlebars, we're going for a ride, 15 miles per hour is the ideal speed for a human
being to capture a feel for the land and be totally swept away by the scenery. Any faster and we're
just punching in coordinates, waiting to get there and punching out anybody gets in our way. Have you
ever noticed, the slower people go, the more civil they are to each other? I ask you, how often
do pedestrians flip each other the bird?
Cyclers usually wave to each other, and when you ride your bike, you get a strong, eye-watering, breathless,
slow vision of where you are. The hills, nooks, brooks, rooks, creeks, crags, cloths and lofts, becks,
burrows, burrows and furrows, hillocks and hummocks and hammocks and lawn ornaments, the slacks and
the gills,
the wrens and the whipperwheels, the rigs, rails, trails, and trailers, and balers, and autos for parts,
mufflers, and brakes, and man-made lakes, pontoons, and ponds, and bluegills, and crapathons. Hollows
and wallows, the ticks and the licks, the hogbacks,
frothy mounds, bales and bailey-wicks, hedges and hinges and hinges on doors of dilapidated sheds and
barns without floors, slouching on hunches like cows in the fields and folds of fly-flicking tails waiting
for an afternoon storm.
Fens and ferns and colorful lichens, escarpments and escars and moss-covered trichens and gorges and
ridges and red-covered bridges and steep ravines with discarded fridges. Washeries and dryers and terminal
tires, locust trees, honeybees, landfills with PCBs, 10-year locusts and tenured teachers and hot air
balloons and hot air preachers.
Moraines, terrains, knobs, and gnomes, and names of yore like Buskirk, Chumbly, Knob-On, and Needmore.
And there you are, bicycle-borne, pedaling and spinning with all those forms moving slowly by with your
own two points of contact with the ground and your own brief freedom from the gravity.
One of the things that we're talking about with all our efforts is
is not just keeping this land that's in question as it is because it needs a lot of restoration. And
I'd like to dedicate the last two songs of this set to just a sort of a spiritual sense of what restoration
means and the planting of trees and the coming back of trees. And I want you to think of a vision 50
years to 100 years from now
when a tree really can establish itself, think of a vision of this town and what it will be if we do
our work and if we keep a vigilant to what the heart of this town means. And so do we want stewards
of this incredible place in our town to be those
which are represented by the people that would be coming and using a golf course and the kinds of things
that would be happening there. I'm sure that if it's there in 50 years from now, we'll all, maybe our
children will forget that we ever had this struggle. And they will walk amongst the wild preserve and
they'll see the golf course and they'll say, no, golf course. And they won't go, oh, yuck, a golf course.
But think of what it would be like, though, if we succeed in having
a nature center there where people are studying what is one of the most crucial issues of our time,
and that is how to balance ourselves with nature.
Oh, I need to tell you. That poem was a poem by Wendell Berry. And this next one is a poem by Wendell
Berry. And it's called Great Trees. And after, I just wanted to say after this last song, we'll have
an intermission. And here is your time to sign petitions, send letters, send emails, make posters for
the great,
Griffey photo session. So see if you can find a way to get to those things that this intermission. And
carry on throughout the week. I understand tomorrow is going to be a hike to Griffey Woods. So this
is about trees coming back and just the wonders of trees.
She lives within walking distance of Lake Griffey and regularly enjoys its beauty, often with her daughter,
husband and two dogs. Please welcome the great Carrie Newcomer.
the mystery and the memory.
It's about connections, it's called threads. It's about how we touch other people, they touch us.
I mean, how many of you have a person or a teacher or a place that you go to in your mind and has made
a big impact on you, you know? These are very special things, those connections.
I think some of the finest religious experiences I've ever had were when I was walking in a natural
area, really. Because I don't think you can walk in a place of beauty, of natural beauty, and not really
sense that there's something greater than ourselves, and greater than golf courses.
Like I do, no one knows you so well All the ghosts that still haunt you And all the secrets you won't
tell Let the wind blow like horses running wild
It's about what we give and it's what we leave behind. And about living with your heart on your sleeve.
Because some of us do that on purpose.
I stand with empty hands, just a spirit tired of wandering like a stranger in this land. Walking wide-eyed
through this world is the only way I've known. Wrapped in hope and good intentions and bared to the
bone, there is nothing
when I was hungry, when my spirit ain't grown, lay it wide open.
going home.
God, and Vita, and Malcolm, just everything has been just. That's right. That's right. Well, this song
is called When It's Gone, It's Gone. And it's true. Sometimes you can get things back that are gone,
and sometimes you can't. The town I lived in before I moved here,
had a big burst of unchecked development at a certain point. There was this road that led out of town,
and all it was was farms and pastures. By the time I left, all it was was baskets of places and Walmarts
and strip malls. It was the outer skin that you see everywhere. But there was this one little patch.
There was this guy who wouldn't sell.
had a little horse farm there. So they're right next to the Taco Bell, you know? It's this beautiful
little horse farm. And you go by there, and it's still there. And I got an interview with him once in
the paper. He said, well, you know, when I'm gone, they can have it. But for now, this is a reminder.
And the ghost of some old engineer Walks these aisles a new nightmare When you're looking down on all
those lights
And now I don't believe so much in everything.
No.
everyone doing? I just wanted to first start out by having everyone here give each other a round of
applause for taking the time to come out tonight. That having been said, now that we have the pep rally
tonight, we're gonna have to get out there this week and kick some butt.
This is a great feeling tonight. I'm so filled with joy and hope by this. But we can't get complacent
now. And just right on this, we've still got a lot of work to do. We can't hold any illusions that just
because we came together, and as we can see, it's obvious to all of us how clear it is that this plan
is not right. The trustees that are going to vote on it, they still don't know. And I have a feeling
that they're probably going to vote the wrong way, unfortunately, as much as I hate to say the bad news.
So we really got to push them. We really got to get out.
And I'm going to talk tonight about a few things that we're going to do this week where everyone can
get out and help. And we're trying to move this along, so I don't want to say too much. But I just wanted
to take this time to say how proud I am to live in Bloomington where there's people like all of you.
Where everyone comes together on issues like this. We've seen it time and time again with I-69 and the
cell phone towers and the underpass issue we just had and PC
We're not the type of people that are just going to sit here and take what the fat cats at the top give
us. We want to stay in our community. As a whole, we can all work together. So coming up, I just want
to mention again, at 12 o'clock tomorrow, down at Griffey Lake, where the boat ramp is, Steve Coller
from Parks and Rec is going to lead a nature hike. Later on that night, at 6 o'clock, we're going to
meet for the candlelight vigil
square, then we're going to march towards campus after that and get together. We're going to try to
keep it short, half hour, 45 minutes, or something like that, because there's an event here for Martin
Luther King Day. And I want everyone to be able to attend that if they choose. So also for that night,
bring a candle if you have one. Also, maybe bring a flashlight if you'd rather do that. There's some
bad news. Unfortunately, there might be some rainy weather.
So don't be scared away by that. Please still come. We'll bring a flashlight. And next after that, on
Wednesday, the city council is going to have a meeting at 730. And at that meeting is going to be presented
a resolution opposing the golf course. And some of the city council members told me that they really
need everybody to get there and have another chance to
be able to speak and hopefully we'll get this passed and get one more message to the trustees. And then
on Friday is the big day where it's going to all go down.
James Alexander Tom is an author and lifelong resident of our area, telling stories of the land and
of the people who walked here before us. Jim also uses the power of his pen in defense of wild places
and common sense within. Please welcome James Alexander Tom.
I'm happy to see so many of Bloomington's elite here tonight. And I don't mean it facetiously. I'm not
sure how long my voice will hold out. I've been down for a while, but I'll talk as long as I can take
for me to get something said. I used to be very, very afraid of getting up and speaking in front of
people because I was afraid I would say something
Really stupid. But I don't worry about that anymore. The threshold is down. Somebody says that building
a golf course will improve the environment. A guy named Donald Trump says that if he spends $100 billion,
it will entitle him to become president of this country.
So I shouldn't worry about saying something that's going to sound real fluid. Now, Donald Trump is a
rich, smug playboy of a man. He's used to having his own way, which brings me right to the subject at
hand. It's a scheme of rich, smug people who are used to having their own way.
They want to build a Jack Nicklaus, is that pronouncing that right? Jack Nicklaus Signature Deluxe Golf
Course to replace 300 acres of woods. In other words, 300 acres of woods cut down to give financially
privileged few a golf course of their own. Well, how many of you here play golf?
Don't be ashamed to admit it. Don't be ashamed to admit it. OK. Are the golf courses around here good
enough for you? I think for the vast majority of golfers, or at least for the half vast majority,
Apparently, they're not good enough for these privileged few. Or maybe the golf courses are good enough,
but the other people aren't good enough for them to play with. Well, anyway, after they began developing
this idea to build this private country club or golf club or whatever it is for these people, a bunch
of people showed up and protested. And they were surprised.
The IU people were surprised, and they started immediately putting spin on and saying, well, well, well,
well, you know, it will improve the environment of that Griffey watershed. It'd be better than the woods,
you know? So as I see it, a golf course is a developer's way of showing how God could have landscaped
if he'd had the money.
OK, I'm here tonight on behalf of my Scottish ancestors. We invented the game of golf. Give you a brief
history. Can you picture us? My shaggy ancestors, beards on their faces, gnarled legs, wearing shields,
batting a feather-filled leather ball around the countryside with a gnarled shillelagh. Or maybe they
used their shepherd's crooks
bat that ball around. Anyway, they invented the game. It was a pretty good game for them. It was OK
for them. It was cheap. They were poor. There weren't any trees around. All the trees had been cut down
to make sheep grazing places to make wool for the rich mill owners. So there weren't any trees to cut
down. You could just bat that ball just about any place. Then an awful thing happened.
The Americans came over and stole our national game. They figured out how to make it really expensive.
Clothes and equipment, golf courses, make it a consumer sport, cost thousands of dollars to outfit yourself
to play golf in style. They brought it over to America, and America was covered with trees. So they
had to count them all down and make golf courses to play.
Now, what are my sentiments as a Scotsman? We want our game back. Golf courses should be built only
in Scotland. Not in Indiana. Build them in Scotland. There are no trees over there to be cut down. Now,
this would be good for my people in a lot of ways.
Scottish people are kind of poor. It's probably because they aren't on an interstate exit. They could
use some tourist dollars, greenspies, employment as caddies. They could sell single malt scotch at the
19th home. It would be good for them. Now, these rich golfers that are going to come here and play at
this private
country club on the Indiana University, they're willing to put out enough membership money. They could
go over to Scotland and play over there. Remember, I'm a Scotsman and I'm for golf.
But I think the dolphin costume should be kilts instead of red sweaters. Now, I'm also here on behalf
of my Druid ancestors. To the Druids, the trees are sacred. To me, they're sacred. I live around here.
I've lived here all my life. I've known some trees personally for 65 years.
I'm a member of Heartwood, Forest Alliance, all those things. I've spent most of my life savings protecting
the wooded valley over in my part of the country from being destroyed for stupid reasons. In my opinion,
you need a really good reason to cut down one living great tree. Cut down a whole woods.
So rich men can play there. That's not only stupid, that's sacrilege. You'll have to be ready to fight.
We'll have to be ready to fight because these are, as I said, money men who are accustomed to having
their way. I'll be surprised if we win. But it's time to make rich men fight for every inch of God's
hand your work that they try to take away from you. God's signature is on every tree. God's signature
is on every woods. Would you erase God's signature and put Jack Nicklaus' signature on the golf course?
That's how I feel about it as a Scotsman and as a man who loves this community and this countryside
and all you people. Now, in the past few years, the civic-minded country and Western doodaddies have
put some twang into concerts benefiting citizens for appropriate rural roads, Wonder Lab, FHB, and other
worthy causes.
They're here tonight to do the same for the Protect Griffey Alliance. Please welcome Bloomington's Doodaddies.
We have a special guest do-daddy today, Chris Gall. Chris is on the city council now, as you probably
know. Most of you probably voted for him, I hope. And if you have any problems, anything you want to
talk about, just call him. No, this is great. I was out front watching Capshaw's daughter do the clicker
on the attendance roll, and the thing was just smoking.
And there was like, it was up to about 700 or something. I thought, wow, this gives me the opportunity
to thank like 40% of the people who voted for me. I'll tell you, following Carrie Newcomer is no enviable
position. I'll tell you that. But we're going to do our best. You know, I remember probably a lot of
you seeing movies in this place when I was a little boy.
And I grew up on the north side, and I spent literally, in the summers particularly, every day, all
day at Griffey Lake. We would fish in the mornings until it got too hot to fish, and we'd swim. And
we'd swim until it cooled off and got too cold to swim, and we'd fish some more. So I hope you enjoy
what we're going to do. And thanks again for being here. And those are the old go swimming days, not
the no swimming days.
When I hit the brakes when I heard the cry of a metal steel guitar. For the fish don't bite the fish
around here like they did years before. And the wine don't let me like she used to do when I walked
in the door. Cause it's the one thing I can count on to get me up when I'm feeling down. That's a good
corp here in the country bar where they play the honky-tonk sounds, play some beaver.
getting old just a little bit faster than me.
And it ain't exactly what I used to say when I grew up, I wanted to be. I've been thinking about taking
some night school and music started on a new career. It means I had to spend my nights playing country
songs and drinking new beer. With a fish on bite, the Greeks are out here like they did eight years
ago. And I wound up like Jesus when I walked in the door. This is one thing I can count on to pick me
up when I'm feeling down. And that's a good cold beer and a country ball. They play the honky-tonk sound.
Little metal steel guitar.
Some folks say, get better and better with time. But the country song is one of those things, in the
opinion of mine. There stands the glass, my old wet piercer, sounds good every night. And when George
Szynski stopped loving her today, I could see that my life's all right. Well, the fish don't bite the
bricks around here like they did in years before. And the wife don't love her like she used to do, and
I wanna be in the door. There's one thing I can count on and feel, and I'm feeling down.
Thank you very, very good. Here, we're going to slow it down and do one that, well, it's got a little
bit of Griffey Lake in it.
I go out walking alone to a place where we used to go when our love was young and we made those plans.
The moon is full and I was holding your hand in the moonlight. I can see your face and I can feel the
warmth of your embrace, the night wind in the trees.
grass on my skin sometimes I just wish I could live it all over again the other day I drove past my
old school back where me and my friends thought we were so damn cool and I saw a lot of these hometown
kids and remembered all the stupid
And I felt like something in this town I never thought much about Where I'd never been And sometimes
I just wish I could live it all over again
The seasons change and so does my mind, but I don't think I'll be living it over again.
my grandparents far. You know my grandma's changed. Since my granddad died, she don't have much to keep
her occupied. I can smell the hogs and see miles of corn. We'd go fishing down by the reservoir where
he'd laugh with me. And I'd laugh with him. And sometimes I just wish
You can live it all over again I can't believe how you've grown And I'm thinking each day I love you
so much I don't know how I can say How I feel when I watch you laugh and cry For a while I start wondering
how and why Things are how they are And all I want to be
Father and friend, they're not starting to see that in a way, you're where I begin. In a way, I might
live some of it over again. But the rain falls and the sun shines and the seas of shame
Okay, I want to remind people of a couple things. Tomorrow night is the vigil, right? Tomorrow night,
Sample Gates, what time? Courthouse, okay.
Okay, correction on the contact, the trustee contact. Walda's phone number is wrong on your information
slip. The correct phone number, there's no way you'll be able to write this down in the dark room. We'll
see if there's a way you can remember this in demonic device. It's 436-2132. Like I said, I don't know
how anyone's gonna remember that, but that was the best. And on maybe afterwards, someone will have
it on the way out the door and pick it up on your way out. And then of course,
Please call the trustees. I'm being told that that is critical. That is a way to take care of this thing.
Once again, the number is 219, is the air code, 219-436-2132. An old Hank Williams tune here.
something up with me. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Well, how about cooking something up with me? Cook it up, fellas.
wacky, four-speed irregular type, so I didn't have time to put anything together for the Griffey event.
But we put together a song, I did a song with you last year to perform at a different benefit event.
And I think it'll do here just fine, because they're related. They're connected. We're talking land
use, the issues, land use policy, impacts on the community, a sane, sensible, sustainable attitude towards
communities and towards the land.
and autocratic, authoritarian decision making from top down, things like that. We're all involved in
this issue, too, and it's going to impact this community tremendously. So we're going to do a title
track from our first CD and then segue into this one.
Anybody else? This land is your land.