Hm.

Arrow first came to public attention in 2000 after scaling a U.S. Forestry building in downtown Portland where he lived on a nine-inch ledge for 11 days. In 2008, he plead guilty to arson.

Yes.

KOIN reports the tree climber was environmental activist Tre Arrow. He was saying, “Portland, will you love and respect the trees?” When he climbed down he said the Occupy movement should include the earth in its demands.

And.

Firefighters were called at about 4:25 p.m. to the house, where a man later identified as Arrow had climbed up the tree. Once it was determined that he wasn’t suicidal or in danger, firefighters left about an hour and 15 minutes later.
“Our No. 1 priority is safety,” said Chief Dan Buckner. “Once we determined the man was not suicidal we did not want to take any action that could cause harm to him or to firefighters.”
The owner of the property gave permission for Arrow to be in the tree.

And, here’s the news as it was breaking.

Officials said they are keeping an eye on the situation in case they are needed again.

Sigh.

The great thing about the Internet — the story gets more developments.

Some of you may know that I hold the position of clerk of our Quaker meeting. It’s a two-year term, the job gets passed around, and in our egalitarian spiritual community, no one makes much of it.
But on occasion I’m reminded that, whether I like it or not, I’m the go-to guy.
Like last night when I got the phone call from Officer Gilbert of the Portland Police department.
“Mr. Seifert, I understand you are the person responsible for the Quaker meeting house here on Stark Street? Is that right?”
“Yes, I am the person responsible,” I conceded with a hint of hesitation and foreboding. “Tell me what this is about, officer,” I invited as visions of disaster bubbled up in my brain. […]

It takes about 20 minutes to get from my house to the meetinghouse. That was enough time to gather my thoughts and run scenarios through my mind.
What if we have this guy in our tree for days? What if the crowd grows and “Occupies” our backyard? What if the chanting and yelling continue disturbing the neighbors in what the media would call a “normally quiet residential neighborhood.”
When I arrived I found pretty much what I imagined. It was a vision from the evening news. Flashing police lights. Squawk box commands. Barricades.
It was also an arcade for a media carnival complete with earnest correspondents and trucks equipped to broadcast “LIVE on the scene!” “Up-to-the-minute Action News.” […]
As for the Occupy folks, I told them that our meeting had formally supported the Occupy movement and that I, in fact, was a member of Occupy’s “Faith/Spirit” Spoke (or committee) They seemed duly impressed.
They were also impressed, and probably surprised, that I told them it was fine for them to stay. Perhaps they saw the absurdity of the “Occupy” movement’s occupying part of itself.

Or, you know… occupying a tree.
And is this the right place Tre Arrow’s for the message about trees?  Considering…

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