Why is Betty Krawczyk So Damn Rad?

by clorenz1 | March 6, 2007 at 12:57 pm | 1150 views | 3 comments

Editor's Note: Calder Lorenz, our great colleague and arguably NowPublic's first newsifier, posted this article last September. It's a great pointer to what makes her "so damn rad", in Calder's sharply worded question. The answer can be found in her own words below.

But PLEASE check out the video to the right: It's originator, GreenDreams.com called it "Betty vs. Truck", which is now a legendary piece of cinematography, and does more to explain Calder's question than anything else. Watch her take on the truck, all by herself, then read her own words below.

I was raised in Southern Louisiana and first became sensitized to political struggles during the Civil Rights movement. This political sensitization increased during the Vietnam War and I immigrated to
Canada in 1966 with a husband and 6 children.

Stunned by the beauty and rare ecology of the British Columbia west coast, I became a Canadian citizen at the first opportunity and settled on ten acres in Cypress Bay in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island as soon as my children were grown. I settled in to write about the wonders of this marvelous place. Instead, I found myself increasingly disturbed by the lethal effects of clear cutting, and therefore joined, and later organized, blockades to stop the clear cutting of the forests, and found myself writing from prison.