I was one of the last to see the 200-year-old Grandmother Cottonwood Tree that blocked border wall construction at Lochiel, Arizona. As I stood under it on Oct. 4 I had a political thought, “This tree was probably a seedling when Thomas Jefferson was alive.”
Sixteen hours later (on the morning of Oct. 5), armed, uniformed Border Patrol agents shoved aside protesters and cut down the tree. Now the wall construction can proceed.
The loss of the big tree has affected me more than I expected. Mostly, it made me think about politics and the passage of time. What plants and animals may be inconvenient according to future politics – or conversely, when might sections of the border wall become inconvenient?
On Oct. 4, my friends and I wondered how long will this particular controversial section of the wall might last. Our best guess was: “Until the next administration, or maybe the one after that.”
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But the old cottonwood won’t be a part of that future.
David DeGroot
Northwest side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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