People protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline march past San Francisco City Hall. 15 November 2016. Author: Pax Ahimsa Gethen. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
by Kathleen Malley-Morrison
Now is the winter of our discontent, this woeful election year. Unhappiness with the government, frustrations over corruption of democratic processes, fears regarding increasing economic inequality, anger at the multiplying restrictions on prospects and possibilities, and rage at the unfairness of it all have been rife. But today, on this Thanksgiving Day, Americans (most of whom are descendants of immigrants from other lands) have a chance to get things right.
And many people are doing just that. I give particular thanks to all the Americans, of all hues, who are standing by the Native protestors and their supporters at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.
The nonviolent resistance of the Standing Rock protestors to the planned Dakota Access pipeline, slated to pass through sources of drinking water and sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is a noteworthy and admirable example of nonviolently standing up against greed, unbridled capitalism, the militarization of civil society agencies, the unwarranted exercise of power by fossil fuel goliaths within the military industrial complex, the rape of the land, racist disregard for human lives, disrespect for laws (including in this case, yet another violation of a treaty), and violation of human rights including the rights of indigenous peoples . Moreover, the protestors are praiseworthy not only for standing up for clean drinking water and human rights but also for promoting the viability of this continent and the planet on which the survival of all peoples is dependent.
Among the groups to which we should be thankful for getting things right and taking risks to do so are:
Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, People Demanding Action, Ecowatch, and Code Pink.
I will be thanking all these groups at my dinner today.
To quote Nicole Goodwin: “Today, six members of Iraq Veterans Against the War went to the office of the Army Corps of Engineers in New York City asking them to stand down and stand with Standing Rock.” I raise both hands in a congratulatory salute to this very special group of veterans, as I did when they had the courage to oppose the Iraq War in 2004. The photograph of the mammoth proposed pipe turned my stomach. Might is NOT automatically right! With the help of citizens like the Iraq Veterans Against the War, the proposed rape of the land will be thwarted and dismissed as it deserves to be.
There was a time when I would’ve been shocked at the inhumane conditions our water protectors continue to face on behalf of us *all* ~ and which are sanctioned by our government and leaders’ through their silence and failure to act.
We can show our support through our prayers, donations and by voicing our concerns to those in power.
Apparently the White House comment line (which was open earlier yesterday), was flooded with calls urging President Obama to revoke the Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the pipeline. We can also phone North Dakota’s governor as well as the Army Corps of Engineers.
Especially with *even colder* temperatures coming, our water protectors need lots of additional supplies. Anyone wishing to donate can do so through their Amazon Wish List or by sending cash or checks to the address listed on their Sacred Stone website (when I checked yesterday, the Amazon Wish List link on Sacred Stone didn’t appear to have been updated, though an updated Wish List does exist through a separate link.)
Thanks, kathiemm ~ for writing about this. If you’d like phone numbers or links to donate, let me know.