Why I am Going to Standing Rock
So, tomorrow I will have the privilege of watching my wonderful daughter perform in a student dance concert at the Baryshnikov Theatre in NYC, then, I will get on a plane and fly to Standing Rock ND, most likely to be beaten, tear-gassed, shot at with rubber bullets, and sprayed with water-cannons in sub-freezing temperatures, all to support a group of Native Americans trying to keep their water from being poisoned by corporate greed and governmental complicity.
So why would a comfortable, complacent, middle-class suburbanite like me subject myself to such treatment?
This country was demanding change in the last election. The Democratic Establishment did everything in its power -- legal and illegal -- to ensure that the candidate for progressive change would not win the nomination, so many people voted for the only "change" available -- Donald Trump. I never thought this country would select so soon a president more unfit for the job than George W Bush, but we have done so and we must now live with the consequences. In the old "movement" days, this would be called "heightening the contradictions."
This country has been dancing on the edge of the precipice for years now. The next one to two years will determine whether we are able to pull back from that precipice or fall off into fascist chaos below. It is past time for passive expressions of principles, for activism based on clicking "like" and "share" on Facebook.
For better or worse, I am a member of a group -- veterans -- which can, at times, focus national attention on issues by our mere presence. I have no illusions about what can be accomplished by our presence at Standing Rock, other than, perhaps, a blip of publicity for the issues there. A couple of thousand veterans are probably not going to change the course of the history unfolding at Standing Rock.
But here's the thing: if our actions -- our willingness to stand up for what's right and be unafraid in the face of massive corporate brutality and repression -- can inspire others to do the same, to take action, to stand up for what's right -- each in his own community, each in her own way -- then perhaps we will have made a contribution to the movement to take back our country from the fascist minority about to plunge us all off the precipice.
I will do my part; will you do yours?
Comments
Thank you for going as Water Protectors protector.
I think that the significance is that you are veterans, in whatever garb you still have?, who have learned command levels and teamwork. Not just a Bob or Betty down the street who boats all summer. And skis and parties all winter, and always has. I have seen cooperative work in that crowd, for about 2 hours of hard work. I believe the instructions given are you are there as a support contingent, doing what is asked of you by the Tribes. Stay safe, warm and peaceful. You all who have been in combat have experienced that, most here are virgin to that, and you have to stay non-combative. Safe and productive travels!
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
The tiniest pebble . . .
In nonlinear mechanics (and it doesn't get much more nonlinear than this) we know that the tiniest perturbation can effect a profound outcome. In our more poetical moments we refer to this as the Butterfly Effect. So, go be a c99p butterfly.
Standing for water protectors...
I appreciate what you're doing. Take care. From what I hear, the spirit in the camp is special. I hope you gain as much as you give.
Good travels!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thank you for your courage.
The water protectors are defying the odds but the corporation thinks they will give up with the cold, snow, hardship that ensues. You and your fellow veterans are heros in your willingness to stand with the native people in this time of need to fight the greed. Do not be deterred. Do not stand down. I am with you in spirit.
Stay safe.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I could not do what you are doing, but
I do admire the heck out of you and all of the people there. Hope you all keep safe.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thank you for going to Standing Rock
Thank you! Be safe.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Good Luck
Thank you for your service, truly.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Thank you. You will ROCK at Standing Rock.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
Thank you for your service,
for America, humanity and the planet.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Go with light and love. Thank
Go with light and love. Thank you.
See you there, leftvet.
I leave in the morning...two days drive.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
You rock, Bis! take care nt
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Thank you, leftvet and Bisbonian
for representing and standing up for what is right. I am a U S Navy vet, but wont be making the trip. Although I wont be there in person I and many others will be there in spirit. thanks again.
For my part, I'll keep on donating
money to the legal defense fund. I would love to go but I have real concerns about not being able to be self sufficient as my feet are not in shape for it. I've got small stress fractures which would become a real painful problem pretty fast and limit my ability to be of help. But I'm there in spirit and I will keep sending what I can.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
You will be in good company: Cornell West heading there also
[video:https://youtu.be/gW8qYSVECNc]
Bravo to you and all those who stand in solidarity at Standing Rock.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
eloquent and inspiring pronouncement, leftvet.
You really captured the moment we are in, and spoke for me with your clear-eyed and dignified passion.
Like Occupy and #BlackLivesMatter before it #NoDAPL is a clarion call to the sleepwalking masses. Folks grazing the news at first might not see themselves in these struggles. But just beneath the surface is a gnawing reality that it's all connected: the sheer destruction of the middle class by the Econonmic Terrorists of Wall St, the encroaching militarized police state and the prison industrial complex and the oligarchs and their insatiable corporate greed to put profit over people no matter how much damage done to our unreplenishable resources.
You're dead on about your challenge to people in this country. It's so much like the Martin Neimoller quote about first coming for...until there's no one left.
I've been having this conversation with my best friend from childhood, another suburbanite in the NY area, challenging him to participate more than the quadrennial circus and taking 10 minutes to vote and getting into arguments on Farcebook. I reminded him the day after the election that I'd been saying since Occupy that it would take a cataclysmic event for more people to get involved, get in the streets, become activists in their community, like I and others around me did. Now the ball's in people like his court. Will they answer the call? We'll see...
I wish I was going there with you guys. I've been in the streets with both the aforementioned movements, a number of times at both. My heart is aching to be there with you all.
Deep respect and solidarity for your commitment. Thanks man!
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
You will be joining amazing warriors already there
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
On another thread, I expressed my hope that the cops and mercenaries on the other side of the razor wire will be so ashamed in the face of all of your peaceful presence -- that they will lay down their badges and walk away. Or join you.
Safe journey.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Thanks for posting this image blazinAZ
One of the best images I have ever seen, touching and inspiring.
There was a time I'd be right there with you.
Wishing you all the best. Take Care and Thank you.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
Many of us are incredibly grateful
for your service and sacrifice.
Be safe and be well.
Thank you for supporting the water protectors
My hope is your presence will force those lawenforcers to chose between the corporations and supporting our vets.They always say they support our vets.....
It's good to see the "cavalry" is on the side of the natives this time.Stay safe and warm.
" El pueblo unido jamás será vencido. The people united will never be defeated "
Thank you for
joining the water protectors at Standing Rock. We will be there in spirit with you.