Little lower than the angels

“Yes, I whole heartedly agree. Each race must be held responsible for their crimes. I want whites to be held responsible for every lynching and for the entire Ku Klux Klan. Would you join me in being a responsible and accountable white person for the crimes we’ve committed? All the people of color we’ve killed?”

The man, now in his 60′s and nursing a childhood wound that justified his prejudice for his entire life gave pause. He could no longer meet my eyes. He looked down and drifted away into another room. I don’t know how long the moment of cognitive dissonance lasted. I do know that he only felt emboldened to reveal his pain because I was another white person.

It should be obvious yet it is grim to think about: people will vote based on their hate and against their own self-interest. Racists are good organizers, and racism brings people out. Especially in an atmosphere that validates those who aren't afraid to "tell it like it is" and be openly racist. It is more difficult to get people who are exploited to the polls and engage in a democracy that could function for all of us. And the system isn't broken, it was designed this way.

I graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Political Science six years ago. My master's thesis theorized that racist politicians, who organized on overt and covert racism, would have shorter careers. I thought that hate, while exciting, would wear people down after a while once they realized policies based on bigotry do not serve the community.

Statistically, the theory was wrong. Politicians who campaigned based on racism and intolerance, as identified by the Southern Law Poverty Center, had long, successful careers spanning thirty years or more. They did slightly better than other politicians in the same area with roughly the same demographics. (I didn't publish because I didn't think my standard of defining who is a hateful politician by the Southern Law Poverty Law Center was objective enough.)

My Kid: MOM DID YOU BUY LOTTO TICKETS

Me: Yes, I did! Although some people call it the stupid tax, haha.

At the age of 32 I’ve felt the pressure to deny my age and to try and suppress birthdays all together. Supposedly, I should wait until I’m an old crone and it’s quite clear there is no youth left before I’m allowed to be happy about birthdays again and tell people that I’m 70, get off my lawn.

I can’t help it though, I love birthdays. I love my birthday. I love parties. I like a day for me. I can’t enter this middle age denial and assume a silent suffering position. I think I’ll skip right to the old lady thing - it’s my birthday!! All week! 

I’ve often heard Amy Goodman talk of issues, but not so much about the work she does itself. I left feeling like I had to take my place in the movement to shape this world and be part of something greater than myself.

The guiding point of her talk was how the majority of stories that are divergent from the elite’s view are not being told. That media should check power, instead of affirming it. With the Iraq war, we saw an age where media is used to create approval for war rather than present a balanced view of how the world needs to solve its most pressing problems. Running a place where the media tells the real stories, the many truths, is like running an underground railroad. We need more safe houses for the truth to be set free. 

Divergent stories dominated her talk - the largest refugee camp in France is thirty minutes from Paris, the people outside the UN that aren’t being given a seat at the climate talks, the protestors being brutally beat back at the republique for using their rights to speak. I think she’s right - I feel like I’m living in a different world than the one the media lives in as they scramble to say glowing things about the #COP21 agreements and don’t take divergent viewpoints seriously or at all. 

She ended on telling the civil rights story of Rosa Parks and how it was co-opted, how mainstream media said she wasn’t a trouble maker, just a tired seamstress.

Amy Goodman talked about how Rosa Parks was, in fact, a world class troublemaker. Who trained at the highlander center and was secretary of the NAACP. At her funeral, Amy talked to a student outside, who remarked, “I emailed my professor today to let them know I wouldn’t be coming in to class today because I was going out to get a real education.” 

Without an objective media, democracy cannot function. People must be informed to make crucial decision. She used the example of the military. The people on base fighting the longest war in US history - the Afghanistan war - are punish for discussing politics. They are there to serve the US people, and if we in the US people don’t know why they are there then we are putting them in harm’s way for nothing. 

She asked us where we would be in the coming movement, to ensure a real future for humanity.

This - a #COP21 sign made out of styrofoam - represents these climate talks more than anything else. It’s huge, white, and made of a weak material that kills the planet. It boggles my mind that anyone thought making a sign about talks that are supposed to stop global warming was made out of one of the worst pollutants.

However, what did I expect from a global summit that prioritizes corporations over communities? At this point, world leaders are positioning for a failed summit as the talks are extended for a day to be finalized. While the US would like to blame China and India, rumor is that the US won’t have human rights and especially indigenous rights at the center of the agreement. Very little mainstream media is putting for a critical analysis of the talks - like a sober person nodding in agreement with a happy drunk in hopes that maybe the drunk will get it right this time. 

At least the people have the power to call this what it is: a cop-out. People like Tom Goldtooth telling the US delegation directly that the Paris Accord could create genocide.  The people are demanding to be heard. Today, youth from frontline communities had an action on the steps of the UN talks and inside the talks themselves. 

The talks are in a warehouse type of structure with a bunch of poles out front. Our allies in France say that there used to be a building with people who lived there, squatting until the building were razed down. Squatting is much more legitimate in Europe than in the US - as evidenced by the electric bills the families living there paid. When they were forced to camp behind the mayor’s house because the UN displaced them, the electric company found their address and forwarded their electric bill to their makeshift tents. 

After the action at the UN, Derek and I went to a water ceremony of indigenous mothers. Matriarchal power is honored, exemplified, lifted up, made sacred, celebrated, and makes us whole. That was the spirit I felt throughout the ceremony. Members brought water from their lands, combined it, and shared it across the prayer circle. 

The ritual was underscored by the treaty the mothers had made across the Americas to protect the sacredness of water. At each equinox and full moon, they will go to those that would harm water and pray for them, show they are the protectors of water, as the bringers of life, as we were all born in the waters of our mothers. Spirituality made real, ritual reinforced by respectful action. I felt so honored to be part of the circle.

The night finished off by going to a talk that Amy Goodman gave on the role of democracy during war and climate change. It was also powerful - she reminded the Afghanistan war is the longest war in the United States history. How media should challenge power, not be its handmaiden. How citizens must be informed because the lives of the world and the lives of its military is in their hands; soldiers cannot discuss politics, they’ve taken an oath to be a tool of civil society. 

It’s human rights day, so we plan an action to protest the inhuman agreements the United States is proposing to the world for climate change. The action is at the peace wall in the Eiffel Tower plaza.

Which has been totally brutalized.

Panes of glass with peace in many different languages are bashed, sparkling in a starburst pattern. Some panes are missing. The lawn isn’t mowed. A dead pine tree lists to the side. The wooden platform is cracked and peeling, the roof is rusting. A fence bars entry; a sign reads that the structure is unstable. 

An ideal setting to display the human rights violations we’ve endured from the United States through its imperialist climate policy. 

The action starts with an song by a lone voice, and is followed by powerful speakers. They call out Obama and detail how the Paris accord will give corporations a green rationalization to further damage their people and the planet. Then the street theater piece begins.

The wall marches out to a military cadence. They turn and present all the things that block peace: genocide, environmental racism, REDD+, patriarchy, politicians, fracking, corporations, C02linization, GMOs, and False Solutions of the #COP21. 

People start to chant: It Takes Roots - We Are The Roots! They run to the wall and try to pull it down. There’s a struggle, the wall won’t let go. More people run up chanting, and the wall comes down. 

There is an immediate reaction from the crowd - “The people! United! Will never be divided!” Seed bearers come out, and sow the seeds of change with a grand flourish. All the banners of our organization are unfurled - No War No Warming, Frontline Communities Forefront of Change, It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm, and more. Sunflowers from the crowd rise up, the flags of our delegation go up and we all sing: It takes roots to weather the storm, we’ve got roots, our seeds are strong!

Hundreds of people were able to run in and participate. In front of a monument of peace abandoned by the state, the people demanded it from their leaders.  

The art of the #COP21 resistance has quickly become my favorite part of my experience. It’s generated in a warehouse near the Alternatibas’ global village. When I think about the hotspots of political movements of times past, of people gathering, arguing, eating together, making flyers, pamphlets and art, I think it must be like the art space.

It changes every day. Clotheslines run through the place on the exposed ceilings. Plastic tarp covers the floor with slogans that had been printed on cloth and dried. The main color is red, because of another organization’s slogan of a red line against climate change - a red line against carbon emissions. 

People make tables out of saw horses and plywood. The move every day. Art is strewn everywhere, with slogans like “keep it in the ground” and “climate change is climate violence”. 

Our own art table drew much appreciation. One of our members, Arty, develop 10 placards of the things we are fighting: genocide, patriarchy, false solutions, fracking, GMOs, environmental racism, pollution, poverty, Obama, and more. We spent most of the day making sunflowers, bags for the seeds we’ll sow, flags, and banners. 

Yesterday we were organizing the street performance theater and we racked our brains for the main messaging. I brought up that - look - we already have the main messaging: it takes roots to weather the storm. The storm is all the bad ideas at the #COP21 we don’t want, and more. The extreme climate conditions, militarism, war, racism. This is the storm we are weathering through our roots. We are the roots. We are the representatives of our root communities resisting the storm. We have been called to plant the seeds for the next generation, to stop the #COP21 and all the apparatuses of exploitation. The deep resistance rises up to say: this our planet, for the people; not just for a few. 

This gave rise to embodying this powerful metaphor through visuals and song. The first act will be the storm that is blocking the peace; the placards that Arty designed. The second act is our resistance, our struggle and tearing the placards down. Then, we come out and sow the seeds of a just transition, women leadership, keeping the fossil fuel in the ground, the wisdom of frontline communities being heard and made the law of the land. The final act is a joyous celebration of sunflowers and all our people dancing, chanting, celebrating that we are the ones we have been waiting for.

Spent most of the day at the art space, making props for the action on December 10th hear the Eiffel Tower. It’s so empowering to be in a space that won’t even give the #COP21 the time of day - their solutions are so exploitative and ridiculous. Instead, the movement is at the revolutionary edge of creating a regenerative economy and will make the worlds leader pay attention to it. It’s an incredible feeling. 

Dashing out the art space, we arrived 20 minutes late to the World March of Women’s panel of climate activists. I cried when Kandi Mossett with the Indigenous Environmental Network showed the little stuffed cat her daughter gave her to take to Paris. She talked about how women have a natural tendency to fight fiercely for their children. I thought of my own children, my own fear of the mountain fires that mutilated the front range, the water scarcity in Denver, how they are the generation that will face the apocalypse of climate collapse. 

I cried when the moderator of the panel talked about the military marching into their towns for the purpose of protection. And how the military instead rapes women and terrorizes women to stay in their homes afraid to speak out - a rush of memories rose up and fled through me. Men in the military make sure that women - no matter if they wear the uniform of the military or not - are victimized. 

Derek Matthews and I had to grab Louise, the interpreter, and run to an interview near the Seine. The radio station was called Beur FM, with 300,000 listeners on the “Les Z’Informs” show. We were asked - why did we leave the military? Is it too simplistic to say that the Iraq War was only over oil? Was it legal for us as veterans to speak out against the United States? What do we have to say to the people of Paris in light of the attacks? 

I thought we’d have more time to discuss climate crisis and militarism, yet with the interpretation it was over before I knew it. On the tube, Louise asked us: what is the most important thing for us to be doing here? Derek thought the actions, the coalescence to a shared narrative was powerful and important. I thought our actions - as we are the only ones offering the critique of frontline communities against the disastrous deals of the #COP21 was the most important, as well as sitting together and discussing our collective strategy to stop war & warming. 

Back at the hostel, we were interviewed by REEL News for a documentary on climate crisis and militarism by Shaun Dey. Derek offered the point most salient; there would be no extraction economy - no oil wells, no forceable land grabs and mining - without a military force to back it up. I pointed out how the #COP21 agreements are especially useless because it doesn’t address military emissions, or use of the military at all. Each nation can say “I didn’t meet the carbon goals because of security threats.” And that the planned response to climate crisis is a militaristic response.

Today I took my favorite photo so far, of Preeti laying down some knowledge on local Parisans about #JustTransition. 

After the morning check-in the action team spent a couple of hours hammering out messaging. We already have a strong base - no war, no warming, build an economy for the people and the planet. Collectively we felt strong that we represented the roots of our communities that would weather the storm of this bad #COP21 agreement and the forces of greed and war that fuel exploitation of our peoples. 

Derek and I headed to the Climate Action Zone and participated in the Just Transition presentation - and I have to say - Ananda Lee Tan, Jose Bravo, and Pam Tau shone through. Jose called out the unjust structures, saying, it costs 3.8 trillion to transition to a regenerative economy. Yet we’ve spent 3.6 trillion on wars in the middle east. Where are our priorities?

Responding to ‘There are no jobs on a dead planet’ Ananda said ‘We have to make a living on a living planet’ and then showed off the principles of a #JustTransition:

1. Workers, community residents and indigenous peoples have a fundamental human right to clean air, water, energy and earth in their workplaces, homes & environment.

2. There are no contradictions between economy and ecology

3. Corporate exploitation knows no borders so local, regional, national and global solidarity is required.

4. Frontline communities must lead economic and environmental restructuring. 

5. The cost of a #JustTransition should not be born by the most impacted by climate injustice and free trade.

6. Frontline communities have the right to challenge any entity that commits economic or environmental injustices. 

Amazing presentation. Then Derek and I went to the general Climate Action Zone assembly on militarism. We went to the microphone after to share two key points: that the military also needs to be called out as a polluter, (I said there are no solar powered tanks or biodegradable bullets) and the current plan for climate change is to militarize it. Derek spoke on the need to change the economy, on a just transition since many people do rely on a military economy for survival. 

The other action was the indigenous canoe finally arrived from the Ecuador embassy. It entered the water at the same point the canoes entered the water for yesterday’s action and it was a very moving scene in the canal.

Action. Today was full of it. 

The morning was checking out the action of the Global Village by Alternatibas, which you can read about here. Bottom line: it doesn’t confront power or stop exploitation. Being vegetarian is not the same thing as taking down the meat industry. One is an individualist choice that relies on shaming, the other requires a collective shift of power in society. For climate change, we need the latter more than ever.

On the other hand, the action organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network was amazing. It confronts power with clear demands to end the false solutions like REDD+ and instead calls for real change like #KeepItInTheGround and #DefendProtectRenew. Indigenous people from all over the world came to bring Canoes to Paris and well, you can read more about the action here, here, and here.  

“We have been resisting for centuries, and we will show you how, because we have to get through this together.” This quote rests at the front of my mind, a remark made by Dania tonight as she told me about an action in which her organization showed others how to fight for their rights. The context of the story is so powerful because she said it to a group of whites who wanted to fight for their own community. And it showed up today with the Canoes to Paris action. 

While it’s the 5th day of negotiations at COP21, its the first day for Iraq Veterans Against the War members Derek Matthews and myself. We were invited by the people of color communities most affected by climate change - Grassroots Global Justice to be part of a delegation called It Takes Roots. 

As the indigenous woman from Alaska introduces herself, as the women from Kenya sing of all the people present that they fight for, as the man from Detroit represents, as the Lumi nation introduced themselves and their planned action, and the countless impressive people talk about why they’re here I feel more and more incredibly honored to be among the delegation.

Iraq Veterans Against the War is here for a few things - detailed in this radio interview and this op-ed. But basically, they are that:

1. One of the most destructive, and forceful responses to climate change has been a militarized response. To protect exploited profits, to plan for climate refugees, nations try to keep one step ahead of climate change with their militaries instead of working together.

2. That this militarized response is a short-term, losing strategy. No amount of new military weaponry will rescue us from the global disasters of climate change. As the environment deteriorates, violence escalates over dwindling resources. Far more people have died, are dying, and are displaced by climate change than terrorism could ever hope to accomplish. The climate instability gives terrorist groups a foothold.

3. Militaries are one of the biggest polluters, and nothing in the negotiations restricts their actions.

4. Most of the companies that benefit from the exploitation of resources and the military protection of that profit are the same ones here trying to sell the idea of carbon credits and other disastrous, capitalistic plans.

Since the connection between militarization and climate change is a new one for me to make, I’ve been researching on climate change. And from all the chatter in the news, it sounds downright optimistic. World leaders are serious this time. There will be binding agreements. Brilliant, innovative ideas are being proposed. One report said that even the way the process is going represents a bottom-up strategy of what nations agree to instead of a top-down process. We are going to be able to solve climate change for everyone!

Well, except for those who actually live where the agreements will take place. The REDD+ plan and carbon credits are capitalistic maneuvers that allow companies to buy their way into pollution as before, and even gives them broader powers to make land grabs away from indigenous communities. 

Such is the report from the indigenous caucus today, who report that in the binding sections, they’ve been bracketed three times. (Brackets is aspirational language in the agreements that can be tossed at any time.) The first bracket is to around the entire idea that this agreement should adhere to any human rights. The second bracket is around the rights of indigenous peoples, specifically. And then even more specifically it’s around the plurality of indigenous peoples. That’s right. There is a bracket around the “s” - indigenous people[s].

A representative from the caucus explained that this represents a battle they thought settled over 30 years ago - the battle if an entire community of indigenous peoples had rights, or if they only had rights as an individual person.

Not to mention the activism going on in the state of emergency that is France. Terrorism tragically struck here causing many to question the safety to hold the talks at all. There was a ban on protests which we found out got lifted today - but it’s a small victory in the face of a police state every bit as brutal as the one in the United States. Climate change activists are under house arrest. Police are outfitted in spectacularly large riot gear. People suspected of having terrorist connections are losing their French citizenship. On my way to the hostel, I counted five men in military uniform stationed about the city, weapons at the ready. One of them, at least, was going through his cell phone with a bored look on his face when we walked by. 

It’s a far cry from the optimistic picture the mainstream media is painting about Paris’ recovery and the #COP21 negotiations. Just because most of the people in power agree on a capitalistic plan doesn’t mean it will actually reduce global warming. The Indigenous Environmental Network, a group part of the It Takes Roots Delegation, has a clear demand: keep it in the ground. 80% of all fossil fuels must remain in the ground to keep the planet from warming over 2C. There is no negotiation - that is what must be done, along with a just transition to invest in a new infrastructure for the survival of the planet. Instead, the false solutions being presented show a way for corporations to pay more for land grabs and pollution.

All in the first day! More tomorrow.