It is 6am on Friday morning and Cooper and I have been working about 18 hours a day since we arrived at the Standing Rock and Red Warrior Camps here in North Dakota. Our intentions were to come and plug into the amazing organizing and legal support that has gone on for months and years before our arrival. Coincidentally, on our flight out we sat across the aisle from Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network—Tom and his organization have been doing amazing media work on behalf of indigenous communities and issues for a long time and have demonstrated incredible support and leadership at Standing Rock. The plane was obviously full of many Native American and other folks wearing their NO DAPL t-shirts heading to the same place as us—the current mecca of US climate injustice—the frontlines of an historic indigenous led movement to demonstrate that we the people can stop corporate profiteers from having their way and destroying the planet and the living things that rely on it
"... the jail here—which recently began stripping female water protectors of their clothing when booked into the jail and then allowing male guards to ogle the women arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience. ONE YOUNG NATIVE WOMAN WAS EVEN MADE TO REMAIN NAKED ALL NIGHT IN HER JAIL CELL AS AN ATTEMP TO SCARE, HARASS AND HUMILIATE HER WHILE PATHETIC GUARDS TAUNTED HER."
If we can devote countless hours of airtime and national discussion to two sentences made by Drumpf, than we should be shining a light on stories like this. When Hillary wins as was pre-ordained, what then of the national conversation on this topic? A big circle-jerk of celebration that we beat this monster followed by business as usual while the conversation falls to the wayside and the focus turns to hillary’s next scandal, meanwhile the problems go on unchecked? I sincerely hope not. If you want to see real change, consider sharing stories like this or donating to this cause.
