The 2nd Civil Rights Movement ……….……. moving
Tomorrow, January 20th, Donald J. Trump becomes the 46th President of the United States.
In early December, President-elect Trump, just after the permit was denied and a new Environmental Impact Study ordered, said in an interview he won’t comment about Standing Rock to give the parties involved time to resolve the situation, but if it is not resolved by the time he takes office, he will then take action to resolve it.
The January 12th Los Angeles Times ran an article and interview with Native American artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. For Luger, “the protests at Standing Rock are personal. The artist, who makes sculpture, video and installations, was born on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, and he is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, whose territory is nearby. He is in possession of German and Norwegian blood too. “I am North Dakota,” he jokes.”
The reason for the article/interview is Luger is the artist responsible for the “mirrored shields” at Standing Rock. Inspired by women in the Ukraine who used actual mirrors, the mirrored shields are made of vinyl and Masonite but the purpose is the same — to force law enforcement and the military to bear witness to their own actions.
Art and Activism. In Christian theology, it would be Art and the Prophetic. Radical. Radical is a Latin word that means root. Radical is the root, the essence, the heart.
The stakes have gotten higher. Standing Rock is now a model; precedent is being set.
From dailycaller.com January 9th — “Environmentalists and Indian American activists are using the same campaign method used to torpedo the Dakota Access Pipeline to halt a natural gas pipeline in Texas.
Protests against the Trans-Pecos pipeline, a 148-mile project transporting natural gas through the Big Bend region in Texas to Mexico, have attracted several dozen activists during its first week.
Demonstrators plan on using tactics that helped scuttle the so-called DAPL pipeline in North Dakota on Trans-Pecos — in particular, they are setting up campsites near the project’s construction site and planning nonviolent “direct actions” against those building it.
‘We’re going to follow the same model as Standing Rock,’ Frankie Orona, executive director of the Society of Native Nations, told reporters Monday. ‘This is a huge historical moment for environmental issues, for protecting our water, protecting our land, protecting sacred sites and protecting treaties.’”
Earlier this week, the 17th, was the Skid Row street-level observance of Martin Luther King Day organized by Deacon Alexander, the day after the actual holiday. A highlight for me was we began the observance singing the first verse of what Deacon called the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
As we sang the words, it struck me how much they spoke to the many months of Standing Rock (and the marches in Downtown Los Angeles).
Lift every voice and sing
till Earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
The day following the Inauguration is the Women’s March on Washington. Similar marches are set for across the country, including one in Downtown Los Angeles.
The Women’s March on Washington today released a short You Tube video. Here is the text from it:
We march in solidarity for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families. Together we follow these principles of King-ian nonviolence.
Principle One — Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
Principle Two — The Beloved Community is the framework for the future.
Principle Three — Attack forces of evil, not people doing evil.
Principle Four — Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve a goal.
Principle Five — Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external violence.
Principle Six — The universe is on the side of justice.