The GIft in the Shadow of Climate Change

Or: How do Humans Heal a World?
Heartbreak is a Necessary Beginning

To an observer, the world can look extremely dysfunctional. Humankind seems mired in violence and hate, in political posturing and war-mongering; people who are supposed to be people-of-faith make “illegitimate” and make “other,” those whose beliefs are different; greed and corruption seem to be running the world and we brace ourselves daily against terrorist attacks like those in Paris and more recently, Belgium. As if that’s not enough, we are bombarded with concern for the environment and climate change.

With everything already in chaos, we are afraid to admit to ourselves that the planet may be dying even though we suspect there’s truth in it. It seems that we feel the distress on some level whether it’s conscious or not. We can’t wrap our minds around the idea that life on this planet, which includes human life, could cease to exist. We flee in terror from our feelings in order to avoid pain and having to comprehend annihilation. The mind simply cannot embrace the truth for there can be no evacuation — there is nowhere else to go.

Standing Rock: The view from 2 women who attended Oceti Sakowin Camp

Singer-Songwriter Aliza Hava and Scholar and Operations Manager for the Dominican University School of the Arts and Humanities, Keiko Ehret, tell .us about Standing Rock and their adventures at the camp. This interview is not what you expect- it will startle you from another view.

STANDING ROCK

Photo Credit Adam Alexander Johannson

This is destined to become an iconic photo of an iconic event

“Standing Rock” refers to Camp Oceti Sakowin, an encampment of water protectors from the Dakota and Lacota Sioux Nations near Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.

The water protectors are exercising their first amendment right to peacefully assemble to protest the building of a new Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that is routed under the Missouri River.

The Missouri River Basin supplies water to millions of people and an oil spill would affect everyone downstream.  Energy Transfer Partners had to reroute the original pipeline because it came too close to Bismarck and the predominately white residents there objected.

The Sioux Tribes filed a lawsuit alleging the Army Corps of Engineers violated several U.S. Laws treaty provisions when they gave DAPL an easement to build on federal land and land that would endanger sacred sites on the Sioux Reservation.

Standing Rock is an unparalleled historic event...