Good place for a pipeline?
This is one of the most beautiful lakes in the country, with waters crystal-clear.
What if an oil company wanted to run an oil piipeline through here? [They don't - they have trains, long trains, of oil tankers going just east of the lake, along Lake Champlain, moving the oil to a port where it gets shipped overseas].
But what if they did? And routed the pipeline right through the community cemetery, where my grandparents and all my other family members were buried? And did all this with no environmental review? And what if the alarmed citizens of the area took to the streets to protest [peacefully, with no weapons allowed], and the State called out the National Guard - and soldiers from 5 other states poured in, with tanks, rifles, tear gas, mace, rubber bullets, helicopters, and a sound cannon?
All of this is happening out in North Dakota. As I watched fully armed soldiers spraying peaceful - but determined - Water Protectors as they attempt to protect their only water source, the Missouri River...spraying them in the face repeatedly...I could only think of the Salt Marches in India, where the peaceful followers of Ghandi marched in waves towards their source of salt, to be met by the thrashing clubs of the British army.
Who has the moral high ground?
Water is Life.
Good place for a pipeline?
This is one of the most beautiful lakes in the country, with waters crystal-clear.
What if an oil company wanted to run an oil piipeline through here? [They don't - they have trains, long trains, of oil tankers going just east of the lake, along Lake Champlain, moving the oil to a port where it gets shipped overseas].
But what if they did? And routed the pipeline right through the community cemetery, where my grandparents and all my other family members were buried? And did all this with no environmental review? And what if the alarmed citizens of the area took to the streets to protest [peacefully, with no weapons allowed], and the State called out the National Guard - and soldiers from 5 other states poured in, with tanks, rifles, tear gas, mace, rubber bullets, helicopters, and a sound cannon?
All of this is happening out in North Dakota. As I watched fully armed soldiers spraying peaceful - but determined - Water Protectors as they attempt to protect their only water source, the Missouri River...spraying them in the face repeatedly...I could only think of the Salt Marches in India, where the peaceful followers of Ghandi marched in waves towards their source of salt, to be met by the thrashing clubs of the British army.
Who has the moral high ground?
Water is Life.