markruffalo:
As someone who has gotten to know the people involved in the water protection movement happening at Standing Rock, and witness first hand the militarized equipment of the police and national guard, one thing is absolutely clear to me; the aggressors are not the solemn, unarmed, determined, prayerful and throughly trained in peaceful direct action, men, women and CHILDREN at the Standing Rock camps. The aggressor would have to be the police officers who are using batons, pepper spray and non lethal weapons to beat, harass, and blind our fellow Americans who are using lawful peaceful assembly and civil disobedience to stop a threat to their single water source.
What I will say about Standing Rock is this. In my humble opinion, one of the bright shinning lights of the progressive movement today is what is being born on that reservation out of this historical struggle. Their humility, dignity, love of community, their deeply spiritual relationship to the environment and their economy are a beacon of hope for anyone who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart still beating warm in their chest.
The progressive community would be really well served to actually go down there and listen and stand with those folks and their non native allies putting their bodies on the line for their future and the health of their children.
What you may not have heard and what is most remarkable about what is happening there is that 500 native tribes have come together for this protest. This has not happened in over a century. This is a hugely significant accomplishment and event and could change political structures in the USA profoundly. This could be a very good thing.
I have been on the front of the NYS fracking battle, Keystone XL, and Climate Change; what is happening at Standing Rock is as exciting and historically significant as the Movement For Black Lives and BLM and that is saying a lot.
If this election is getting you down and if you feel like America has lost something essential, if you want a good moral and spiritual shot in the arm, then come join us out at Standing Rock in the next few weeks. I promise you it will be an experience of a lifetime. One that will remind you of your humanity and what a great cultural jewel our native brothers and sisters are.
They are going to need us because as of today the real aggressors are amassing outside the reservation with obscene military gear, weapons of serious destruction and from what we have seen recently an intent to harm. They seem to really have it out for our native brothers and sisters and after 200 years of broken treaties, broken skulls, broken backs and broken hearts these fellow Americans have come into their own. By joining them you will assist in bringing about a deeply needed and deserved justice.
Mark Ruffalo
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