The Great Unless

A few of the tipis at the Oceti Oyate camp. Photo taken by my friend Joshua Taflinger Today they come for the Water Protectors. They are coming for those who are standing up for their rights, their land, their water – and for us all. They are going to try to forcibly remove Native Americans from their ancestral lands again. Will this never end? The Standing Rock Sioux have endured more than I can possibly imagine – more than most people can even comprehend. And they are being asked to endure even more. I wish I could be there, to stand alongside them. I know many who are or who have been and they all return changed in a way. They have stood alongside the bravest, most terrorized, most marginalized, strongest people that have ever walked this land; and that experience opens their mind and spirit in ways that I can only hope to one day experience. The Lakota and their allies are fighting to protect water, land, and, indeed, the climate for everyone. An...

(Backstory: This piece was written when news first broke that Exxon had been feeding us misinformation for decades regarding climate change in order to pad their own pockets and protect their own interests. I was filled with rage...and I still am.) I am in mourning For all that should have been And all that can now never be. They knew. Like wicked demons prowling on innocents; They knew the risk they took, The future they would wrought, And they did it anyway With hushed meetings, Disingenuous campaigns of fiction, And stacks of money – They gambled away our future. My future. Your future. Our children’s future. Like so many nickels in a machine That only pays out to them And only in the short-term. For even they will feel these effects, The tumbling down of this house of cards, This fragile existence based on lies And finite materials. They were too busy Squandering away precious time And resources And lives To realize what they...