Independent Guestatorial: We look at the same moon but live in different worlds

“We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and do the right thing.” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman, Dave Archambault II.

Arkansans will stop Diamond

To stop Diamond, we need to trust others and join the Water Guardians, at ArkansasWaterGuardians.org. The way we interact with others and the way we approach Diamond will create healing threads in the fabric of our lives.

Arkansans have many rights – environmental justice, public health, clean water, clean air, healthy food, and a strong economy. Full of hope and respect for the Standing Rock Tribes, we will stand strong and stop Diamond. We will draw our collective power from Arkansans, and continue working with the US Army Corps. Many efforts are ongoing at this time. Billions of dollars are on the line. Diamond is watching all we do.

Plains Wheat Farming

Plains wheat farmers in the late 1920s, at a time when world wheat prices were down, kept farming and buying land. Farmers grew more wheat, hoping next year would be better. Not a good game, wheat was not grown for consumption by farm animals, but rather as a cash crop. Wheat prices kept going down, and no one was buying. The soil was gone in a few years. Using resources as economic assets is part of Western thinking.

“The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is one resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up.” – Federal Bureau of Soils, 1909

Fracking

To understand fracking, please try a simple experiment. Place $500 in $10 bills inside an envelope, get a lighter, and choose a safe place outdoors. Ask a friend to take notes of your reaction as the flames burn your savings. Fracking is like burning your money.

George Mitchell, a Texas oil baron, had money to burn. He fracked and fracked until it finally worked. Water was seen as “a resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up.” Fracking uses millions of gallons of pure water mixed with highly toxic chemicals to extract poor quality oil. Wastewater can’t be recycled; it ends up stored deep in the ground. Injection wells used as storage are the source of earthquakes.

With fracking, like the Plains wheat farmers, what you get for free is deadly. Earthquakes, wastewater, cancer, droughts, pipelines, crude oil spills, and many other freebies are part of fracking. Frackers don’t pay for the byproducts, you do.

Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono have something to say and frackers don’t want to hear:

“Gather round people and listen to my song,

about something most people agree is just wrong.

There ain’t no place left on this earth to discover,

so please don’t frack my mother,

Don’t frack me, Don’t frack me.”

Learning to trust

Facing frigid temperatures and attacks from armed mercenaries, First Nations gathered at the Sacred Stone Camp stood firm and trusted the Tribal Council, speaking softly with one voice.

Trusting others is hard. It is based on respect and confidence that everyone is doing their share. When people tell the truth, speak with facts, not emotions, and let go of their fears, anxieties, and anger, miracles happen.

The Corps decision to require an Environmental Impact Statement for DAPL proves the power of prayer with over 200 tribes coming together and trusting the Creator and each other. We need to learn the Lakota Way.

Killing the Black Snake

Diamond came to Arkansas with nothing but a website, a sack of lies, and an old copy of 1920’s Arkansas law. Arkansans have a choice. Join the Water Guardians and chip in $10, or wait for the first oil spill and pay all damages. We will stop Diamond before pipes are in the ground.

Dr. Luis Contreras