Thursday, October 27, 2016

Call The President And Justice Department About #StandingRock

This is going to be a very brief post which will be better done in the near future. Making it to easily post information on Facebook and Twitter to get people to call the White House and the Justice Department because of the increasing urgency at #StandingRock.

The illegal actions in North Dakota and the rise of the Militarized Police (ACLU LINK) is getting so out of hand. It is beginning to look like a crackdown in in a totalitarian regime perpetrated by a strong armed dictator, not a free society.

If you care about what is happening to our Native American First Nation community right now especially, please call the White House and Justice Department. We can't all be there on the front line but technology is the vanguard of the second line of defense. Share this post freely please. Mni Wiconi

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact#content-start

Call:
U.S. Department of Justice
Department Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Department of Justice Main Switchboard: 202-514-2000

Write:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

United Nations Peacekeeping Forces Contact

Non-Violent Peace Forces Belgium Email Link

Peace Brigades International-USA, P.O. Box 75880, Washington DC, 20013 EMAIL info@pbiusa.org

State Governor's Links Further Down

Please Spread this Post

It is being reported that North Dakota regulators are filing a complaint against the oil company building the Dakota Access pipeline for failing to disclose the discovery of Native American artifacts in the path of construction.
Contact Julie Federchac North Dekota Public Services Commission
600 E. Boulevard, Dept. 408
Bismarck, ND 58505-0480

701.328.2400 - Phone
877.245.6685 - Toll-Free
701.328.2410 - Fax
ndpsc@nd.gov

https://fundrazr.com/d19fAf?ref=sh_25rPQa


http://www.unicornriot.ninja/
Unicorn Riot has many up close and personal videos of the
militarized actions against the water protectors at #StandingRock







It has been reported that Kelcy Warren CEO of Energy Transfer Partners said:
"America's freedom won't be held back by a bunch of dirty natives with their phony spirituality and dumb ass ecological concerns."
Stop destroying Sacred Sites and Water at #StandingRock

Please stop #injustice at #StandingRock
President Obama at Twitter
Hillary Clinton at Twitter
Jill Stein on Twitter
#MniWiconi on Twitter
#WaterIsLife on Tweiitr
For Twitter >> Be a #technology Vanguard #activist call #PresidentObama help #StandingRock #WaterIsLife #MniWiconi http://bit.ly/2fcWK5j

Added info from friend on Facebook:
These are the states sending in "troops" to help defend big oil. It's already cost Morton County $500,000 A DAY. MAKE PHONE CALLS, PEOPLE!

State of North Dakota
Office of Governor Jack Dalrymple
701.328.2200: phone
701.328.2205: fax

The Legislative Council
Phone: 701-328-2916
E-mail: lcouncil@nd.gov

MORTON COUNTY NORTH DAKOTA STATES ATTORNEY
ALLEN KOPPY
PHONE : 701-667-3350
EMAIL: allen.koppy@mortonnd.org
Assistant State's Attorney in Morton County is named Gabrielle Goter
 
Kyle Kirchmeier Morton County Sheriff (in charge of police at #StandingRock)
Phone: 701-667-3330
email: kyle.kirchmeier@morton.org

Wisconsin -
Governor: 608-266-1212 - Scott Walker
State Legislators: 1-800-362-9472
Tourism Dept: 1-800-432-8747

South Dakota -
Governor: 605.773.3212 - Governor Daugaard
State Legislators: 605.773.3251
Tourism Dept: 1-800-732-5682

Minnesota -
Governor: 651-201-3400 - Governor Mark Dayton
State Legislators: (651) 296-2146, (651) 296-0504
Tourism Dept: (888) 847-4866

Wyoming -
Governor: 307.777.7434 - Governor Matt Mead
State Legislators: (307) 777-7881
Tourism Dept: 307-777-7777

Indiana -
Governor: 317-232-4567 - Governor Mike Pence (Trump's VP)
State Legislators: (800) 382-9842 (800) 382-9467
Tourism Dept: 317.233.3261

Nebraska -
Governor: 402-471-2244 - Pete Ricketts
State Legislators: 402.471.2788
Tourism Dept: (402) 471-3796

It is being reported that on October 29th Governor John Kasich sent 37 highway patrol officers to North Dakota to assist with security at protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline
Phone: (614) 466-3555
 


And if you do contact, add outrage about double standards in regard to white people and the Indians.
Please Visit Kether Muse

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Sunday, October 23, 2016

#StandingRock and the Legal Observer


A friend emailed me this article today (thanks Stephanie) From here I found myself reading the blog post of Alder Rebecca Kemble District 18 of Madison Wisconsin. It is a personal account of being arrested with water protectors at #StandingRock while delivering
Madison's resolution "Expressing Solidarity with Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline" to the Standing Rock Tribal Chairman, David Archambault II. This resolution was passed unanimousy by the Common Council and signed by the Mayor on September 20, 2016."

Another article I came across was a recent article written October 12, 2016 by the Civil Liberties Defense Center who are considered the leading resource for preparing legal observers.

Given the rise in technology and the increased question of who is Watching theWatchers many issues have not been legally defined yet leading to much confusion as to who is right and wrong and where our powers and responsibilities as citizens lie. It might seem cliche but the observations of Orwell on Big Brother have even more than in the past been taken from the arena of science fiction into the arena of science fact. Many have found that to them this sort of idea was just so much conspiracy theory. But with the arrival of Edward Snowden into our national consciousness many more now are having an awakening to the surveillance society we live in as regards to our governments and our fellow citizens. This too is spurring a new look at the legal boundaries associated with whistleblowers and others. But that is another issue for another blog post.

I would hope to believe that in this day and age few are not aware of the gathering of the tribes and supporters at Standing Rock in protest of the North Dakota Access Pipeline and the increasing arrests there. And among them is the arrests of journalists observers and legal observers. The issue of protecting the water should be a cause we all would support but surprisingly it is not by many. They have their reasons I suppose but I will not go into that today. 

Other issues are the issues of the unenforced mandates of the treaties we have signed with the Indians of our country and the destruction of Sacred Sites and the Recognition of Native American sacred sites in the United States and their protection of them as outlined in the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for them as well as others.. The issue of desecration of sacred sites should alarm us all, whether it is from a spiritual standpoint or a secular one. The racism against the Indians are just as profound if not even more so than the racism toward the black citizens of our country. And understanding how the history of the police and racism are so relevant. Hopefully this awareness is being expanded greatly.

This post may go on and become larger with edits to come. But for now here are a few links of interest to these issues. I wrote an email to the National Lawyers Guild as I found a link on many pages to their "Legal Observer Training Manual" but all links are broken. Hopefully they can fix it and when/if they do I will update the link to it here.






Copwatch was first started in Berkeley, California in 1990


Of great interest to me is the whole area of journalism. Searching my website's pages Engage, Peace Resources and Activists Resources you can find more on the above issues and much related to journalism with emphasis on the importance of independent media.






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Monday, October 17, 2016

#StandingRock and Black Panthers

This will be a short post today:

I watched a video today by Lyla June (Facebook Page Here) from October 15th 2016.The video is about the Indians at #StandingRock attempting to go to the pipeline site and pray and how they were stopped by roadblocks and arrested. She was expressing their growing frustration there and made an appeal for everyone to write and or call the President and the Department of Justice. I would add to that list the ACLU as the violations of the Constitution and our Native treaties are so obvious. This can also be seen in the prosecution of journalists there.

As far as this I had a couple of thoughts. In regard to the roadblocks perhaps they could start going on horses and get around them. Just a thought.

My second thought has to do with The Black Panthers
From Wikipedia
"The initial tactic of the party utilized contemporary open-carry gun laws to protect Party members when policing the police. This act was done in order to record incidents of police brutality by distantly following police cars around neighborhoods. When confronted by a police officer, Party members cited laws proving they have done nothing wrong and threatened to take to court any officer that violated their constitutional rights."

North Dakota is a semi open carry state. So I envisioned #StandingRock water protectors grabbing their legal open carry gun permits and guns, their bows and arrows (tomahawks??) and stand in peaceful vigil and intimidate these hired thugs just as the Panthers did in their more peaceful times.. Just seeing the Panthers exercising their Constitutional rights made people stand up and pay attention as well as scared the hell out of police. A sort of version of the Guerrilla warfare technique as this is much akin to an asymmetric war.

Native Lands in Native Hands

Contact people and tell them to do something about what is happening at Standing Rock and what is being done to the journalists covering the protests.

ADDED CONTENT:
Amy Goodman Broadcasts from North Dakota Across from Court Where She Faces Riot Charge Today a great report from last weekends events at #StandingRock with excellent video.

Well here is contact info for you all to use. I am.

Go to this link to email the President or
Call the President

PHONE NUMBERS
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121

Write a letter to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Correspondence to the Department, including the Attorney General, may be sent to:

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The Department may be contacted by phone at the following:

Department Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Department of Justice Main Switchboard: 202-514-2000
TTY/ASCII/TDD: 800-877-8339




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Saturday, October 8, 2016

The Days of Rage and the Millennials

I grew up in the late 60's and early 70's and it was during this time I became an activist. Mine was pushed greatly by receiving my draft card after registering for conscription with the Selective Service System. But by this time the draft was coming to an end and few were being punished for burning their draft card. (LOOK HERE) But the fight against the war was raging... It took me years to distinguish between being anti-war and pro-peace. At times I still struggle with that. Although the principle of Ahimsa is my default position I sometimes feel like Bruce Cockburn, especially in this day and age of war in Syria, the war on terror and the brutality of  ISIS and US drone warfare. The song Lives in the Balance by Jackson Browne echoes in my mind often. And Tracy Chapman's The Rape of the World always makes me cry.

I look at this election and shake my head in despair. I feel that the best way out would be a revolution. Being non-violent I wish to focus on the revolution via a political one at the ballot box. The best avenue for this has been hopefulness of the Millennials. While Bernie Sanders was running their political enthusiasm was tremendous, as was the same for other generations. But now that Bernie has left the race, I fear their bubble has burst and they are going to fade into the background.. But this post is about another part of history today that may or may not dovetail with the current atmosphere of our nation.

I muse that although Millennials can be a powerful force they seem to be mostly a quiet bunch. And I think about revolution and politics. I think about the protests of my own personal past. I am not for violent revolutionary tactics, but I don't see the passion of those days in the young people of the day, although they have many issues to be enraged about. The closest may be Occupy Wall Street and the Black Lives Matter Movement. But as I said this is a “This Day In History” Post. Beyond the initial statement as to the day's anniversary I will just post some links that you too may muse on if you wish. Many of them will be added later to my Website.

47 years ago today in 1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurred.
The October 8–11 event known as a "National Action" built around John Jacobs' slogan, "Bring the War Home".

Some things I collected about Millennials:

In January of 2016 The Atlantic wrote "And if there’s one thing people are learning about this young generation, it’s that they are liberal. Even leftist. Flirting with socialist."
50% of Millennials are self-described Independents
Approximately 40% of Millennials are non-white or Hispanic
Nearly seven in ten Millennials think that newcomers strengthen American society
They are more likely to support same-sex marriage and the legalization of drugs.
Voting among people under 30 in non-presidential elections is hovering around its lowest rate in the last half-century.
Millennials are the most highly educated and culturally diverse group of all generations, and have been regarded as hard to please when it comes to employers.
American sociologist Kathleen Shaputis labeled Millennials the Peter Pan Generation.

“Young people treat electoral politics the way they treat Hollywood movies: They only show up for the blockbusters. But the math of democracy is unyielding. If you want a revolution, you have to vote for it. Not just every four years. Not just for cool candidates. Not just for political outsiders unsullied by the soot of experience. If young people want a liberal revolution, they have to vote again and again and again, in local elections, midterm elections, and presidential contests. To change the country, America’s young revolutionaries have to do something truly revolutionary: They have to convince their friends to vote like old people.”

In the United States, Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist and democratic candidate in the 2016 United States presidential election, was the most popular candidate among Millennial voters, having garnered more votes from people under 30 than each of the major party's candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, did combined. In April 2016, The Washington Post viewed Sanders as changing the way Millennials viewed politics saying, "He's not moving a party to the left. He's moving a generation to the left."

Millennials have brought a resurgence of political correctness. In 2015, a Pew Research study found 40% of Millennials in the United States support government restriction of speech offensive to minority groups.

The estimated number of U.S. Millennials in 2015 is 83.1 million people. In 2016, the Pew Research Center found that Millennials surpassed Baby Boomers to become the largest living generation in the United States.

According to Christine Kelly, Occupy is not a youth movement and has participants that vary from the very young to very old.

Thought this was a good video illustrating the power in the hands of the Millennials

Days of Rage and Other Interesting Links:

Days of Rage Posters:
1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4

The "Join the Conspiracy" posters are a reference to the The Chicago Seven originally Chicago Eight. Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number of defendants from eight to seven. He and fellow activist Huey P. Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party.


Weatherman members Mark Rudd and Terry Robbins said that priority must be given to building an anti-imperialist youth movement.



"The Elections Don't Mean Shit—Vote Where the Power Is—Our Power Is In The Street"
Weatherman Manifesto Full Text also known as You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows (1969)
From the text very relevant to today:
"What is specifically meant by the term caste is that all black people,
on the basis of their common slave history, common culture and skin
color are systematically denied access to particular job categories (or
positions within job categories), social position, etc., regardless of
individual skills, talents, money or education. Within the working
class, they are the most oppressed section; in the petit bourgeoisie,
they are even more strictly confined to the lowest levels."


Jacobs was the primary author of what came to be called the "Weatherman Manifesto."

“Weatherman would shove the war down their dumb, fascist throats and show them, while we were at it, how much better we were than them, both tactically and strategically, as a people. In an all-out civil war over Vietnam and other fascist U.S. imperialism, we were going to bring the war home. Turn the imperialists war into a civil war, in Lenin’s words. And we were going to kick ass.” - John Jacobs

According to Bill Ayers:“The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theater of ‘here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here’s the little path they’re going to march down, and here’s where they can make their little statement.’ We wanted to say, “No, what we’re going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.’”

The Black Panthers withdrew their support of SDS when it refused to sanction community control of the police in white neighborhoods.



The Catonsville Nine were tried in federal court October 5–9, 1968
Fr. Daniel Berrigan wrote, of the Catonsville incident: "Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children..."




Che Guevara believed that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism, and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution.




Just Because





It may seem futile but I encourage all to vote.




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Friday, October 7, 2016

15 Years Ago Today And The Endless War




 This will be just a short post today. Just a reminder of what today is
and what it has meant to our lives. Rethink war.

Fifteen years ago on October 7th 2001 the United States of America launched Operation Enduring Freedom invading Afghanistan after the Taliban declined to extradite Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda unless given convincing evidence of his involvement in the 911 Attacks.
It is now the longest war in our county's history and the beginning of the Endless War On Terror.

As of 2015, tens of thousands of people had been killed in the war. Over 4,000 ISAF soldiers (NATO-led security forces) and civilian contractors as well as over 15,000 Afghan national security forces members have been killed, as well as nearly 20 thousand civilians. (these numbers are said to be much more by some especially the civilian deaths)

As of September 23, 2016, there have been 2,216 U.S. US military deaths in the War in Afghanistan.

All fighters in this war have been accused and/or convicted of war crimes and human rights abuses. The Taliban, the Northern Alliance, Coalition Forces and US soldiers.

The Patriot Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. Senator Russ Feingold was the only Senator to vote against the bill.

On September 14, 2001 the Authorization for Use of Military Force was passed with Barbara Lee, D-CA being the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the bill.

It is very clear that with Clinton or Trump the increase in war and militarism will be greatly increased. This year's vote is very important for the future of us and our children. The evidence is that most likely war will continue. Although the Libertarians and the Greens are the most anti-war it is unlikely they will garner the votes and even if they did, getting their agenda passed in any bill in Congress would be hard to imagine and it would just die in place. Please join your local peace groups and anti-war organizations and do what you can to end the madness.

Hillary Clinton on national security and military defense issues READ HERE
Donald J. Trump on the issues HERE
Gary Johnson on the issues HERE
Jill Stein HERE



Many in this election have been looking for change.
Many believe that a revolution is on the horizon.
Many hope voting correctly will curb this downward spiral.
And many think it will take a violent insurrection and are planning on it.
"Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me."
This image found at
Clearing The Fog Radio


This song may offend some.
Added because it was written by Matt Johnson
as a commentary to the War on Terror:
Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) By The The

Please Visit The Kether Muse Website.
Beginning in The Wormhole

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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Idaho Indigenous People's Day

(blog image captured from NPR in Buffalo)

Monday October 10th is Columbus Day. In 2015 it was reported that 14 cities had replaced it with Indigenous People's Day. And more have been joining in this last year. Two of the most resent as of this date are the cities of Denver, Colorado October 2016 and of Spokane, Washington August of 2016. Related is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People celebrated on August 9th.

Here is a very good article about this published on Tuesday, October 4th by Common Dreams. He touches on what is taught in school and many children basically think Indians are Dead. Howard Zinn also addresses real history in his People's History of the United States in chapter 7: As Long As Grass Grows and Water Runs.

The current activities at the North Dakota access pipeline protests (unfortunately under reported) has put a bit of a spotlight on issues central to the Native Americans and their presence in our country. Issues of Sacred Land and Sites, broken treaties and the presence of a third world country within our borders are being discussed. But more than discussions we need more spotlights put on Indians and their issues. Hopefully cities changing the celebration of Columbus to a truer celebration by enacting Indigenous People Day will be a great start.

Here in Idaho where I live, I have not, as of yet, found a push to have this done here. But being a republican/conservative driven state it is a tough row to hoe. The closest holiday we have is perhaps Idaho Human Rights Day. We do have a group that has been working for 8 years plus to get our legislature to add the LGBT community to the list of those protected in our Human Right Act by adding four words. Add The Words Idaho is the organization spearheading this change. I have searched some but have not found any concerted effort by any group to get any city in Idaho, let alone the state, to adopt the day, not even in the small liberal stronghold of the capital city of Boise.

As a board member of the Idaho Peace Coalition I am going the write to the other board members and see if this is an issue we may like to take on.

Perhaps a gathering at the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial would be a good start with the help of friends at the ACLU Idaho and United Action for Idaho. Perhaps the Agency for New Americans would wish to be evolved as celebrating the cultures of refugees is also of importance.

And of course contact will be made to the The Shoshone-Bannock tribes, the Nez Perce, Coeur d'Alene tribe, Shoshone-Paiute, the Kootenai Tribe as well as others Idaho Indian advocates.

In closing. If you have read the previous post here you may have gleaned that I have been disappointed at myself and my reactions to the current politics. Tip O'Neil said, “All politics is local.” And I agree. So given this I have decided to be more engaged in areas that touch me on a more personal basis. (small note, I am 1/8 Native American) My participation with The Idaho Peace Coalition has been spotty at most in recent times even though the work is dear to my heart. I apologize to my fellow board members. As mentioned in the previous post I am working on my personal anger issues but I know if I work for others in a more peaceful way I can help them and thus also help myself. If you would like to help with this proposed project or have ideas to share please contact me.. Please share this post with others who may be interested.
AHO

Edit Addition: On Monday, October 10 at 10 AM - 2 PM Boise State University will be holding an Indigenous People's Day Event LINK HERE FACEBOOK EVENT LISING

Sponsored by Multicultural Student Services (Boise State University)
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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Engaging and Disengaging

(NOTE: at the bottom of this post is the credit of the artist who created the image used here)

This morning I created and posted a meme to Facebook as visiting there too often as of late has contributed to anger I still hold inside about many things. As a founding member of the Idaho Peace Coalition I do my best to work for peaceful solutions to war and injustice and teach methods of reconciliation. But admittedly I too often fall short of these goals. Facebook these days is so full of anger from the political divides, the opinions on wars, the treatment of black America by the police to the treatment of Native American Indians.

To ease this anger I have been trying to utilize the tools of The Work Of Byron Katie. Also reinforcing my fundamental belief that we create own own reality. From metaphysics to quantum physics the fact that we have this power is evident. I am not going to go into any attempt to convince any one else about this, only myself. A questioning of “even though I say the words” how powerful is my belief in this basic concept? I acknowledge as a reality Saṃsāra and sigh as I think of the Buddhist First Noble Truth. And all of these and more teach the only thing I can really change or have control over are myself and my avenues of thought and belief. Ah, being human.

Among the issues that vex my spirit as of late are issues of the “Fear of the Other” which I see as such a motivator in our current climate of discontent. It permeates so much of the discourse seen today.

The historical the treatment of black America as illustrated in the new film by Ava DuVernay "13th".

Or the situation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (Facebook Link) and the August 25, 2016 article by Nick Bernabe "Why There’s a Media Blackout on the Native American Oil Pipeline Blockade". Was amazed and happy to see MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell's report on the Standing Rock protests but such reports are few and far between.

I appreciate those who post on Facebook more uplifting things that are on spiritual matters or funny memes and videos but they seem like just a sprinkling in my news feed. And even these at times make me angry and my mind screams, “Do these folks even care that the world is falling apart as we post?!!” And there ya go. My anger rising which I can't blame any one or thing or event on really other than myself.. Even facts like the world is not falling apart garner less attention to me than they would normally as I allow myself to focus on the horrors of the world.

In my “real life” as of late I have been surrounded by death. A half dozen souls close to me very recently have either moved on or are standing at the doorstep at this very minute. I have found myself asking, “What is really important?” I have been taking the time to reach out to many who I love and care about but have not connected with enough, getting a truer sense that we know not what the future may bring and each of us may leave at any moment or loose someone dear to us.

So in closing I will say I hope we all can focus more on those we love. More on what is really important in life. Think about the sentiments of the Serenity Prayer. While not being oblivious the the outer world I know that change comes first from within ourselves. Namaste

This image was created by one of my closet and one of my longest time friends known as the artist O-Ah-Key who is currently dancing with the angel of death.
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