Peace Stands with Standing Rock
by
Ronald P. Leith (Ta-humpa Was'te, Good Moccasin)
The fire that was set in Standing Rock by the Oceti Sakowin, NoDAPL, and a multitude of national and international participants has now spread across the United States and all over the world. The threat of total water pollution and clean water decimation has brought together people from all walks of life, all professions and a variety of grass roots movement who gather to serve one purpose.
The blockade of corporate operations transporting oil from Canada to the United
States and beyond has become a central objective for activists of all color, race and creed. Many of these activists have not had a confrontational background from which to draw an integral conflict strategy. Although the international history of non-violent action has left it's mark on many as a exemplary framework from which to create a new strategy for confrontation and conflict resolution.
Peace has become the primary and preferable tool to be faithfully followed and utilized in the face of overt militaristic action, especially in the case of Standing Rock vs the Dakota Access Pipeline and their enforcers from Morton County, North Dakota and beyond.
The international practice of non-violence has a demonstrated and lengthy history which include prominent players who are now an embedded part of world history. The effective legacy they have left us with proclaims victories many at Standing Rock may not have heard of, sought or recognized. Although they have proven to be highly effective nonetheless. So becoming peace activists in their own right they are creating a legacy of their own which includes non-violent strategies which have been stable and proven in history.
The antagonist police state has evolved into multi-national corporate oligarchy, demonized corporation CEO's, and private armies of militarily trained goons. Not that much different from the Indian state police actors of Mahatma Ghandi's era or the southern city and state police of Martin Luther King's. Even though the names, faces and uniforms have changed the mission has remained the same. The protection and defense of imperialist colonialism and the development and the growth of the wealthy elite and their financial gain.
As effective as the peace movements new efforts have been to defend the world's natural resources we still find that corporatism has an edge we cannot seem to dull or erode. This is the philosophical mindset empowered and emboldened by a select few who are careless, privileged and fearful of a future in which all are equal and the fiscal state is evenly distributed and balanced.
Herein lies the opportunity for brave new tactics to be developed around peaceful opposition to a corporate imperialistic power which is longing to drain the earth of all it's life sustaining gas, minerals and energy. It's a preemptive strike which must be targeted at the corporate training modules current set in the primary and secondary educational milieus worldwide. These programs have been set by multi-national corporations seeking to train new megatronic, and industrialist classes which promulgate their ruling class systems.
This demands a life changing educational model that is holistic driven around the inter-connectedness of all life and the vital understanding that when one part of the system is damaged we all suffer the consequences either in this life-time or our descendants suffer in their lifetime. Life success for one should not mean the denigration and cancellation of life for all, including those who cannot defend themselves.
So while many of us are currently still in the field with our bandana's, long sleeves, provocative signs and dark glasses we need to send an army of educators out into the universe who will re-educate and implode the non-violent holistic approach to a proactive movement which will defend the earth against all corporate imperialistic machines.
The current US administration is adamantly focused on dismantling all protective legal barriers to the self-destructive path of corporate and governmental entities who have deemed them to be a hindrance to America's growth. Clean water, unpolluted air, safe cars, stable housing are only a few of the targets chosen for disruption and elimination by the Trump administration.
The frightening fact is not that they are becoming a reality, but rather that there are individuals in the corporate, educational and government fields that are standing by not making any attempt to curtail or stop these processes. And we know that those who do nothing are just as vulnerable as those who can do something.
When apathy reigns in the face of self destruction a new path must be cleared for those who recognize and loathe the ultimate motive and outcome. While peaceful protests do bring worldwide attention and broadly educate it is also a reactionary method of disruption. Typically we end up in the court system where we may be heard or in some cases we may be disqualified as legitimate parties to the issue.
The small pockets of re-training of what it means to be a community member has had effect but it is also taking the long way around. The New Age movement, the post Kent State strategists, and the Anti Vietnam War coalitions are just a few of the effective models developed and ensconced in the American revolutionary resistance tradition.
But to have to reactivate these methods every ten years or so can be a diluting and nationally discouraging exercise making them ineffectual community exercises in futility. So effective change has to come on every societal level simultaneously in order to be sustainable, trusted and self-renewable.
It's a complete re-thinking of what we need as opposed to what we want. That is a complete societal paradigm shift, a true reemergence of holistic philosophies which cross all international boundaries and cultural barriers. The entire propagandist framework currently set in place has to be reconstructed or dismantled entirely. Everything from advertising to taxes to congressional hearings and educational models.
But we can only do this as a peaceful conglomerate, using anti-divisive propaganda and the language of unity. Some might say that this is anarchy, or modern day revisionism. No, this is life. The power to welcome and accept change on a global scale is a new direction, a fresh opportunity. Our international survival depends on it, our future as a humanity free of colonialist contamination calls for it, our willingness and fortitude toward survival demands it.
