On August 29, 1970 in East
Los Angeles, the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War staged a march and
rally that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators, most of whom were Chicanos.
Prior to that, the anti-war movement had been largely an Anglo student led
struggle. The Chicano Moratorium changed that and eventually helped end an
unjust war killing brown and black boys at higher statistical rates than Anglo
kids. Some of the older Chicano
writers of today were a part of that effort and many of their stories still
need to be told.
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Denver last week |
In the last months, my wife
and I have participated in actions to the stop the building of the Keystone XL
Pipeline that will transport tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast. The dirty oil
will worsen Global Heating, multiply incidents of pollution and make more of
the environment toxic to all forms of life.
At a demonstration a week ago at Sen. Michael Bennet's office in Denver, I wasn't surprised to see very few Chicanos in the crowd. It was déjà-vu, pre-Chicano Moratorium, all over again.
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In the meantime, there is at
least one Colorado Spanish-surnamed kid involved in leading this movement. His
talk at the rally was inspirational, at least for this old Chicano. It gave me hope
that even though few old Chicanos are involved yet, this one young man put
himself forward to say some things. That he'd been studying to become a writer, but was considering dropping out of college, seemed too ironical to be ignored by a Chicano literary website, like La Bloga.
If you think the XL Pipeline
will somehow be good for or Canadians or humans in general, you can
read passages that I excerpted below and go to the sources to read the
entire pieces.
"We are here to mourn
our future, but I am also here to mourn for the people already impacted by
climate change and the fossil fuel industry. I am mourning for the Beaver Lake
Cree Nation where industry has stolen land in order to extract the tar sands,
and where people are getting more and more sick. I am mourning for the
community of Manchester, the Valero refinery in Houston, where childhood cancer
rates are ten times higher than the state average.
"People talk about how
bad things are going to be in thirty or forty years for the privileged, but
they often ignore how bad things already are for the marginalized communities.
"I keep hearing from
people that my generation--I'm 22--doesn't care or that we are too complacent.
I've been thinking a lot about that, and the real reason we may seem
disenfranchised is because it's your job, as the past generation, to convince
us to buy what you're selling. And you've failed.
"At my age it is hard to
see the power structures fail and become completely obsolete, but that is the
case. There is no progress within the current system. The future you have left
for us is a miserable one, so I don't want to see you act happy about that. I am
tired of reading reports, and scientific studies that tell me this planet may
not be hospitable for me by the age of retirement. And it will be even worse
for my children, and the future generations.
"That is why I am here
fighting, alongside many others my own age, and younger and older. Fighting to
change things, fighting to change the flawed system that I was born into, and
fighting for the future." - Mark C.
Some older people took
offense at some of his words that day. I wasn't one of them because taking
personal offense at the truth seems petty, ignoring the decimated forest for
the one tree you planted.
I was there and can attest
that this young man's words had much more emotion in them that the text indicates. I
detected frustration and spirit, anger and love, youthful angst and intelligent
insight. It moved me at least to post this with the intention of spreading the
word to stop this degradation of people, countries and planet. Below you'll see
that ethnic minorities already suffer greatly, yes, Chicanos too.
People of color paying for extraction
"The Canadian oil
company Transcanada will be cleared to transport bitumen, or tar sands oil,
from Canada to the Gulf Coast for sale on the open market following refinement.
This process is said by locals who live
near refineries in Texas to be poisoning the environment of especially
low-income communities of color.
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Go here to read the entire piece.
Native Americans and their caribou in the crosshairs
"The cultural heritage,
land, ecosystems and human health of First Nation communities including the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca
Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McMurray First Nation, Fort McKay Cree Nation,
Beaver Lake Cree First Nation Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, and the Metis,
are being sacrificed for oil money in what has been termed a “slow industrial
genocide'.
"Infrastructure projects linked to the tar sands expansion, such as
the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline, threaten
First Nation communities in British Columbia, Canada and American Indian
communities throughout the United States. Community resistance is growing and
Indigenous peoples throughout North America have mounted substantive challenges
to tar sands expansion.
"Stories of cancer epidemics in the community of
Fort Chipewyan, massive wildlife losses
related to toxic contamination, environmental degradation and increased vocal
resistance from impacted communities have shattered the ‘everything is fine’
myth propagated by the Canadian and Alberta governments. The Athabasca delta
has been completely altered from a pristine boreal forest, clean rivers and
lakes to a devastated ecosystem of deforestation,
open pit mines and watershed where fish
regularly exhibit tumors and birds landing on contaminated tailings ponds die
instantly.
"Each barrel of oil
produced from tar sands requires 2 to 6 barrels of water.
In 2007, Alberta's government
approved the withdrawal of 119.5 BILLON gallons of water for tar sands
extraction. 82% of this water comes from the Athabasca River. Toxic wastewater
is discharged in holding or tailing
ponds that leak 11 million liters of toxic waste per day into the Athabasca and
seep into the ground water. This water flows northward (downstream) further
into Indigenous territories. Since
this toxic waste has been flowing into the river and seeping into the
groundwater - rare and virulent cancers
have affected many of the Indigenous Community members- and fish and game have
been found with physical abnormalities and deformations and tumors in fish.
"In 2006, unexpectedly
high rate of rare cancers were reported in the community of Fort Chipewyan. In
2008, Alberta Health confirmed a 30% rise in the number of cancers between 1995
-2006. However, the study lacks appropriate data and is considered a
conservative estimate by many residents.
"Caribou populations
have been severely impacted by tar sands extraction. The Beaver Lake Cree First
Nation has experienced a 74% decline of the Cold Lake herd since 1998 and a 71%
decline of the Athabasca River herd since 1996. Today, just 175–275 caribou
remain. By 2025, the total population is expected to be less than 50 and
locally extinct by 2040."
Bus Trip - CO to KXL Hearing
in Nebraska
Our government is holding
only one open hearing about the construction of this pipeline. In Nebraska,
where attendance would obviously be limited. Buses from other states will head
there with people willing to go. Check here for Colorado info.
If this pipeline is stopped,
a major contributor
to Global Heating will never happen.
If it is constructed, plan on
Global Heating accelerating.
Es todo,
RudyG
1 comment:
Kudos to this young man who spoke his heart, spoke the truth. And shame on all the rest of us in America who shut him out, who don't care about the people who are already suffering. May this young Chicano be multiplied by millions of people of all colors who'll step up to the plate and speak out. It will take all of us to pressure our President to deny this pipeline. I fear he's leaning in the direction of approving it; if so, this would be a huge betrayal to the people and a huge cave-in to Big Oil. Let's not let that happen.
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