Who could forget the pictures of protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline freezing in the snows near Standing Rock Indian Reservation being set upon by attack dogs and police in riot gear? Even after a Federal Judge ruled that the environmental studies had to be redone and the pipeline shut down, an Appeals Court ordered continuation of the oil flow. Almost 500 people were arrested including journalists covering the assaults on the protesters.
Now we have Enbridge in northern Minnesota where Native Americans are protesting another tar sands line across the wetlands and rivers of the Ojibwe people. Homeland Security helicopters, flying as low as 25 feet above the gathering, dumped sand on the crowd. “It was like being in a sandstorm,” commented one person.
Friends of the Headwaters, a Minnesota based conservation group, is suing the state and the Army Corps of Engineers to stop this project. Tar sands oil is “dirty” oil, and the proposed pipelines only increase our reliance on fossil fuels rather than clean energy. We should not have to destroy the earth in order to have energy.
Prayer for the Day
We do not treasure your creation enough, Origin of life,
For we want to tame it and reign it in to fit our limited view:
You call us to broaden our vision and guard your earth
To accept your infinity, but we resist your call.
Move us beyond the silt of our imagination
And let the flow of the river wash us clean.
In the name of him who opened the river of your llife,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
This is not just another pipeline. It is a tar sands climate bomb …Mining the sands often means scraping off the boreal forests…it is a breathtaking betrayal of Minnesota’s indigenous communities -- and the environment.
Louise Erdrich, writer, member of Turtle Band of Chippewa
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
Chief Seattle, Suquamish chief (1790-1866)
God calls to the heavens above and to the earth that the people may be judged:
“Gather to me my faithful ones, who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice”
The heavens declare God’s righteousness for God is judge.
Psalm 50: 4-6