We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Seize the moment, stand with Elsipogtog

Click here to access article by Derrick O’Keefe from straight.com (Georgia Straight weekly newspaper, Vancouver BC)

The Idle No More movement gets almost no coverage in US media. This posting is an effort to fill that gap in a little. The movement has been initiated by indigenous people in Canada and the US to fight back against shale fracking which is contaminating ground water, but it appears that the most active efforts have been all across Canada. Currently, actions in New Brunswick and Ontario are being met with overwhelming violence from the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). 





See also this, this, this, and this