Uniting Urban and Rural Communities Speech at Churchtown Dairy
See above to view Judy speak about uniting urban and rural communities and her new non-profit All Together Now PA, whose mission is to do just that.
Commencement Speech at Drexel University
With Provost Blake and Dean Schultheis
I was honored to give the keynote commencement address
for the Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences
on June 13th at the Mann Music Center.
Go to 39:05 in the video below to view the commencement speech or click the link below for the transcript.
Send Progressive Women to Harrisburg
A Report from Judy's Deputy Ranger
This is the second in a new series, ‘Where’s Wicks: Reports from her Deputy Ranger.’ Even at 71, Judy’s out advocating for local economies, fighting climate change, rallying for progressive political candidates, and supporting under-resourced Philadelphia entrepreneurs. I’m writing to share first-hand accounts of her latest escapades. - Katherine Rapin
Dear Friends and Readers,
Despite the slew of horrendous national headlines we read everyday, we’re writing with good news: a record-breaking number of women are running for political office this year. Like many Philadelphians, Judy traditionally focuses on candidates running for federal and city offices, while largely ignoring races for the state legislature. But this year is different.
With the primary elections around the corner, I’ve watched Judy work with groups focused on state elections including Represent PA, a PAC that is pushing an important agenda: send more progressive woman to Harrisburg.
With the expertise of political consultants, the PAC sorted through 70 applications to select a list of 32 candidates to endorse and finance. (View the list here.) “This PAC is an effective vehicle for supporting candidates running in other parts of the state who we might not otherwise know about,” says Judy, “These are the people who will determine statewide legislation that affects all of our lives."
Last month, we heard from candidates at an event organized by the PAC. Judy was excited to meet Elizabeth Fiedler, a former WHYY reporter and mother of two, who's running for the 184th district seat in South Philadelphia. “These women are stepping into their own power," says Judy, ”It’s time we women envision ourselves as political leaders.”
From left: State Senate candidates Katie Muth and Maria Collette, U.S. Congress candidate Madeleine Dean, and State Rep. candidates Elizabeth Fiedler, Maggie Borski and Wanda Logan.
Other Represent PA-endorsed candidates Judy has known for years. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, running for re-election in the 161st district, was the first executive director of the Sustainable Business Network. Her office was on the second floor of Judy’s house. “She’s one of my greatest mentors,” Krueger-Braneky told me at a recent event.
The state representative from Swarthmore shared a glimpse of what it’s like to work in Harrisburg; Krueger-Braneky is among the women that make up fewer than 20% of the general assembly.
Seven women serve among 53 men in the Senate; 41 women serve among 162 men in the House, and there are no women in the 18-member delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Which means Krueger-Braneky has spent the last three years fighting abortion bills and “defending basic human rights,” she says, rather than focusing on the issues that motivated her to run for office in the first place (increasing minimum wage, supporting local business, advocating for our environment, and improving education).
Recently, she found herself in a room of chuckling men as the definition of sexual harassment was outlined in a committee meeting. “Our State Capitol is the most misogynist place I’ve ever worked,” Krueger-Braneky says. (Read about her bill to stop sexual harassment and discrimination here.)
From left: Christine Jacobs, Represent PA executive director; State Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky; and Val Arkoosh, Montgomery County Commission Chair, at a recent Represent PA event at UPenn.
This atrocious behavior in Harrisburg is just one example of widespread misuse of power and misrepresentation in politics. Women have had enough -- 146 are running in Pennsylvania this year, many for the first time.
“A lot of these women did not have political ambition, but this time of crisis is calling to them,” Judy says. “The main rationale for patriarchy has historically been to protect women and children, but patriarchy has failed us. Now women and children - like the courageous high school students calling for stricter gun control - are standing up to take leadership in protecting our communities and our natural environment.”
It’s time to right a historic wrong and bring women into equal power.
To support progressive women running for the state legislature, you can donate to Represent PA here. Meet the endorsed candidates on May 7th, 5:30-7:30pm at Saxby's headquarters, 2300 Chestnut St. And make sure to vote in the primary elections on May 15th.
Represent PA supporters hear from candidates at a recent 'Breakfast and Learn' event.
Driving the Drill Rig 5
Judy Wicks’ deputy ranger, Katherine Rapin, here. Since last October, I’ve been her right hand gal, supporting her action-packed, often unconventional day-to-day life. In a roundabout way, I moved to Philly because of Judy. She presented her memoir, Good Morning, Beautiful Business at an event near the college I attended in Michigan. I felt a deep connection to her values and wanted to learn from her ability to operate outside of convention to catalyze our communities to do better. I spoke with her after the presentation, purchased her book, and set up a time to meet for lunch in Philadelphia. Three years later, after moving to the city and keeping in touch with Judy, I answered her call for a personal assistant.
As you know from the lists of events in her newsletters, even at 70, Judy doesn’t sit still for long. She’s out spreading the word about building local economies, fighting climate change, rallying for progressive political candidates, and supporting under-resourced Philadelphia entrepreneurs with a micro-loan and mentoring program. To bring you first-hand accounts of her latest escapades, I’ve begun work on a new series, “Where’s Wicks? Reports from her Deputy Ranger." Read on for the first in the series, Driving the Drill Rig 5.
Driving the Drill Rig 5
When our packed car reached the farmlands of Lancaster County, I saw golden cornfields bisected by deep trenches and massive links of pipe climbing a bucolic hillside.
“Look at the scars on this beautiful land - some of the most fertile soil in the country,” Judy bemoaned. She, David Funkhouser and Lou Ann Merkle were squished together in the back seat. Earlier they’d reminisced about protesting together at the Women’s March on Washington and at Standing Rock, but now we all watched out the window, dismayed by the construction project tearing through the surrounding landscape.
I was driving the crew, plus a reporter from WHYY out to Mountville, PA for demonstrations against the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. The 197-mile, $3 billion project is being constructed to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in northeastern PA through Lancaster County and on to the Chesapeake Bay for export. Judy and her friends had committed to civil disobedience that day in opposition to the pipeline. It was my job to make sure they got to the site and to record the event.
I kept one eye on the dashboard, noticing the battery on Judy’s electric Chevy Bolt drain faster than anticipated because of the cold temperature and weight of five passengers. It was the first long trip we’d taken in the new car, and for a moment I wondered if we’d end up stranded in Lancaster County. With five miles to spare we made it to our destination. Miraculously, I later found a charging station just a mile away and juiced up for the ride home. While we were here to oppose fossil fuels, it was heartening to know that there was progress toward an alternative - electric vehicle ownership had increased enough to warrant a charging station in such a small town.
In the basement of a church in Mountville, we joined about 40 members of Lancaster Against Pipelines (LAP) gathered at long tables enjoying coffee and donuts. Some of these citizens have been fighting the project since 2014; ten new recruits had traveled from Philly, responding to Judy’s call to action (link).
I was among those new recruits, and I wasn’t quite sure what the day would bring. But when I met LAP co-founders Malinda and Mark Clatterbuck I felt a surge of motivation to join their efforts.
Malinda, a Mennonite minister, small in stature, spoke with great passion and indignation as she called our attention to the front of the room, reminding us of land that has been taken by unjust use of eminent domain. “There’s been a huge change in the social contract without much discussion in the past few decades,” she said, “I’m striking a blow on the corporatization of America.”
Her eloquence and dedication inspired me: I knew she had poured so much into this movement, prioritized protecting her land and community over personal comfort and leisure time. I felt empowered to strike my own blow.
I grabbed an LAP t-shirt with the message, ‘You Will Not Spoil this Land.” Judy and Lou Ann layered up in the bathroom, pulling on diapers in preparation for a long afternoon occupying a drill site. Judy stood in front of the mirror, bright red shirt stretched tight over her long down jacket. “I look like a football player!” she laughed.
About an hour later, we rode together in the front of a school bus, on our way to a work site. Bright orange fencing lined sections of the road and cranes towered over exposed earth. Pipes, 42 inches in diameter, lay in trenches, poised for burial. Actually seeing the torn up land was powerful; it instilled a sense of urgency, an inability to deny or downplay this unjust construction.
Hearing from the people who were directly affected by the project was equally powerful. I talked with Jon Telesco, police liaison for LAP, as he directed the bus driver to the action site. The builder from Conestoga told me that a section of the pipeline is already buried on his next-door neighbor’s property. “We’ve been fighting this for three and a half years,” he said. He lives about two miles from the construction site on Witmer Road where the bus stopped and can hear the drilling equipment from his home.
As I stepped off the bus, I imagined what it was like to live in the small house just across the street from the drill site. The front door was about 200 yards from where the workers operated the rig. Not only are their lives being disrupted during construction, but they will now live next to a pipeline carrying highly explosive gas, with the risk that something could go wrong and harm their family.
The grating sound of the drill, the stack of gigantic pipes, and the fleet of white trucks at the site reminded me of what Mark said earlier that morning, “We have an opportunity to demonstrate the outrage we feel and we have to take advantage of this invasion while it’s active and it’s visible.”
The time had come for me to make my decision. Our group of protestors had been told that we had a couple options. We could stand safely by the side of the road where we could wave banners and sing, or we could walk onto the drill site and risk possible arrest, while supporting the five who planned civil disobedience. Clutching my notebook and camera, I stepped forward.
As twelve of us walked onto their site carrying banners up to the drill rig, the workers watched us. The hum of the drill got louder and I felt dwarfed by the massive industrial equipment. As I got closer, snapping photos of our group occupying the site, the sound suddenly stopped. The workers conferred in a group, white helmets bent together.
I knew that these workers, all white men, had a perspective vastly different from mine. I imagined for some, this was just a way to pay the bills, but for others, building a pipeline was a source of pride, a feat of engineering that would benefit the US economy by more efficiently transporting natural resources. I wondered what would shift their mindset, what might open them to the possibility that this project was perpetuating a dependence on a source of fuel that continues to cause catastrophic climate change.
“You know that’s a dangerous piece of equipment,” one worker said as Judy climbed the narrow metal platform of the drill rig. She and four others stood side-by-side on the rig and locked their wrists together through segments of pipe. The men in green vests eyed them as they made calls to security. We could hear the support group singing from the road: “We’re gonna rise up, rise up til it’s won.”
When the first police officer arrived on site, I felt a wave of anxiety - there was a small chance that we could be arrested on the spot for trespassing. He conferred with our liaison Jon Telesco. I watched, hoping he would give us a warning to leave the premises before the arrests began.
Jon relayed his message: we had five minutes to leave. Those who chose to stay would be arrested. I had done my part and walked steadily away from the site, turning around to take a last photo of the group of five lined up on the rig, an American flag waving in the clear blue sky behind them.
Three hours later, after more officers and the property owners arrived on site, the ‘Drill Rig 5,’ were arrested.
During the ride to the jail, Judy says the police were friendly, chatty even. Wrists cuffed behind her back, she talked with the officers about the solar panels on her roof. They pointed out the barns and homes collecting clean energy in Lancaster. These officers seemed to respect the goals of LAP, says Judy, and they treated the protesters they’d just arrested kindly.
It was a vastly different experience than what she witnessed at Standing Rock, where indigenous people and their allies faced rubber bullets and tear gas, and were held in chain-link cages for days after being arrested.
“I did think about the comparison between how well we were treated in a white community where we were all white compared to where there’s racial tension as there often is between native people and the descendants of white settlers,” Judy says.
Though Judy didn’t feel the same fear she felt while marching with the women at Standing Rock, she was reminded of what the community there modelled: that we must have the courage to protect our water and land in a non-violent way. It’s what inspired her to stand on the drill rig, chained to her fellow citizens in the brisk wind for nearly three hours.
“I hope that, when there is another action to fight climate change, more people will answer my call, and other people will answer their call and we’ll build a movement of resistance against the fossil fuel industry to protect all that we love.”
That day, I saw the power of massive, destructive machinery up against the power of the human spirit, the force of the corporate fossil fuel industry against the force of courageous citizens. And we made an impact: we succeeded in shutting down construction for the day. It was a reminder that when citizens work together over a committed period of time, civil disobedience does bring change. And our bold risks are needed now more than ever.
Yesterday, Judy returned to Lancaster for her hearing. She paid $184.25 in court costs and was mandated 10 hours of community service to be completed in the next 30 days. She and the Drill Rig Five left the courthouse and went out for celebratory beers and tacos.
On Friday, April 13, they'll convene at the statewide Rally Against Pipelines at the Rotunda of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg. Join them to demand policy that will protect the farmlands, watersheds and communities of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania's Standing Rock
The spirit of Standing Rock – the indigenous led movement to protect land, water, and culture from the fossil fuel industry – is spreading across the country and inspiring communities to act. In Pennsylvania, Lancaster Against Pipelines has set up a Standing Rock style encampment called The Stand, where they are preparing for nonviolent mass action to stop the construction of a pipeline from tearing through their beloved farmland, woods and backyards to transport fracked gas for export.
The pipeline company, Williams Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma is benefiting from an abuse of eminent domain in which private land in the path of their pipeline is being condemned, not to benefit the public as eminent domain was intended, but rather to bring greater profits to an out of state corporation.
Lancaster Against Pipelines cofounder Malinda Clutterbuck exclaims, "The hardest thing to accept is that large corporations are given permission to devastate our lives and threaten our health and safety for private profits, while we who live here have no say in the process. Eminent domain for private gain is wrong."
This outrageous abuse is happening all over the country. Rather than defend their own constituents who are crying out for help to protect their communities and environment, many politicians at all levels of government are siding with the fossil fuel executives who fund their campaigns. Thanks to the Supreme Court decision Citizens United, corporations are free to pour unlimited money into political campaigns, which has created collusion between corporations and government that is threatening our democracy, as well as our safety and well-being now and for the generations to come. With the lack of enforcement and the removal of regulations that protect the public, corporations are free to increase their profits, while citizens suffer greater poisoning of our air, water and soil.
The Lakota Sioux at Standing Rock tell of a 1000 year old Lakota prophecy that describes a Black Snake that would one day rise from the deep and move across the land bringing destruction and great sorrow. The Sioux believe that the Black Snake has arrived in the form pipelines and the most powerful economic and political force in the world - the fossil fuel industry. As the prophecy further warns, if the Earth’s people do not unite to defeat the Black Snake, the world will end.
As we near catastrophic climate change, this could be our last chance, individually and as a nation, to choose life over money, love over fear and join as one people to defeat the Black Snake.
Lancaster Against Pipelines states:
“ We believe that the American people have a moral obligation to stand up to a system that is rigged in favor of billionaires and big business at the expense of people and planet. When the government is not standing up for our homes, families, and futures, we will stand up for ourselves.”
Thanks to those who joined us one year ago...
Philadelphians Stand with Lancaster County
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Please join us in carpools from Philadelphia to The Stand at 325 Conestoga Blvd, Conestoga, PA, or meet us there a noon for an orientation by leaders of Lancaster Against Pipelines. We are leaving Philadelphia at 10am, and plan to arrive back home by 4 or 5pm. We are bringing brown bag lunches and also bringing food supplies to contribute to the kitchen at The Stand. If you plan to attend and would like to join a carpool, please contact me at judy@judywicks.com.
Lancaster is the primary breadbasket for Philadelphians who eat local food. It's in our own interest to support the farmers and protect the land, water and rural communities. And it's our duty to defeat the black snake where ever it appears. If you cannot come on the 25th, please consider donating, volunteering and/or signing the pledge at www.wearelancastercounty.org.
Other local pipeline battles against the Black Snake:
Pennsylvania Pipeline Resistance
https://350philadelphia.wordpress.com/pipeline-resistance/
Concerned Citizens Against the Penn East Pipeline
www.stoppenneast.org
Middletown Coalition for Community Safety fighting Mariner East 2
Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline
Pinelands Pipeline
http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/
Groups fighting all area pipelines:
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org
www.foodandwaterwatch.org/state/pennsylvania
Here are the Core Values of Lancaster Against Pipelines:
• “We the people” hold the power.
• “We the people” includes all of us.
• “We the people” have a moral duty to stand against corporate greed.
• “We the people” will defend our families, the land, the water, and future generations.
Here are the Strategic Principles of Lancaster Against Pipelines:
• Our actions are rooted in our core values.
• Our actions aim to expose a system rigged in favor of billionaires and big business at the expense of people and planet.
• Our actions will involve mass participation whenever possible.
• Our actions will be creative, disciplined, and nonviolent.
Here is a link to a video about Pennsylvania's Standing Rock:
https://www.facebook.com/fusionmedianetwork/videos/1838808036145166/
Lancaster Against Pipelines Pledge:
WE STAND WITH THE LAND
PREAMBLE:
We, as local communities, have an inherent right—and duty—to [1] protect the land, water, and air that give us life, and [2] ensure the health and safety of our residents.
For three years, we’ve opposed Williams’s plans to run a dangerous, fracked gas, export pipeline through the heart of our communities, using every legal means available to us. Yet our system of government, at all levels, has failed to protect us. As 2017 begins, our resolve is stronger than ever to protect ourselves and this land by ensuring the Atlantic Sunrise Project never gets built.
TOGETHER:
• We defy a system of government that tells us we can’t protect ourselves from industrial harms because corporations have been given more “rights” than we who live here.
• We defy the gas industry’s plans to subject our families, communities, and natural environment to catastrophic danger for their own corporate profit.
• We defy FERC’s conclusion that the Atlantic Sunrise Project would have “less-than-significant” impacts on our land, water, and communities.
TOGETHER:
• We pledge to protect our water.
• We pledge to protect our preserved farms.
• We pledge to protect our forests and precious wildlife.
• We pledge to protect our sacred Native American heritage and culture.
• We pledge to protect our Amish neighbors who’ve been targeted and harassed.
• We pledge to protect the future of our children, who must live with the consequences of the actions—or inaction—we take today.
WITH THIS PLEDGE:
We vow to protect our communities through nonviolent Civil Disobedience if FERC gives Williams Gas Company permission to poison our water, clear-cut our forests, steal our farms, bulldoze our Native heritage, and put our families at risk. Along with our financial and material resources, we pledge to put our bodies between the land we love and those seeking to destroy it.
TOGETHER, WE STAND WITH THE LAND.
Pennsylvania's Standing Rock
The spirit of Standing Rock – the indigenous led movement to protect land, water, and culture from the fossil fuel industry – is spreading across the country and inspiring communities to act. In Pennsylvania, Lancaster Against Pipelines has set up a Standing Rock style encampment called The Stand, where they are preparing for nonviolent mass action to stop the construction of a pipeline from tearing through their beloved farmland, woods and backyards to transport fracked gas for export.
The pipeline company, Williams Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma is benefiting from an abuse of eminent domain in which private land in the path of their pipeline is being condemned, not to benefit the public as eminent domain was intended, but rather to bring greater profits to an out of state corporation.
Lancaster Against Pipelines cofounder Malinda Clutterbuck exclaims, "The hardest thing to accept is that large corporations are given permission to devastate our lives and threaten our health and safety for private profits, while we who live here have no say in the process. Eminent domain for private gain is wrong."
This outrageous abuse is happening all over the country. Rather than defend their own constituents who are crying out for help to protect their communities and environment, many politicians at all levels of government are siding with the fossil fuel executives who fund their campaigns. Thanks to the Supreme Court decision Citizens United, corporations are free to pour unlimited money into political campaigns, which has created collusion between corporations and government that is threatening our democracy, as well as our safety and well-being now and for the generations to come. With the lack of enforcement and the removal of regulations that protect the public, corporations are free to increase their profits, while citizens suffer greater poisoning of our air, water and soil.
The Lakota Sioux at Standing Rock tell of a 1000 year old Lakota prophecy that describes a Black Snake that would one day rise from the deep and move across the land bringing destruction and great sorrow. The Sioux believe that the Black Snake has arrived in the form pipelines and the most powerful economic and political force in the world - the fossil fuel industry. As the prophecy further warns, if the Earth’s people do not unite to defeat the Black Snake, the world will end.
As we near catastrophic climate change, this could be our last chance, individually and as a nation, to choose life over money, love over fear and join as one people to defeat the Black Snake.
Lancaster Against Pipelines states:
“ We believe that the American people have a moral obligation to stand up to a system that is rigged in favor of billionaires and big business at the expense of people and planet. When the government is not standing up for our homes, families, and futures, we will stand up for ourselves.”
Thanks to those who joined us one year ago...
Philadelphians Stand with Lancaster County
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Please join us in carpools from Philadelphia to The Stand at 325 Conestoga Blvd, Conestoga, PA, or meet us there a noon for an orientation by leaders of Lancaster Against Pipelines. We are leaving Philadelphia at 10am, and plan to arrive back home by 4 or 5pm. We are bringing brown bag lunches and also bringing food supplies to contribute to the kitchen at The Stand. If you plan to attend and would like to join a carpool, please contact me at judy@judywicks.com.
Lancaster is the primary breadbasket for Philadelphians who eat local food. It's in our own interest to support the farmers and protect the land, water and rural communities. And it's our duty to defeat the black snake where ever it appears. If you cannot come on the 25th, please consider donating, volunteering and/or signing the pledge at www.wearelancastercounty.org.
Standing Rock Lives on in Pennsylvania: Protecting our Land, Water and Communities
From the jungles of the Amazon to the tar sands of Alberta, indigenous people of the Americas are standing up to the fossil fuel empire in defense of Mother Earth. In many languages they are saying, “Respect your Mother. Protect your children.” These are the common sense principles for the survival of our species. Yet the majority of our industrialized society fails to live by them. Colonizers started a pattern of disrespect and exploitation on Turtle Island, the native name for North America, which disrupted thousands of years of devoted stewardship by native people.
Today, as we experience catastrophic climate change, there are signs of hope that some communities are awakening to a new relationship with Earth, and with indigenous people. At the Standing Rock encampment in North Dakota, I was among thousands of non-native allies who joined Native American water protectors fighting an advancing oil pipeline in the fall of 2016. Throughout the encampment, banners and t-shirts worn by native teenagers exclaimed, “Defend the Sacred.” I went in service to express my commitment to indigenous rights and gratitude for the Lakota’s brave defense of our common Mother. For many months, multicultural, intergenerational groups of supporters traveled to Standing Rock, where they experienced native values of respect, reciprocity and reverence for the Earth.
Though the pipeline in North Dakota prevailed, the spirit of Standing Rock lives on, calling us to continue the struggle, to act with courage to protect our places throughout the continent for generations to come.
When I discovered Lancaster Against Pipelines (LAP) on a spring day in 2017, I cried for joy to find the same values I had experienced at Standing Rock: sharing, cooperation, and love-based, non-violent action to protect the water, land and communities of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My daughter and I attended a gathering at The Stand, a structure built in the path of a 42inch fracked gas pipeline that LAP opposes – one that would tear through woodlands, rich farmland, and creeks, while perpetuating reliance on climate-destroying fossil fuels. At the Stand, I joined the struggle to “Defend the Sacred” in my home state and beyond.
During the summer I made several trips to The Stand, sometimes bringing friends from Philadelphia, to learn about the struggle to stop the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. Williams Partners, the pipeline company, based in Oklahoma, is benefiting from an abuse of eminent domain in which private land in the path of their pipeline is being condemned, not to benefit the public as eminent domain was intended, but rather to increase corporate profits, while bringing desecration and risk to the community.
After civil disobedience training by Greenpeace, in which I participated, LAP organized five actions to block the progression of the pipeline, including on October 9th, when the group formed a 16-vehicle blockade to prevent workers from accessing the drill site. A week later, members gathered around an excavator on property owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an order of Catholic nuns that built a chapel in the path of the pipeline on property which Williams obtained by eminent domain. That day at the construction site, 23 people were arrested and charged with defiant trespassing, in the name of protecting their land. In total, 45 people have been arrested since pipeline construction began.
On Saturday, March 10, I’ll be joining the defenders in civil disobedience. Will you come with me? There will be options to risk arrest or simply to witness and support the action risk-free. The event will end with a celebration at the chapel on the farmland of the Adorers, who are continuing their freedom-to-practice-religion lawsuit. They explain, “Our faith impels us to stand up when the beliefs we hold sacred are compromised and our land is exploited by the misuse of power.”
For some of the defenders, this is the land their families have loved and have cared for since they arrived as settlers in the 18th century. For others, it is the land they have chosen as their home and have taken responsibility to protect. It’s also the land that produces much of the fresh food for the farmstands and markets in Philadelphia. As stewards of our homeland, it’s our responsibility to fight, too.
Like Standing Rock, there is little chance of stopping a pipeline backed by powerful corporations and politicians, when all legal means have been exhausted. Nevertheless, it’s imperative that we resist. Our voice and action are needed to demand justice from eminent domain, bring a transition to renewable energy, and force political change in Harrisburg and Washington, so that we can at last take responsibility for the land that gives us life.
This family-friendly event begins at 9:30 on Saturday, March 10, at Trinity Reformed UCC, 450 W. Main Street, Mountville, PA, where there will be a brief rally with coffee and donuts. Bring a bag lunch. Participants will leave cars and board a bus to the action site, and from there to the chapel for the closing celebration. Transportation back to the cars will be provided. If you are interested in coming, please email me at info@judywicks.com, for further details and for carpooling options.
If you cannot come on March 10, please consider donating or volunteering at www.wearelancastercounty.org.
Lancaster Against Pipelines
WE STAND WITH THE LAND
PREAMBLE:
We, as local communities, have an inherent right—and duty—to [1] protect the land, water, and air that give us life,
and [2] ensure the health and safety of our residents.
For four years, we’ve opposed Williams’s plans to run a dangerous, fracked gas, export pipeline through the heart of our communities, using every legal means available to us. Yet our system of government, at all levels, has failed to protect us.
TOGETHER:
• We defy a system of government that tells us we can’t protect ourselves from industrial harms because corporations have been given more “rights” than we who live here.
• We defy the gas industry’s plans to subject our families, communities, and natural environment to catastrophic danger for their own corporate profit.
• We defy FERC’s conclusion that the Atlantic Sunrise Project would have “less-than-significant” impacts on our land, water, and communities.
TOGETHER:
• We pledge to protect our water.
• We pledge to protect our preserved farms.
• We pledge to protect our forests and precious wildlife.
• We pledge to protect our sacred Native American heritage and culture.
• We pledge to protect our Amish neighbors who’ve been targeted and harassed.
• We pledge to protect the future of our children, who must live with the consequences of the actions—or inaction—we take today.
WITH THIS PLEDGE:
We vow to protect our communities through nonviolent Civil Disobedience if FERC gives Williams Gas Company permission to poison our water, clear-cut our forests, steal our farms, bulldoze our Native heritage, and put our families at risk. Along with our financial and material resources, we pledge to put our bodies between the land we love and those seeking to destroy it.
After Standing Rock, Thanksgiving Will Never Be the Same
At the family Thanksgiving table this year, imagine a world where the idealistic dream of Thanksgiving actually exists – where the descendants of settlers and the descendants of those brought here by force sit down with the descendants of Native Americans in the spirit of generosity and abundance, giving thanks for all that our common Mother has provided us.
I experienced a glimpse of such a world last year at Standing Rock when our delegation of travelers from Philadelphia and around the country worked with the native community at the Standing Rock High School to cook and serve dinner for 2,000 Water Protectors. It was our way of expressing gratitude to those who were taking a brave stand against the Black Snake – the oil pipeline advancing across North Dakota and the fossil fuel industry it serves.
Our dinner guests, Native Americans from tribes across the Americas, along with hundreds of non-native allies, had a common mission to stop the construction of an oil pipeline threatening the land, water and sacred sites of the Sioux. But our commitment and solidarity went beyond one pipeline battle. There was an unspoken understanding that we had come together in common struggle to defend the sacred – life itself. Our shared meal provided us a moment to give thanks to each other for taking part in this work.
Though for now the Dakota pipeline has succeeded in moving forward, the spirit of Standing Rock has spread to communities across the country where citizens have united to defeat the Black Snake. When I first visited Lancaster Against Pipelines, a community group fighting a fracked gas pipeline in Pennsylvania, I almost cried for joy when I saw that their pledge of commitment contained the same values of cooperation, non-violence and love that I saw demonstrated at Standing Rock. The citizens of Lancaster county are putting their bodies in the path of the pipeline to peacefully protect their communities, farmland, streams and woods. So far, 45 have been arrested.
As we gather at dinner tables around the country, let us give thanks to Native Americans for leading the resistance to fossil fuel in defense of Mother Earth, as indigenous people are rising up to do in the Amazon, in Africa and around the globe.
In a society where many of us have been taught a “them and us” worldview through a lenses of separation, scarcity, and domination, we give thanks to Native Americans for articulating a vision of the world as an interconnected web of life to which we all belong, and where there is enough for all of us if we share and cooperate.
Let us also give thanks to Native Americans for all the foods on our Thanksgiving table and in our daily diets that were originally cultivated by native people over thousands of years and offered to early settlers, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, beans, pumpkin, and cranberry, as well as the domestication of the turkey.
With gratitude, lets make Thanksgiving a time to give back to Native Americans, and to appreciate the water protectors in our own communities.
Here are some ways to express gratitude each year at Thanksgiving time:
1. Help Native Americans buy land to build restorative economies that will sustain their people and inspire their youth.
Here is one example:
A project lead by Winona LaDuke to buy a farm and start growing industrial hemp and heritage vegetables. The minimum for the fund to succeed has been raised, but much more is needed to buy equipment and supplies to get the farm and processing businesses up and running.
More here
2. Legal defense fund for water protectors at Standing Rock
The trials for approximately 400 non-violent, peaceful water protectors are underway. Please consider contributing here to their defense fund.
More here
3. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the Pipeline (DAPL)
Though the pipeline at Standing Rock succeeded in moving forward following Trump approval, the tribe continues its battle in the courts. Earth Justice is representing the tribe in their legal battle, and is also working against oil and gas drilling in many communities. Consider donating to Earth Justice here or here.
4. Legal defense fund for Lancaster Against Pipelines
Help the 45 citizens arrested while peacefully protecting their land and communities in Pennsylvania by contributing to their legal defense fund.
5. Research pipeline battles in your local community and become a water protector.
My blog on our Thanksgiving 2016 trip to Standing Rock, can be found here.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.