Plovember 5: We Interrupt This Story to Bring You Standing Rock

 The auto saga will continue tomorrow because I needed to tell a different story today.

Imagine you are a child again and you\’ve built a fort.It\’s all yours.You spend as much time there as possible and everyone — all the other children in the neighborhood — knows the fort is yours. You\’ve lovingly gathered the items to construct it and the space on which it sits is designated as yours.You have siblings, cousins, and other extended relatives and they spend time with you in your fort.Without warning, a crowd shows up and indicates that they will be taking your fort.Because they figure they can.You and your kin stand up to these individuals, but they start fighting with you.Physically.Brutally.Some of the neighborhood kids see this going down and attempt to help you, but the invading crowd bullies them as well.

Your adult self would probably say, \’Wow, that is really not cool.\’Exactly.And that\’s what has gone on, in a very basic form, at Standing Rock. Except instead of you as a kid with your family members and friends, it\’s happening to the Sioux Tribe on their land. The oil pipeline project will cut through sacred Indigenous lands.And we know how safe that typically is, oil and all.Bottom line: just like you\’d have a problem with bullies trying to take your fort, our Sioux brothers and sisters have a problem with their lands being taken by big oil.Now, I\’m not suggesting you fly there and stand on the front line. Unless you want to and have the means, in which case, right on! However, you too can lend support by signing the petition and posting on social media. Click here for some ready-made posts — see how easy that is?You can also take it a step further. Yes Magazine was kind enough to put together a list of the officials from multiple states who created the militarization action at Standing Rock, along with their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, emails, phone numbers, and so forth. Send them a message to let them know how wrong it is to shoot (like rubber bullets don\’t hurt) at protesters and all the rest of it.Enough is enough.#IndigenousLivesMatter