Letter to the White House
I had a rush of blood to the head and wrote a letter to President Obama about the Standing Rock Sioux protests. Text is under the cut.
For the record, what happens if you phone the White House and say, "Hi, may I please speak with President Obama?" is that a polite person tells you that you need to write a letter if you want to bring anything up with the President. (I was amazed I reached a live human being, since I'd been sure that I'd be referred to a voicemail which no one ever checks. I wonder how weird her job gets.)
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to ask you to deny the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the easement to build the Dakota Access Pipeline through the lands of the Standing Rock Sioux. I request that you speak out in condemnation of the violence used by the police, against the people protesting this pipeline.
The press (NowThis News) is quoting you as saying that you want to make sure "that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt." Please consider that the two sides are not equivalent. The police are armed with the legally sanctioned use of bean bag rounds, pepper spray, unbearably loud sounds, floodlights, riot armor, and the ability to arrest protestors, as well as the ability to shoot protestors if they think there is adequate cause. The protestors are armed with the courage of their convictions. Please consider that even the smallest expression of anger and resentment from the protestors will be used as justification by the police for more arrests, more violence, more repression. The police can even define the protestors' very presence as a situation that might result in people being hurt. By that logic, no one could ever protest anything.
I ask you to speak with Chairman David Archambault II, regarding Native Americans' rights to their own lands, or to invite Archambault or other representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux to the White House for the same purpose. There is historic precedent for such a move. During the Occupation of Alcatraz, beginning in 1969, the federal government could have dispersed and arrested the Indians of All Tribes. President Nixon showed restraint by allowing the occupation to continue for years and permitting the tribal representatives to voice their demands.
I believe that you can outdo the precedent set by Nixon. Please do more than watch the situation unfold. Please show that the US will honor its treaties with Native American peoples. Show that the US will not permit its citizens to be brutalized by the police for protesting their wrongs. Your statements will shape policy towards Native peoples, and towards citizens who object to any action on the part of the government. That policy will be one of violent repression, or of tolerance and communication.
Thank you for your attention and consideration. You have my best wishes for the peaceful completion of your Presidential term.
Most respectfully,
(Teenybuffalo)
Notes:
--If it seems like comparison to Richard Nixon is damning with faint praise, well, fair enough. For the record, Nixon was decent about Native American affairs. It's not even like, "He wasn't as much of a jerk as he could have been." During his term he signed off on legislation supporting the rights of tribes to self-rule and self-definition, out of a period when the US government was breaking treaties, reclaiming reservation lands, breaking up Native families and destroying their ways of life in forced assimilation. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
--This letter exists partly because I have an egotistical wish to go out to the site of the protests and help out in person. However, there are already plently of underinformed-and-clueless white people out there, getting in the way of the people with skin in the game. They do not need one more. It's my experience that a protest starts falling apart when the hippies and drug users and well-meaning outside people who vaguely want to do nice things show up. I'm in the latter category.
--Someone did "The Folk Song Army" at Pub Sing last night, and I was painfully aware of my own tendency to sing heartfelt songs and then not act on them. Goddamn you, Mr. Lehrer. If you feel dissatisfaction, strum your frustrations away. Some people may prefer action, but give me a folk song any old day!
--Now I have to make my mind up about all the ballot issues and go vote. (EDIT: Tough shit, I don't get to vote early after all. Early hours in my city ended at 12:30. Let this be a lesson to you to double-check the hours of absolutely everything you care about. Well, this simplifies my day, and next Tuesday I'll go vote while wearing a giant hat in honor of the women's suffrage movement.)
For the record, what happens if you phone the White House and say, "Hi, may I please speak with President Obama?" is that a polite person tells you that you need to write a letter if you want to bring anything up with the President. (I was amazed I reached a live human being, since I'd been sure that I'd be referred to a voicemail which no one ever checks. I wonder how weird her job gets.)
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to ask you to deny the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the easement to build the Dakota Access Pipeline through the lands of the Standing Rock Sioux. I request that you speak out in condemnation of the violence used by the police, against the people protesting this pipeline.
The press (NowThis News) is quoting you as saying that you want to make sure "that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt." Please consider that the two sides are not equivalent. The police are armed with the legally sanctioned use of bean bag rounds, pepper spray, unbearably loud sounds, floodlights, riot armor, and the ability to arrest protestors, as well as the ability to shoot protestors if they think there is adequate cause. The protestors are armed with the courage of their convictions. Please consider that even the smallest expression of anger and resentment from the protestors will be used as justification by the police for more arrests, more violence, more repression. The police can even define the protestors' very presence as a situation that might result in people being hurt. By that logic, no one could ever protest anything.
I ask you to speak with Chairman David Archambault II, regarding Native Americans' rights to their own lands, or to invite Archambault or other representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux to the White House for the same purpose. There is historic precedent for such a move. During the Occupation of Alcatraz, beginning in 1969, the federal government could have dispersed and arrested the Indians of All Tribes. President Nixon showed restraint by allowing the occupation to continue for years and permitting the tribal representatives to voice their demands.
I believe that you can outdo the precedent set by Nixon. Please do more than watch the situation unfold. Please show that the US will honor its treaties with Native American peoples. Show that the US will not permit its citizens to be brutalized by the police for protesting their wrongs. Your statements will shape policy towards Native peoples, and towards citizens who object to any action on the part of the government. That policy will be one of violent repression, or of tolerance and communication.
Thank you for your attention and consideration. You have my best wishes for the peaceful completion of your Presidential term.
Most respectfully,
(Teenybuffalo)
Notes:
--If it seems like comparison to Richard Nixon is damning with faint praise, well, fair enough. For the record, Nixon was decent about Native American affairs. It's not even like, "He wasn't as much of a jerk as he could have been." During his term he signed off on legislation supporting the rights of tribes to self-rule and self-definition, out of a period when the US government was breaking treaties, reclaiming reservation lands, breaking up Native families and destroying their ways of life in forced assimilation. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
--This letter exists partly because I have an egotistical wish to go out to the site of the protests and help out in person. However, there are already plently of underinformed-and-clueless white people out there, getting in the way of the people with skin in the game. They do not need one more. It's my experience that a protest starts falling apart when the hippies and drug users and well-meaning outside people who vaguely want to do nice things show up. I'm in the latter category.
--Someone did "The Folk Song Army" at Pub Sing last night, and I was painfully aware of my own tendency to sing heartfelt songs and then not act on them. Goddamn you, Mr. Lehrer. If you feel dissatisfaction, strum your frustrations away. Some people may prefer action, but give me a folk song any old day!
--Now I have to make my mind up about all the ballot issues and go vote. (EDIT: Tough shit, I don't get to vote early after all. Early hours in my city ended at 12:30. Let this be a lesson to you to double-check the hours of absolutely everything you care about. Well, this simplifies my day, and next Tuesday I'll go vote while wearing a giant hat in honor of the women's suffrage movement.)