“The only way to build hope is through the Earth.”   – Vandana Shiva

Hi Folks,

I recently transferred to Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Evergreen feels like the best place for me right now; it’s alternative, not too big but not too small and with good, strong, solid socially and ecologically aware values. I am enrolled in a program beginning in January called Resource Rebels: Environmental Justice Movements Building Hope.

Here is a program description:
Environmental Justice (EJ) links together environmental protection and social justice. EJ addresses inequalities between racial and ethnic groups, social classes, genders, and “North” and “South” world regions, and the ways peoples and environments are harmed by capitalist industrialization and Western colonization. Here in the Pacific Northwest, environmental justice issues come into sharp focus as local tribes work to block coal and oil train terminals, and move their communities away from volatile coastal areas in the face of climate change.  This program will offer direct opportunities to collaborate with local tribes and others in the area to learn about and respond to impending climate justice concerns.

Environmental Justice has provided a framework for growing movements of ecologically minded citizens, Indigenous nations, and others --who Al Gedicks calls “resource rebels”-- in North America and around the world. These social movements have taken stands against the cultural and economic systems based on resource extraction (of minerals, freshwater, hydropower, fossil fuels), and the industrial and military projects that harm local communities.

A panel of Indigenous front line activists who are directly confronting resource extraction from the source to the ports. This panel was put on by my program in the Fall quarter.

For those of you who know me well, you already know why this program is for me. For those of you unfamiliar with my years of activist activity, you’ll understand as you read on…

I think my past actions already define me as a Resource Rebel. Now I’m enrolled in a program that I believe will teach me how to make an even greater impact. Over the past few years, I have been directly involved in Environmental Justice movements organizing, taking direct action, and learning how to do it better.

·         I was engaged in the ‘Occupy’ movement; from ‘Occupy Santa Rosa’ to ‘Occupy Oakland’ and culminating with ‘Occupy Wall Street’

·         I have spent months with the Tar Sands Blockade in rural east Texas trying to stop the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.

·         I have completed an Earth Activist Training/Permaculture Design Course with Starhawk at O.U.R. Ecovillage in Shawnigan Lake British Columbia last Spring,

·         I have completed a Mycoremediation course with Fungi for the People in Eugene OR,

·          In the summer, I helped support (cook for, set up and break down camp, etc) a group of Diné (Navajo) youth called Nihígaal bee Iiná, who are young Diné walking for our existence. They want to restore Hozhó and K'é ( https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/nihigaal-bee-iina-movement-motion).  

·         I recently returned from sheep herding, helping Navajo elders resist relocation, in Black Mesa AZ through the group Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS).

·         I work frequently with the ‘Food Not Bombs’ effort around the country

All of the work I have done to date has been non-paid volunteer effort; I have worked very hard at it. As a result, I have no savings to cover my tuition expense.

It is said that if you follow your passion, things will fall into place, may it be so. My tuition for this course is $7,413. I have some scholarship and Pell Grant money, but not enough to cover my tuition and living expenses, with a balance due of $4,818.

I am asking for a donation of $5 (or more if the spirit moves you), in the hopes that there are at least 1,000 individuals in my community who can join the movement through my “actions”.

Something must be done to heal our planet. You know as well as I do, that for mankind to continue down this existing path is not sustainable. Action must be taken. You can take action. You can help me heal our home for just about the cost of your morning coffee run. Please consider donating to my effort.

Thank You!


 
My lockdown with the Tar Sands Blockade in Livingston TX, locked with my arms in a 'black bear' - steel (or plastic) pipes forming a right angle, with a bolt in the middle, I have bracelets on with caribeeners attached to the bolt, thus 'locking' my arms together, over an axle of a truck carrying pipes for the Keystone XL pipeline. There were three other activists 'locked down' with me. We effectively shut the pipeyard down for the day by stopping the truck in the entrance, they had to take a piece of the truck apart to get one of us off, further slowing it down(http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/2nd-action/)
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the group Nihigaal bee iina (Navajo for Our Journey for Existance) I was supporting; cook, break down and set up camp, these inspiring activists for three weeks, a huge honor (I am the white guy in the green hoodie).