I cry out

 
I cry out
How can I not?

On this land stolen from the Cherokee Nation,
now called private property,
protected by private security and county police,
I cross the line. I rise up. 
 
I cry out about
the crime being committed
against Mother Earth
whose trees have been bulldozed over
whose river is threatened
whose habitat is being wiped out and contaminated.
 
I cry out about
the crime being committed
against the victims of the US Empire
who will suffer more because of what is being created here -
the engine parts for the F-35 jet fighters
now being used to slaughter our brothers and sisters in Gaza.

I cry out about
the crime being committed
against future generations
who are inheriting a climate emergency
accelerated by the rapacious fossil fuel industry
represented here in our community now by this aerospace giant
Pratt & Whitney.
 
Today we say ¡Basta! Enough!
 
We are not crossing a line, the line has crossed us.
That line was crossed long ago when this land was stolen
by settler colonialists
from the Cherokee Nation.
 
It was crossed when the Vanderbilt family gobbled up
this beautiful forest for its own 
private pleasures
and profits.

It was crossed when this land was given
by Jack Cecil of Biltmore Farms to a war profiteer -
a war profiteer recruited by the Chamber of Commerce,
and paid ransom by the Buncombe County Commissioners.

And so, we walk into this crime scene
in front of this bridge to destruction
onto this desecrated earth,
next to these earth-removing machines
 
to cry out - ¡No mas! No more!

No more war
no more imperialism
no more war profiteers
no more nuclear weapons
no more ignoring the climate emergency
no more capitalism that sucks up resources from all over the world
no more worker exploitation, nor more union exclusion
no more austerity that makes us precarious and desperate for jobs
no more corrupt politicians
no more brainwashing by the corporate media
no more police repression and brutality
no more abuse of immigrants and refugees
no more white supremacy.
 
¡Basta! No mas, no more.

We pray to the Spirit of all that we know and all that we are.
We pray for those who are perpetrating this crime
for those of us who resist it
for those who will suffer from it.
We are all one people.
 
May we
be peacemakers, not warmakers
protect creation, not destroy it
share our wealth with each other
generate livelihoods that sustain
resist appeals to our fears
seek cooperation, not competition
make reparations for the harm we have done
and always dwell in love and compassion.

May we transition
our economy
our worldview
and our own selves
as a gift to our children and grandchildren.
 
All of our children - 
of all races
genders
religions
nationalities
ages
abilities
geographic locations
socioeconomic statuses.
 
All of us are god's children.
 
May we build bridges of solidarity
with human and non-human alike.
May we live in harmony
together here
on our one beautiful and life-giving planet. 

May it be so.
 
 

 


 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Virtuality

Image
  Melody learned and worked, and learned and worked, and got our new Reject Raytheon website up and running this week. What a chore it was for her, a beginner at this, but what a beautiful thing she came up with. We've got plenty of text, video, podcast, and photos on it so far and now we just need to keep feeding it. Virtual reality has a life of its own and can be the tail that wags the dog. We need to keep our movement going so we can get new stuff online! 😊 Speaking of which, I've been working to organize our next demo. This time, we'll converge on the office of Biltmore Farms LLC, which gave the land to Pratt & Whitney for its 1.2 million square foot plant. The office resides in the private community and shopping area of Biltmore Park, so we will be trespassing on private property with our banners, signs, and flyers. And we might even make some noise. Just today, I talked with a member of the very cool radical band Brass Your Heart which shows up at various activ...
Read more

Following the money

Image
  Read to the Buncombe County Commissioners right before they voted unanimously to give $5 million for the construction of a worker training facility for Pratt & Whitney.   Following the money The 27 million dollar tax rebate must have seemed an easy decision for you - had to do it, or they wouldn’t come and we need them to come because, you know, they promise jobs. Jobs mean money jobs are the currency that you bank on for approval, and for looking the other way: away from climate emergency away from war emergencies away from polluting our own water. It’s about money. Money that comes from we the people to congress to military to industrial, from the Pentagon to Raytheon to make weapons and profits galore, which kill children and other humans in Yemen and Gaza and god knows where. It’s about money Raytheon extorts from you so it won’t pay taxes, money that you offer to build an edifice for its workers with one of you at the foundation. Money that comes from we the people,...
Read more

Biltmore pillage

Image
  I'm getting a banner made with the image above, having walked up yesterday to the P&W site in the mud and rain to get the image. I want to use it when we do our vigil in Biltmore Park in front of the offices of Biltmore Farms LLC. Jack Cecil, the owner and CEO of the company is the one who donated the land to Pratt & Whitney for the plant. It is he who is responsible for the clear cutting of the forest that can be seen in this image.  The Biltmore Farms company was founded by George Vanderbilt, the local oligarch who created the Biltmore Estate, now a local tourist attraction. Here's how the Vanderbilts lived: Cecil is the grandson of Vanderbilt. Wikipedia says this about the Vanderbilt family: The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin who gained prominence during the Gilded Age . Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt , and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. ...
Read more