Tar Sands Pipeline action at the White House

I am at home now, back in Mount Shasta, California, recovering from the excitement of being with the XL Pipeline action at the White House in Washington, DC.  As I write I still have the green band on my right wrist, placed there by the police, that displays the number "99."  I was the 99th activist arrested on Friday, September 3rd in front of the White House.  My citation places the location of my arrest at "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."   It was the largest civil disobedience action in the U.S. this century.  There were many native Americans and First Nation People from Canada standing in protest.  Their very presence made the reality of what we were all there for more vital.  They sang Native American symphonies as they were waiting to be arrested.  First Nation People across the street from us in Lafayette Park were singing the American Indian National anthem.  The message for me was beyond the sacred words that I could not know.  Nonetheless, it insinuated itself into the deepest part of my being.  I felt at one. 

The Canadian writer of "The Shock Doctrine", Naomi Cline, was arrested along with us.  We clapped for her as we did for each arrestee.  The crowds in Franklin Park clapped with us and added, "Thank you."  The sun shone, the crowds in Lafayette Park chanted responsively as in church to our chants as the energy of democracy and human dignity played our voices like a symphony.  "You say climate, I say justice."  "Climate!"  "Justice!"  You say indigenous, I say rights."  "Indigenous!" "Rights!"  "This is what democracy looks like."  All along drums were beating and young people were chanting with the rhythm, "Stop the pipeline, Stop the pipeline."  Next to me was a clergyman from The United Church of Christ.  Near by were activists from the Rainforest Action Network.  Many of us were senior citizens peppered in among the young people awakened to the somber reality of the climate crisis in which our little blue marble of a planet has entered.