Headline: From outlaws to ignorance
Sub-Head: We used to be a rebellious people, now we’re a content couch riding culture
Cutline: You can’t go too far these days without seeing a strip mine or oil derrick.
Pull Quote: Clean water will run out as more pesticides are sprayed. Heavy oil will flow through pipes while dirty air fills our lungs.
Byline: Collin Lawrence, Assistant Opinions Editor, @STIKEEE
Eco-terrorists are losing. They haven’t had a split decision since “off with his head,” lost popularity. If the propagation of Eco-genocide doesn’t end, we will. Make no mistake and make any inquiry you can, you and I will run out of one thing or another before too long. Clean water will run out as more pesticides are sprayed. Heavy oil will flow through pipes while dirty air fills our lungs. There will be no ecological redemption. Never has been. Never will be.
Doc Jarvis may have only cut down telephone poles to improve the view of the beautiful West, but George Washington Hayduke took swings that would knock down Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Dempsey all in the first round. The trouble is, they didn’t know they were in the fight to begin with. Billion dollar industries strike back with a vengeance.
The characters depicted in Edward Abby’s “Monkey-Wrench Gang” seem to have had no offspring looking to uncover the watery town of Hite, UT. Although the gang may have been fictional, the Eco-genocide they fought to prevent and bring to a halt is real. Expanding farther and farther across the west, north, south and well, in every direction is seems, the landscape of yesterday is turning into the toxic waste of tomorrow.
The lower estimates of the Deep Water Horizon cleanup efforts are around $15 billion. The cost could reach up to $100 billion in some projections. The costliest Eco-terrorism action thus far was the destruction of some ski lodges totaling $134 million. While violence and destruction of public or private property is never condoned, the question begs asking, why are we letting big companies destroy the world?
There are many ways to drive home a point. My parents had some ideas on how to do that, not sure if they worked much though. Revolution, boycotting, sit-ins, strikes and tossing tea overboard into the harbor are all great examples of civil disobedience. The public has a voice, a powerful one, but it has gone silent. The time for action comes, but for now it seems like it has gone.
Seemingly, these days the only things that get people really riled up are social issues. I’m not saying they are unimportant, but nobody is getting arrested for chaining themselves to the doors of an abortion clinic, and I haven’t seen any pamphlets being passed out inviting me to an underground anti-government meeting. I’m starting to wonder if the peaceful protests are creating results, or if people are too scared to get arrested for disrupting the public or being a public nuisance.
Physical crimes are being committed against the homeland. Toxic waste is being piled up in various locations. Pumping dirty, oily water back into the ground under water tables is causing earthquakes all over Texas. A massive pipeline is being constructed right through the middle of protected and private lands, carrying the foulest oil the world has ever produced. Our country is being raped. Yes, I used the word rape because our pristine virgin lands are being decimated by greedy money hungry corporations.
Will we go the way of Hite, UT and watch the water rise above our heads? I think we are already. With the pollution and corruption, need and greed, want and squander, among the poor and impoverished, the rich and reveling, the meek and moderate. Muddy banks and clear flowing water were once part of the west, now it’s just oil fields and strip mining. You and I are supposed to be speaking for the trees.
It’s time to speak up, and actions speak louder than words.
