Many of the folks at Standing Rock prefer to be called "water protectors," not protestors. As Irene Yeh, a water protector, recalls, "From a hilltop, I saw groups of police officers with batons, some with rifles, armored vehicles, a tank, a helicopter droning overhead... The protectors had agreed to cooperate with police demands... That's when a line of officers encircled the group... they began to grab people, hitting some with batons and pushing them to the ground, spraying mace and punching one protector in the face. The protectors were just standing there, calm and unarmed."
Unfortunately we are all too familiar with this sort of brutality. It's the unchecked power that too often escalates to the murder of people of color all over the country. It's the result of a police force that has been requested to respect our rights instead of demanding it of them.
And finally, in theory we deserve an environment, places to live, that are clean and healthy. In actuality corporations plunder and pollute, only pausing to consider environmental impact when it suits their interests.
We must stand up in outrage because protest is the only reliable means of protecting the rights of the Great Sioux Nation. In a world where human rights are seen as a request, not an obligation, it is the only way to ensure that we all get the rights that we deserve.
JESS GUH, MD, is a member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the independent, uncompromised, five-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site. Her work, and that of colleagues JOHN GRANT, DAVE LINDORFF, GARY LINDORFF, ALFREDO LOPEZ, LINN WASHINGTON, JR. and the late CHARLES M. YOUNG, can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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