One of the Jailed ‘Tar Sands 52' Tells His Story

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/08/28/306130/jailed-tar-sands-52-story/

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 28, 2011 at 11:11 am

JR: Bill McKibben writes me that “since that first day, the police have become professional and humane. The next 340 people arrested have been handcuffed, driven to the police station in a paddy wagon, processed, fined $100, and released. So no one need fear they’ll go through what is described below. The number of people flooding into DC is growing very fast. Jim Hansen gets arrested Monday, Irene willing.”

by Peter Anderson

Washington’s burly SWAT team, with every imaginable crime fighting gizmo dripping from their 35 pound belts, are an odd deployment of force, when you think about it, to send in to arrest the likes of us.

On my right, as we stood in suits and ties, in front of the White House refusing to move on that hot sunny day in August, was Gus Speth. Gus, now in his seventies, had headed up the President’s Council on Environmental Quality under Carter, and from there ran the UN’s Development Agency and later Yale’s School of Forestry and the Environment. On my left was Rev. Jim Anthol, who is the equivalent to a bishop in the United Church of Christ.

This paragraph really condenses my feelings perfectly:

Barack Obama won election in 2008 by inspiring millions with his speeches. Ultimately, if he intends to be re-elected, he will have to enthuse his withering army of supporters with action. His predilection for small tentative forays has not cut the mustard, and his capitulation to doomsday threats have left them feeling castrated. There is no audacity in caution during compelling times.

Recommended.

Do people not want to see the absolute truth?

How fucked up are we?

the horror of the tar sands and pipelines and does what they did is a hero.

this story is flying under the radar of many people and needs to see the light of day!