Fish and Bread
Dona nobis pacem
How about these oil companies finance the construction and maintenance of solar farms, wind farms, and water turbines on lands that aren't claimed by Native American tribes (and don't effect their lands), or with the permission of the tribes? I'm sure that would require them to hire a lot of people to construct and maintain those things- and it would be clean energy that doesn't contribute to global climate change or infringe on the rights of a people we've spent hundreds of years trampling on the rights of. Because those projects are in harmony with the land, some tribes might even welcome them on their lands, and the companies could give them a cut of the revenue as part of the bargain, but, if not, the companies could find somewhere else to put them.
Heck, even if you still think there should be an actual oil pipeline (And I don't, either way), the company involved in this could suck it up and pay the extra money it takes to build the pipeline on land they own or could buy that is not in the same water basin as Native American tribes. In fact, it looks like they tried to do that, and the white government said "Not in our backyard", and they both conspired to sock it to Native Americans, because they didn't think Native Americans could fight back. That's what bullies do, victimize people who they don't think can fight back. They never pick fights with people who they think could win against them or who they think could inflict enough damage to force them to come to a negotiating table and come up with a fair compromise agreed to by both sides. I see this in my everyday life all the time.
For that matter, why do we allow families to go hungry in general in a country who's GDP was *twenty times* as large in 2000 as it was in 1900, even adjusted for inflation? Why don't we have a national minimum income that covers all the basic necessities of life? Why don't we have universal health care?
Those are all rhetorical questions. They aren't meant to be answered. I don't really care if people think they aren't good ideas, or why they think they aren't good ideas if they think so. The only point I'm really trying to make is that one can't reasonably act as though a big corporation building an oil pipeline through sacred Native American land is the only way to employ people or make sure people have enough to eat. There are plenty of ways we can create more jobs and increase people's access to food that don't involve this specific project. Saying something like "It's this or people go unemployed and their children have to survive on bread and water" is narrowing the choices very significantly without good reason. I'm sure even the conservatives could come up with other ways to make money and employ and feed people. It doesn't all hang on this one oil pipeline in this one area.
What does the oil company plan to tell the people who are jobless and going hungry because their cities flood and they are climate refugees because of projects like this? What do they tell all the young Native Americans who commit suicide at a much higher rate than the general population because they made to feel inferior because their people are pushed around by people who want to do things like build oil pipelines and don't care what the religious and cultural beliefs of the people in the area are or what they have to say about it in general?
Why haven't we learned any moral lessons from past mistreatment of Native Americans and decided to stop abusing them going forward? It's one thing to say we can't change the past and maybe not be for reparations or something, but this isn't about changing the past or reparations for past actions, this is a current action that's happening *right now*. I'm sure we'll all acknowledge it was wrong in thirty years, but by then we won't be able to change the past that is now the present, and will have likely moved on to committing some other horrible act against Native peoples.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
