We just received word that the Michigan Cats protestors have been convicted on all counts. We are angered and saddened by the news. More coming soon.
MI CATS Convicted
We just received word that the Michigan Cats protestors have been convicted on all counts. We are angered and saddened by the news. More coming soon.
Is Michigan going the way of West Virginia, Kentucky, and other Big Mining states, where Big Gas/Oil/Coal have their way, without impediment, and just knock down, tear down, dig out,rip up, foul and poison anything in their way and the state government says OK; it’s yours; have at it? And are Michigan citizens increasingly just “lease-signers” to Big Gas/Frackers/Frack-sand miners/Big Oil, rather than CITIZENS, of a beautiful environment and place that they should be protecting from harm? How does one convey the concept of “steward” to the greedy, selfish, short-sighted mentality?
We need Sierra Club/Earthjustice and Greenpeace. We need (the now late, great) Pete Seeger! We need the “homestyle” voice of Tim Allen or Jeff Daniels doing an “IM-pure Michigan” series of ads that run until the wholesale pollution of Michigan’s environment and the bullying domination by those who so cavalierly despoil Michigan stop. We need Amy Goodman/Democracy Now to bring attention – now.
We need those Mecosta County citizens who waged such a brave battle against Nestlé’s Big Pump into Michigan’s waters, sucking it out and putting it into plastic bottles (plastic = oil again) that end up in landfills, to bring their energy and fight to Enbridge and Michigan agencies in league with Big Oil/Gas/Coal (among other exploiters). In Mecosta County a previously very conservative judge – at the end of his judicial career – sort of softened in favor of the citizens trying to protect and save Michigan’s waters. Judge Root is gone. Nestle is still taking Michigan’s waters. The Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation are still working together, but the fights get bigger and deeper and harder when it comes to Big Oil/Gas/Coal (and Water).
The great Pete Seeger just died. We need people to step up and take his place, to the extent that is even possible, in that he led the way in such fights. He sang the line, “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” We can sing that every day in so many places and so many mind-boggling circumstances in the U.S. today and never more poignantly than when it comes to what is being done to our environment.
Who ARE these humans who can pollute, destroy, despoil, poison, foul and lie, distort and bully? What manner of human is it who can look at the Michigan (and other beautiful places) that so many of us revere and love and see something they feel free to ruin, rather than something to be loved, cared for and protected?
The University of Michigan once hired a football coach from West Virginia to lead the football Wolverines, but he didn’t last long and was criticized because he wasn’t a “Michigan man.” However, it seems that Michigan’s government and powers that be look to West Virginia as a model for environmental exploitation and collusion with industry, the environment be damned! Does any sane person think that such a model bodes well for our state? People all across the country are confused about pipelines and fracking, about frack-sand mining, about Clean Water and Clean Air acts; the industry has done a good job at manipulating that confusion. Where they have not manipulated confusion and apathy, they have hidden and distorted facts, as in mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. They are passive-aggressive and they also use bullying, intimidating tactics wherever they want to exploit. And they have government lackeys doing their bidding at all levels. This is an uphill battle.
Pete Seeger and many other brave souls traveled uphill all their lives. We can put on our climbing boots and do the same.
I’m absolutely sick that the MiCATS were convicted of resisting,
obstructing and trespassing today. Judge Collette revoked their bail,
had them hand cuffed and hauled out of the courtroom like yesterday’s
garbage. They weren’t permitted a hug or kiss from their families.
It was a scene that will haunt me for a very long time.
Judge Collette lectured the jury and everyone in the courtroom.
He called the trial an abomination and the behavior of the
Protestors “…worse than in a triple murder case…”. I was present for
95% of the trial and didn’t witness any of the behaviors Judge Collette
found so offensive.
The sentencing hearing will be March 5. I heard, but have not verified,
the maximum sentence is 2 years of incarceration.
Lisa, Barb and Vicci are my heroes. They made the difficult decision
to sacrifice their personal freedom for a cause they believed in.
I,for one, will carry on the battle against Enbridge and the environmental
disaster named Tar Sands. Please join me.