Unyielding Oni

LVL 1 adventurer on the path of the written word

[anaffronttothefalse-blog]

The “Black Snake” The beast that lies in wait

The "Black Snake" - The beast that lies in wait|An editorial on #NODAPL 

by Mike Politte

The "Black Snake", a beast that lies in wait only showing concern for its life and no other. The first quarter of the 2016 year commenced with the construction of the DAPL(Dakota Access Pipe Line), a crude oil pipeline set to transfer oil from North Dakota all the way to Illinois. An 1'172 mile pipeline traversing through both the Missouri and Cannonball rivers along with many sacred sites to the indigenous people of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Crude oil a fuel we as a nation have been using long past its due date despite its ability to damage our environment. A controversial path for an outdated energy source motivated by big business whose only argument is the value it presents to our economy. Here we are with a line of credit between Energy Transfer Partners L.P.(the guys proposing the plan) and 26 other banks investing a whopping 3.75 billion dollars into this pipeline. A subsidiary of ETP(Energy Transfer Partners) called Sunoco Logistics is also receiving funding from a majority of those very same banks adding another 2.5 billion dollars to current investments in the DAPL. Among these banks is none other then our best friends Morgan Stanley, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America. Which some of are the very same Wall street banks that created our latest recession the housing market bubble in 2007-2008 with their abuse of the working people. Creating construction jobs and trying to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Nothing but temporary work and an energy source we must move away from just for profit. Never has there been concern for the common person. People at this very moment of all walks of life make there way to protest the construction of the DAPL. The center of all these individuals, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe making its voice heard for all the injustice that is currently happening. Asking that the pipeline be stopped due to the potential dangers it may bring to their water source and culture. Working for the Dakota Access is the U.S Army Corps of Engineers(USACE) to evaluate the proposition of this very subject. Claiming that it has gone through all the necessary channels to abide the law. Making a "good faith effort" with the tribe that is has considered all tribal comments. Fact is they have already destroyed grave and specific prayer sites that had been surveyed by Tim Mentz a previous tribal historic preservation officer. Merely a week away from a conclusion on the legal issues the DAPL came in and destroyed the site on a holiday weekend. If it's not enough protesters are being pepper sprayed and mangled by attack dogs of their private security. December 19th, 2009 Obama signed the Native American Apology Resolution in an effort to make up for what had been done in the past6. Thus far it seems that was just a farce, America a place where our words mean nothing. Further more here we sit an environment getting worse by the moment, refusing to let go of old ways that have been surpassed by clean renewable energy. The proposed pipeline will pass through the Missouri, Cannonball rivers and Lake Oahe. Not to mention many other smaller sources of water. Only two years ago in 2014 the Columbia Riverkeeper reached a settlement against USACE to end uncontrolled toxic oil leakage at eight Columbia and Snake river dams finally bringing them in accordance with the Clean Water Act(CWA). They may not be pipelines, but a good look at how the USACE handles oil and their concern for the public. We now have wind, solar, hydro power, and electricity. We have the ability and the responsibility to change our dependence on this harmful energy source. Somehow one of our most important moments as a  modern nation is going by unreported by the mainstream media. People getting hurt and lives about to be destroyed. All to scar our beautiful earth in the name of the all mighty dollar bill. For something we truly no longer need at what could be the price of one resource we truly cant survive without. We can't sit idly by as greed destroys what's truly important. This is one snake I have no problem cutting the head off #NODAPL. 

[anaffronttothefalse-blog]

My own worst enemy

I have many problems that lay within me. Some are my own doing and am very self aware. Attempting to fix or change these habits, trying my best not to get in my own way. Thus the title of my post. For the last few years I have found myself entering a deep depression. Wandering into a forest so deep that I now can’t seem to find my way back. It not ending at being lost, but continuing forth to the point that I now don’t remember. Who I was? Where I was going? What i wanted outed of life? Maybe that’s just change, but now it’s like i no longer have a baseline. Somewhere to work from, a place inside me that I can call home. Quitting my job, moving halfway across the country to fail and to go a little further just to have a place to stay. My mother’s house to be honest. It is this era taking out of us what makes individuals. I feel so very much like a robot. Capable of anything that needs be done, even knowing why. Yet unable to understand the why, emotionless so detached. Free falling through darkness looking for any hint of light. Even now as I read what i write I can’t seem to articulate what i want to say/express. Exhausted from anxiety and depression all the time. i want to write, to let it all out and see where it takes me. No longer will I feel oppressed by my own self. Tooth and nail I’ll fight until I find my place, my happiness, my purpose in life. I went into my newly acquired job from the past week only to find myself quitting. For the first time in my life I did it with such confidence because nobody should just have to survive. We should all get to live for ourselves, for those we love, for those we believe in. From now on I start doing for myself not others. Never again will I find myself falling entering an Agentic(apparently spell check doesn’t think its a real word which is almost scary to think about) state of mind. Think for yourselves and never cow to authority, find the right and the wrong of it and always ask the why. This system we live in isn’t good for the soul. Human beings aren’t meant to live like this.

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Life after death

       I don’t even know if this is how someone starts to write a blog. Something I have wanted to for a long time, to find a way that most suitably let’s me express myself. My words twist and turn and are so often lose their original intent. This page my workshop i can take my time to tailor my voice and just maybe I won’t lose myself. Here I begin fearful my words might somehow come to haunt me. Yet I know I must bravely face forward this vary form of expression my only weapon against the injustice I feel in this world. Bellowing with all my might until the day i die no longer will walls find away to form around me.                                                                                                                              For me death isn’t the end. It ends at my ideology. So much is lost to those that hold our lives in their hands. Our thoughts and ideas can never be taken away once that chip is off the table. I believe in and see so many brave individuals out there. Ai Weiwei being a very influential one for myself. I know in my heart that it isn’t his art that matters to him, its what his art says to people. His expression, what he wants others to feel is all that matters. Long after he dies it wont be his art that lives on in others it will be the imprint it leaves on them. Shaping those individuals and hopefully whomever they come into contact within their lifetimes as well. In the end its all about what you lived for and death only adds fuel to the fire I say.