Monthly Archives: November 2016

Ensuring a Smooth Transition

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Wait!  What is this?

” (iii) prepare and host interagency emergency preparedness and response exercises.”

And here is the rest of the document:

Executive Order — Facilitation of a Presidential Transition

EXECUTIVE ORDER

– – – – – – –

FACILITATION OF A PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United States Code, and the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended, and to assist the Presidential transition, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The peaceful transition of power has long been a hallmark of American democracy. It is the policy of the United States to undertake all reasonable efforts to ensure that Presidential transitions are well-coordinated and effective, without regard to party affiliation.

Sec. 2. Establishment of the White House Transition Coordinating Council. (a) To facilitate the Presidential transition, including assisting and supporting the transition efforts of the transition teams of eligible candidates, there is established a White House Transition Coordinating Council.

(b) The White House Transition Coordinating Council shall be composed of the following officials or their designees:

(i) Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, who shall serve as Chair;

(ii) Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, who shall serve as Vice Chair;

(iii) Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Implementation;

(iv) Counsel to the President;

(v) Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel;

(vi) Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs;

(vii) Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism;

(viii) Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director, National Economic Council;

(ix) Director of National Intelligence;

(x) Director of the Office of Management and Budget;

(xi) Administrator of General Services;

(xii) Federal Transition Coordinator;

(xiii) the transition representative for each eligible candidate, who shall serve in an advisory capacity;  and

(xiv) any other executive branch official the President determines appropriate.

(c) The White House Transition Coordinating Council shall:

(i) provide guidance to executive departments and agencies (agencies) and the Federal Transition Coordinator regarding preparations for the Presidential transition, including succession planning and preparation of briefing materials;

(ii) facilitate communication and information sharing between the transition representatives of eligible candidates and senior employees in agencies and the Executive Office of the President, including the provision of information relevant to facilitating the personnel aspects of a Presidential transition and such other information that, in the Council’s judgment, is useful and appropriate, as long as providing such information is not otherwise prohibited by law; and

(iii) prepare and host interagency emergency preparedness and response exercises.

(d) In order to obtain a wide range of facts and information on prior transitions and best practices, the White House Transition Coordinating Council, its members, or their designees may seek information from private individuals, including individuals in outside organizations, who have significant experience or expertise in Presidential transitions. The White House Transition Coordinating Council, its members, or their designees shall endeavor to obtain such facts and information from individuals representing a range of bipartisan or nonpartisan viewpoints. If the White House Transition Coordinating Council, its members, or their designees find it necessary to seek advice from private individuals or outside organizations, such counsel should be sought in a manner that seeks individual advice and does not involve collective judgment or deliberation.

Sec. 3. Establishment of the Agency Transition Directors Council. (a) To implement the guidance provided by the White House Transition Coordinating Council and to coordinate transition activities across agencies, there is established an Agency Transition Directors Council.

(b) The Agency Transition Directors Council shall be composed of the following officials or their designees:

(i) Federal Transition Coordinator, who shall serve as Co-Chair;

(ii) Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget, who shall serve as Co-Chair;

(iii) a senior career representative from each agency described in section 901(b)(1) of title 31, United States Code, the Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Government Ethics, and the National Archives and Records Administration whose responsibilities include leading Presidential transition efforts within the agency;

(iv) during a year in which a Presidential election will be held, a transition representative for each eligible candidate, who shall serve in an advisory capacity;

(v) a senior career representative from any other agency determined by the Co-Chairs to be an agency that has significant responsibilities relating to the Presidential transition process; and

(vi) other senior employees serving in the Executive Office of the President, as determined by the President.

(c) The Agency Transition Directors Council shall:

(i) ensure the Federal Government has an integrated strategy for addressing interagency challenges and responsibilities around Presidential transitions and turnover of non-career appointees;

(ii) coordinate transition activities among the Executive Office of the President, agencies, and the transition team of eligible candidates and the President-elect and Vice-President-elect;

(iii) draw on guidance provided by the White House Transition Coordinating Council and lessons learned from previous Presidential transitions in carrying out its duties;

(iv) assist the Federal Transition Coordinator in identifying and carrying out his or her responsibilities relating to a Presidential transition;

(v) provide guidance to agencies in gathering briefing materials and information relating to the Presidential transition that may be requested by eligible candidates;

(vi) ensure materials and information described in subparagraph (v) of this subsection are prepared not later than November 1 of the year during which a Presidential election is held;

(vii) ensure agencies adequately prepare career employees who are designated to fill non-career positions during a Presidential transition; and

(viii) consult with the President’s Management Council, or any successor thereto, in carrying out its duties.

(d) The Agency Transition Directors Council shall meet:

(i) subject to subparagraph (ii) of this subsection, not less than once per year; and

(ii) during the period beginning on the date that is 6 months before a Presidential election and ending on the date on which the President-elect is inaugurated, on a regular basis as necessary to carry out its duties and authorities.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) The terms “eligible candidate,” “Federal Transition Coordinator,” and “Presidential election” shall have the same meaning as those terms used in the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended. The term “President’s Management Council” shall have the same meaning as that term is used in the Presidential Memorandum of July 11, 2001.

(d) This order is intended only to facilitate the transition and is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 6, 2016.

from:    https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/06/executive-order-facilitation-presidential-transition

Gravity & Dark Matter

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Dutch scientist publishes new theory of gravity

By Janene Pieters on November 8, 2016

Erik Verlinde

@erikverlinde / Twitter
University of Amsterdam scientist Erik Verlinde published a new theory of gravity which he debunks the existence of dark matter, NOS reports.

Astronomers often note in their observations that they observe more gravity in galaxies than the number of stars would suggest. This extra gravity is attributed to dark matter – an unknown substance believed to hold the galaxies together.

But in Verlinde’s new theory, he can calculate the movements of stars without including dark matter in the calculations. According to NOS, this is the first time that a scientist develop a theory that fits the observations of astronomers.

According to Verlinde, physisicsts are working on a revision on Einstein’s theory of relativity “Our current ideas about space, time and gravity urgently need to be re-thought. We have long known that Einstein’s theory of gravity can not work with quantum mechanics”, he said, according to NOS. “Our findings are drastically changing, and I think that we are on the eve of a scientific revolution.”

from:    http://nltimes.nl/2016/11/08/dutch-scientist-publishes-new-theory-gravity

Maybe We DID Come From Stars

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NASA
Scientists have found a bizarre similarity between human cells and neutron stars

Our link to the stars.

JOSH HRALAFacebook Icon

But, according to new research, we share at least one similarity: the geometry of the matter that makes us.

Researchers have found that the ‘crust’ (or outer layers) of a neutron star has the same shape as our cellular membranes. This could mean that, despite being fundamentally different, both humans and neutron stars are constrained by the same geometry.

“Seeing very similar shapes in such strikingly different systems suggests that the energy of a system may depend on its shape in a simple and universal way,” said one of the researchers, astrophysicist Charles Horowitz, from Indiana University, Bloomington.

To understand this finding, we need to quickly dive into the weird world of nuclear matter, which researchers call ‘nuclear pasta’ because it looks a lot like spaghetti and lasagne. See for yourself:

NuclearPastaD. K. Berry et al.

This nuclear pasta forms in the dense crust of a neutron star thanks to long-range repulsive forces competing with something called the strong force, which is the force that binds quarks together.

In other words, two powerful forces are working against one another, forcing the matter – which consists of various particles – to structure itself in a scaffold-like (pasta) way.

As one of the team, Greg Huber, a biological physicist from the University of California, Santa Barbara, explains:

“When you have a dense collection of protons and neutrons like you do on the surface of a neutron star, the strong nuclear force and the electromagnetic forces conspire to give you phases of matter you wouldn’t be able to predict if you had just looked at those forces operating on small collections of neutrons and protons.”

Now, it turns out that these pasta-like structures look a lot like the structures inside biological cells, even though they are vastly different.

This odd similarity was first discovered in 2014, when Huber was studying the unique shapes on our endoplasmic reticulum (ER) – the little organelle in our cells that makes proteins and lipids.

At first, Huber thought that these structures on the ER – which he called “parking garages”, or more formally, Terasaki ramps – were something that only happened inside soft matter.

But the he saw Horowitz’s models of neutron stars, and was surprised to find that the structures of the ER looked a heck of a lot like the structures inside neutron stars.

“I called Chuck [Horowitz] and asked if he was aware that we had seen these structures in cells and had come up with a model for them,” Huber said. “It was news to him, so I realised then that there could be some fruitful interaction.”

You can see the ER structures (left) compared to the neutron stars (right) below:

NeutronStarsUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

The discovery brought both of the scientists together to compare and contrast the differences between the structures, such as the conditions required for them to form.

Normally, matter is characterised by a phase – sometimes called its state – such as gas, solid, liquid Different phases are usually influenced by a plethora of various conditions, like how hot the matter is, how much pressure it’s under, and how dense it is.

These factors change wildly between soft matter (the stuff inside cells) and neutron stars (nuclear matter). After all, neutron stars form after supernovae explosions, and cells form within living things. With that in mind, it’s quite easy to see that the two things are very different.

“For neutron stars, the strong nuclear force and the electromagnetic force create what is fundamentally a quantum mechanical problem,” Huber said.

“In the interior of cells, the forces that hold together membranes are fundamentally entropic and have to do with the minimisation of the overall free energy of the system. At first glance, these couldn’t be more different.”

While the similarity is cool, and makes us feel connected to the cosmos in a strange way, the differences signify the importance of the discovery, because they hint that two very different things – cells and neutron stars – might be guided by the same geometric rules that we’re only just beginning to understand.

It will take further research to really figure out what’s going on here, but it’s a starting point that could help us understand something fundamental about how matter is structured, and we’re excited to see where that leads.

The team’s work was published in Physical Review C.

from:    http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-found-a-structural-similarity-between-human-cells-and-neutron-stars?utm_source=ScienceAlert+-+Daily+Email+Updates&utm_campaign=e224a761a7-MAILCHIMP_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fe5632fb09-e224a761a7-365552945

UFO Over Italy

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Pleiadian UFO Photographed Over Italy Goes Viral – Is it a Warning Signal?

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Last week, the Italian city of Lecco became witness to a bizarre event featuring what some believe to be an advanced Pleiadian UFO.

By UFOholic

Photos showing what appears to be an interdimensional craft hovering over the picturesque city have captured the attention of UFO enthusiasts all over the world and are cited as clear evidence of alien intervention. The controversial images were taken on November 2 by Giuseppe Filipponi and posted on Facebook the following day. They were viewed by thousands and quickly went viral.

The images show an enormous, translucent craft that materialized in the sky after traveling through an interdimensional portal, or so it’s been described. The perplexing craft then began to deploy a number of smaller, orb-type devices or entities. These smaller orbs appear as spheres of light and are believed to act as the UFO’s surveillance drones.

pleiadian-alien-ship-and-orbs

This sighting elicited numerous and diverse reactions, once again proving that this subject is open to discussion.

Some consider there was nothing unnatural behind this apparition and cite the most likely culprit as a freak weather phenomenon involving a cumulonimbus cloud. Their argument is that pareidolia makes people see things and recognize familiar shapes in places where most of the time there isn’t anything.

On the other side of the table we have a great number of alien aficionados who are convinced the photos actually show the extraterrestrials’ vested interest in mankind and its problems. They don’t see this sighting as a coincidence but rather as a consequence of the country being hit by multiple earthquakes over the past few months. Since August, Italy has bore the brunt of over 250 tremors, the strongest of which left hundreds dead and thousands homeless.

The most recent earthquake to strike Italy occurred on October 30 and seismologists are calling it the strongest in nearly half a century. It’s pretty obvious that the boot-shaped peninsula is going through some tough times.

This argument is what leads believers into suspecting the ethereal craft belongs to one of the ‘good guys’ who are currently keeping Earth under observation, as evidenced by the video below:

The Pleiadians, also known as Nordic aliens are a race of highly-advanced, benevolent beings that originated on a planet orbiting one of the stars in the Pleiades group. Also known as the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades are one of the closest star clusters and they’re also visible with the naked eye. They occupy an important role in the mythology and star culture of many ancient civilizations, and this has lead many into believing the Pleiadians have been supervising humanity for a long time.

Alien hunters claim that although Pleiadians have a physical form which is strikingly similar to the Scandinavian physiognomy, they can also take on an incorporeal form that allows them to travel between dimensions. Unrestrained by physical forms, the Pleiadians are free to explore realms we couldn’t even comprehend. Although their true motivations remain hidden to us, their actions reveal a compassionate response to our struggle.

In the particular case of last week’s sighting, we could assume the craft was sent to investigate the increased seismic activity in the Italian peninsula. The appearance of the ghostly starship could be interpreted as a warning signal that things beyond our control may come to pass. Although as humans we enjoy a strong hold on Earth, this is only an illusion. The fact that there are over 7 billion of us alive today gives the false impression of stability. But we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature and with one fell swoop, we might not be here tomorrow.

This deception of security must be plenty obvious for our hyper-advanced observers, which is why they are always nearby when disaster strikes. And just because we don’t see them intervene on our behalf, that doesn’t mean they’re idly standing with their hands behind their back. Who knows how many catastrophes they helped avert without us knowing?

Source: UFOholic

from:     http://www.theeventchronicle.com/metaphysics/galactic/pleiadian-ufo-photographed-italy-goes-viral-warning-signal/#

Reflecting on Tomorrow

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A moving and powerful statement from my daughter, Emilie Clasgens Wilson, in regard to standing up for WHO we are in the midst of uncertainty and fear:

I’m not one to post my personal feelings and opinions on Facebook. I appreciate and tend to guard my privacy. But I woke up this morning after a restless night of sleep to memories of Trump onstage, standing next to his young son who looked like a forgotten boy, unsupported by adults, and I remembered echoes of his hollow acceptance speech.

I jumped on my phone, on Facebook, to try to connect with people who might feel as I do, to commiserate as conscientious objectors in mourning.

I see sorrow, anger, and disbelief.

I see genuine hopefulness, too.

I’ll cling to that, because it’s all I’ve got right now.

I see people who are afraid that we’ll slide back into a time of outright racism, homophobia, sexism, a time when you and your loved ones can be physically, verbally, emotionally assaulted for practicing a particular religion or identifying as a particular gender or being born on the other side of invisible lines for just being anything other than a white man born in America.

I made myself a promise this morning:

I will not take my position in this country, or in this world, for granted.
I will NOT participate in subtle or overt racism, sexism, homophobia, or in anything that implies or states the inherent “betterness” of one group of people.
I will stand up for my rights and for the rights of my fellow Americans to be exactly who we are, and to fight the fear that we may be entering a time when we could once again be penalized for this.

Because I have to do something: I promise I won’t do nothing.

You can contact Emilie Clasgens Wilson @ http://www.mindbodycenterforintegrativemedicine.com/

Time to Remember

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  The Interior Life

Kingsley L. Dennis

The following was originally published on Kingsley Dennis’s website.

‘We are dreaming a symbolic world, only briefly waking to what is real’
Arthur Deikman, M.D.

‘He not busy being born, is busy dying’
Bob Dylan

Something is not quite right…you feel it…you may have experienced this feeling, this nagging, for a long time. So you most probably just try to ignore it and hope that it goes away; but sooner or later the persistent nagging finally brings an idea to your mind – there’s something very odd about the way the world is. Maybe you feel like you are at the cinema watching a film and yet you sense there must be something wrong about the film you are seeing. The images are all there, but there’s a feeling that something is out of sequence, or the frames are running out of ‘normal’ time. However, after a while you get used to the style of the film, and your senses adjust to its rhythm and you lose the sense of strangeness and you get pulled into the show and you go along with the ride…

…the film tells you that the world has no grand meaning, that human life is an accidental anomaly – but as you walk down the street, engage with friends, fall in love, follow your dreams, you experience meaning and significance…wait, there’s that glitch in the film again – something about its ‘randomness’ and ‘meaninglessness’ doesn’t make sense…your personal experience has shown you something different…and then there’s that nagging feeling again…somewhere – wasn’t there?

Life is life, and most people go through it with trial, joy, adventure, challenge, love, and all the rest. This is the same for all of us, yet it doesn’t always occur on the same playing field. There is a different perspective we can take – a different position vis-à-vis the world. We can see the world in which we live as solely an exterior phenomenon; or we can choose to view it as also an expression of our interior life.

I have come to regard the cosmos as not just the expression of mathematical equations, but as the play of lyrical forces that, like a living being, is intoxicated with love and wonder, and the joyful curiosity of adventure. And I often wonder what it would be like to live with the view that human life is the result of random, accidental forces; as a meaningless happening forced to live out its years on the back of a dead rock hurtling through a lifeless universe. I am reminded of the ‘Myth of Sisyphus,’ a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat for eternity the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again – and then to push it up again, ad infinitum. For me, this lifeless exterior view of life is truly absurd[i]. And yet the physical demands of a normal life compel us to focus our gaze continually on the external where our daily waking consciousness has to deal with all the impacts and noise coming from the outside – it is very physical work and can, and often does, occupy the whole consciousness and conscious awareness of a person. Yet for some people another gaze peers out onto the world – a gaze from within. I refer to this as the interior life, whereby a person deeply feels, intuitively knows, that there is another perspective upon life, one that is far richer, pervasive, subtle; and yet one that must be sought with effort.

There are many people – in fact, they may be the majority – who have never sought or felt an urge toward the interior life. They never stop to ask themselves not only ‘why am I here?’, but also ‘how did I get here?’ This is a fundamental question that appears to bother few people. It is not unfair to say that some people only know themselves by the name they wear through life. If pushed, they would find it difficult to truly distinguish themselves from others who bear similar conditioned attitudes and opinions. And yet this realization is often hidden from us. Perhaps the shock of such recognition would greatly disturb our mental and emotional balance. And so a majority of people continue to identify and individualize themselves through the given name they bear, or the job they have elected to perform. This is evident on the occasion when someone is asked who they are, they reply either with their name or their occupation. It’s a most unsettling question and for many people they can only answer this by their work function or their given name. It’s also true that most of the time this socially accepted question is only asked and directed to a person on the most superficial and banal level. And so who a person actually is remains a lifelong mystery. And this is a condition common to most of us.

…There’s that film again, and it’s telling you that your conscious experience is just a consequence of chemical brain functioning – I do this, I do that, I see this, I feel that, I think this – …but the ‘I’ is just a state of awareness that comes as a by-product from a complex of neurons…but wait a minute – haven’t I just been observing my own thoughts and feelings…standing back from the ‘I’? Is this then the real me? Or is this observer of my thoughts just another neuronal by-product observing the workings of another random by-product?…ah, here’s the film again, the glitch is gone…

It’s also the case that many people rebel against their essential nature, whether they know it or not. People may say a thousand things – or only one thing – and yet in each spoken moment they move away from the essential. Again, what is it to know oneself? To grow, to develop, to attain understanding and self-awareness – what do these things mean to the everyday person? At best, society has rendered them as abstract concepts, or as wishful thinking. Within our specific cultures we are so used to living at a primary, basic level – a survival level – that we spend very little time and attention upon the interior level. In fact, the notion of an interior world often remains a luxury for the few.  The rest of us have to get on with managing and coping with our normal lives.

And so we live with many unrecognized questions, failing to notice them or awake them from their slumber within us. Do we ever wonder why events have turned out this way? Or is it that the forces of division, polarity, and ignorance that drive our world are so convincing that we seek no other reason (or excuse?) for the oddities of our world and its incongruous reality? Perhaps we find no compelling need to want to see things in a different way. In fact, some people actively seek to forget.

The compulsion to forget is likely to be rationalized by calling it by another name. Through the seeking of pleasurable diversions and distractions through entertainment, challenges, or addictive pursuits, people are actually seeking to forget. Greek mythology tells of how before the human soul incarnates into this world it drinks from Lethe, the river of Forgetfulness – one of the five rivers of the underworld – so that it cannot remember its divine origins. Similarly, there is a Jewish legend that speaks of how we are struck on the mouth by an angel before birth so that we cannot speak of our pre-birth divine origins. We may come from inspired and sacred origins, yet when we arrive in this earthly reality we come dumbstruck and needy. Or rather, perhaps it is only that we lack the key, the crucial guide, to unlock our memories and unleash our interior gaze and soulful longing. The truth may be that rather than to forget we are in fact here to remember.

Sometimes it is a tragedy or catastrophe that triggers a person to remember and to seek answers. On a larger scale, perhaps it is necessary for humanity to reach a crisis point – in its materialism, commercialism, and social systems – for there to arise within people the need for something else. The interior life recognizes that it is the essential nature of being human to seek for something more, something beyond. This need for communion with something greater has largely been fed by the role of religious, and/or spiritual, traditions. However, the human being’s need for a meaningful, developmental life has still not been met by our societies, especially so among the highly industrialized cultures. We have developed our faith, our reason, our mental pursuits; we have established industry and created marvellous technologies – yet we have failed to work on ourselves. We have failed to grow our souls.

Soul-making as well as taking care of one’s soul are not specifically introverted or monastic pursuits – they do not require steadfast introspection or a dramatic withdrawal from the world. The Romantic Poet Keats said – “Call the world if you please, ‘the vale of Soul-making.’ Then you will find out the use of the world.” It is my opinion that ‘soul-making’ needs to be re-imagined and reintegrated into our societies. We need not go back to animism or alchemy to find soul-making. We can find it here, in the everyday Now. The genuine expression of a truth takes no fixed form. Self-development, or self-refinement if you prefer, is not an ideology or a fixed science. It is a basic human right. The interior life should be recognized as an inherent human need, and it should be socially acceptable and encouraged to direct part of our gaze in its direction. After all, if the outer sun rises but the inner sun does not, then nothing has been gained.

‘One is an architect of the interior – who works on interior architecture’
Anon

 

[i] No wonder then that the absurdist French philosopher Albert Camus wrote an essay titled ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ (1942) describing man’s useless search for meaning in an unintelligible world.

from:   http://realitysandwich.com/320902/the-interior-life/

To Honor the Earth

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The White Horse and the Humvees—Standing Rock Is Offering Us a Choice

Right here, between the barricades on a North Dakota highway, is a pivotal confrontation between two world views, two futures.
Horse650px.jpg
Robin Wall KimmererKathleen Dean Moore

Two lines, facing each other on a North Dakota highway. On one side, concrete barriers protect a row of armored vehicles and helmeted police with assault rifles. On the other, a young man rides a white horse whose legs are stained with blood. A woman, wearing a scarf to protect her lungs from tear gas, wafts sage smoke over a boy to give him strength, wash away hate, and remind him of his sacred purpose.

Here, on a highway stretching across trampled prairie grass, the fundamental contest of our time is playing out.

The fundamental contest of our time is playing out.

It’s a confrontation not only between two groups of people, but between two world views. The space between the lines vibrates with tensions of race, historical trauma, broken treaties, money and politics, love and fear. But the underlying issue that charges the air, mixing with the smells of tear gas and sage, is the global contest between two deeply different ideas about the true meaning of land.

On one side is the unquestioned assumption that land is merely a warehouse of lifeless materials that have been given to (some of) us by God or conquest, to use without constraint. On this view, human happiness is best served by whatever economy most efficiently transforms water, soils, minerals, wild lives, and human yearning into corporate wealth. And so it is possible to love the bottom line on a quarterly report so fiercely that you will call out the National Guard to protect it.

On the other side of the concrete barriers is a story that is so ancient it seems revolutionary.  On this view, the land is a great and nourishing gift to all beings. The fertile soil, the fresh water, the clear air, the creatures, swift or rooted: they require gratitude and veneration. These gifts are not commodities, like scrap iron and sneakers. The land is sacred, a living breathing entity, for whom we must care, as she cares for us. And so it is possible to love land and water so fiercely you will live in a tent in a North Dakota winter to protect them.

It may turn out that the cracks in that stretch of two-lane highway mark a giant crack in time, when one set of assumptions about reality snaps and is replaced by another. This, like all times of paradigm shift, is an unsettled time, a time of shouting and police truncheons, as privileged people defend the assumptions that have served them royally.

What are they so afraid of out there in North Dakota, that they arrest journalists, set dogs on women and children, send prayerful protectors to jail and align para-military force against indigenous people on their own homelands?

Everyone can join the people of Standing Rock and say No.

Maybe they are afraid of the truth-telling power of the people at Standing Rock and their busloads of allies, who are making clear that we live in an era of profound error that we mistakenly believe is the only way we can live, an era of insanity that we believe is the only way we can think. But once people accept with heart and mind that land is our teacher, our mother, our garden, our pharmacy, our church, our cradle and our grave, it becomes unthinkable to destroy it. This vision threatens the industrial worldview more than anything else.

Indigenous people are saying, there are honorable and enduring lifeways that beckon to people who are weary of destruction.

Everyone can join the people of Standing Rock and say No. No more wrecked land. No more oil spills. No more poisoned wells. We don’t have to surrender the well-being of communities to the profit of a few. We can say Yes. Yes, we are all in this together. Yes, we can all stand on moral ground. Yes, we can all be protectors of the water and protectors of the silently watching future. The blockade on the highway is an invitation to remember and reclaim who we might be — just and joyous humans on a bountiful Earth. Right here, between the barricades, we are offered a choice.

On the highway, a warrior steps around the concrete barrier, offering a sage bundle that trails white smoke. Approaching a figure in riot gear, he extends the blessing to the officer, letting the smoke wash over him. To give him strength. To wash away hate. To remind him of his purpose.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, citizen Potawatomi Nation, is director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Her most recent book is Braiding Sweetgrass. 
Kathleen Dean Moore, the author of Great Tide Rising: Toward Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change and co-editor of Moral Ground, is Oregon State University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Emerita.
from:    http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-humvees-and-the-white-horse2014two-futures-20161105