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"O great glory and splendor, and all my wishes have come true!"

Sunflower
Valinor

Dec 20 2014, 3:05pm

Post #1 of 5 (262 views)
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"O great glory and splendor, and all my wishes have come true!" Can't Post

A message to all my TORn friends. Including those that sent me cards: thank you. It is much appreciated.
But I have been off TORn for a while for 2 reasons. First, in the interests of keeping spoiler-free. Second, and more importantly, I've been dedicating more and more of my time to a cause, the outcome of which was suddenly resolved Wednesday.
All in one week: U2 tickets, the Hobbit, and the long-hoped-for, never-dreamed, impossible dream achieved--a TOTAL AND PERMANENT BAN ON FRACKING IN NEW YORK STATE!


For nearly 8 long years we have been fighting for this, we have taken on the fossil fuel industry and 3--count- 'em--*three* of the most corrupt,, sleazy governors in the modern history of NY State. never mind the (D) next to their names--when it came to this issue, on whether or not to allow hydrofracking for natural gas in NY State, they were bought by the oil and gas companies right from the get-go, they may as well have been CEO's. They never changed their mind. The current occupant of the Governor's mansion, future Presidential candidate Andrew Cuomo, (who isn't fit to lick his father's boots) , fondly named by many of his constituents "Governor 1%,", still feels the same way. So how do you change the minds of these folks? You can't, so you don't. You confront them, isolate them, box them in, neutralize them, and make them a bystander rather than the key player.


I cannot outline our long struggle, but suffice it to say that it was a struggle every bit as difficult as Sam and Frodo's journey to Mordor, and for the same reason: to keep Mordor from spreading to our little patch of Middle-earth. The ff industry tried every sleazy and underhanded tactic you can think of, and even some so breathlessly audaciously disgusting that reading about it could be a good weight-loss tactic--you'd lose you lunch finishing every paragraph. Even veterans of other environmental movements were aghast.
It was a struggle that played itself out in hundreds of dramas across our state, from the smallest villages to NYC, each worthy of its own documentary. It was an uphill battle where the outcome was always in doubt, that we thought we'd never have a chance in heck of winning, b/c you don't take on Big Oil/Gas and win. It just has never happened. But we did it. we won, we won, we WON!! With 8 long years of petitions, turblulent town hall meetings, lawsuits, court battles, demonstrations, marches, every non-violent tactic you can think of. For nearly 8 years it was THE great undercurrent crackling never far from the surface of public life here.


I came to the struggle late, 5 years into the battle, a humble hobbit moving among the Dunedain and Elven lords. But by the end I was Merry on the Pelennor. "All that is green and good in this world will be gone. There won't BE a Shire." At one point, convinced we were going to fail, we contemplated the awful last stages of what Naomi Klein has called Blockadia--we wondered, aghast,if we would have to resort to the kind of direct action the native Canadians now face--lying down in the roads, blocking the passage of the trucks with our bodies, placing our lives at the mercy of battalions of combat-armored police and riot vechicles. It dawned on us that one day we might have to face arrest, financial ruin, maybe our lives. Many a night in the past 2 years I lay awake, nauseous, wondering if I would have to fight or flee to Vermont, if indeed I would have to risk putting on the Ring. What do I choose? And is it worth it? Would I have the courage to do it? God help me, help me. Little me! It's something I've never shared with anyone on here.
(more in a minute)


(This post was edited by Sunflower on Dec 20 2014, 3:09pm)


Sunflower
Valinor

Dec 20 2014, 3:32pm

Post #2 of 5 (203 views)
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"It's gone. It's done." [In reply to] Can't Post

By this year, the Governor was loath to appear in public, hordes of anti-fracking demonstrators greeted him every time he showed his face. We were *relentless*. Everywhere he went in this state, he finally arranged police cordons to escort personnel in and out of buildings, but really, what did he have to fear from us? US, with our signs and chants: "Ban fracking now! No Fracking Way!" and the slogan that is appearing on all these sorts of movments all over the world, I think La Via Campesina began it but we too it up as it spread:
"Water Is Life."


Then, this Wednesday, (even as my friends emailed me about the latest "let's harass the Governor" rally at the upcoming State of the State speech, the news came, as suddenly as it came beyond all hope to the captains of the West at the Black Gate: we heard the words from Cuomo's own lips (he looked as though he'd swallowed as frog): that he was banning fracking in NY State. "I have to listen to the science" oh, I could get into this but won't.
We were exhausted beyond all hope, but many of us wept. I for one spent a good ten minutes at my computer, rocking back and forth, shaking, wiping tears from my face. Then we all called each other. I felt the same exhileration that people must have felt at the end of apartheid or the civil rights movement--and this was a cause no less righteous.


It's been 2 days and it's only now sinking in. Last night I saw TH the first time, wiped tears away again, and with Billy Boyd's sweet voice giving benediction upon it all. How do you explain one of the great moments in your life. I feel as if I could climb to the highest hill overlooking town, stand facing the West, lift my arms out and turn my face to the heavens, and send out my soul upon soaring wings. Human kind has sinned mightily against God's creation, but today, we have paid back a fraction of the interest upon that debt. My heart and soul are singing: Clap, clap your hands and rejoice, O you who love the Lord, bird and beast and fowl, and the smallest, insignifigant creature. For now you can live free of this great fear. I can walk again through my beloved land, tasting the waters which shall continue to run sweet and clear. I shall again stretch out my hand on my grandfather's land and pick the holy fruit, the tart apples and tangy pears, the corn and the squash, the beans and the wild berries and the cattail roots, and most of all the fat dusky wine grapes, so dear to our hearts in this state: deep purple, glistening and opascelent, and all the sweeter for it having been fought for. The wine country, my beloved Finger Lakes, were one of the two "ground Zero" areas for the frackers, had they won, and the region would have been destroyed, reduced to an industrial horror--to Mordor. They were talking literally *thousands* of wells. But now our landscapes and watersheds will remain free of those dark satanic wells, and the slag heaps, and flaming ruins, and the roar of the trucks, and the splashing of the poison wastewater dumped into the rivers and lakes by furtive, fearful company men at midnight, poison that would never leave. Our Amish shall continue to lead their quiet lives without fear of their lands and waters being poisoned. The 200-yr old famly business supplying organic grains to customers around the world will remain where it has been. The descandants of the Iroquois can live where they are living, the Keepers of the Four Gates, and know their lands are protected. Is this worth it? From the dedication of this sinner, this humblest of lives?


I'm spouting poetry. But I don't care. And for those of you who say: It's great for you to practice "NIMBY", believe me, we wanted to help you fight too, but found the viciousness of our own struggle soon consumed us. But we'll soon be fanning out to help you, never fear. We must be vigilant, there may be other treats, even this one may rear its head one day in future: Trans-Atlantic Pact and all.


I say this for my Texas TORN friend with whom I corresponded in the early days, whose life has become a catalog of health horrors due to this procedure. I asked permission if I could take her story to a lobbying session on Earth Day 3 yrs ago. She said yes. I hope you are reading this!


I'll soon be back here to discuss TH, and resume again my tenure on this site. Faithless is he who says farewell...


(This post was edited by Sunflower on Dec 20 2014, 3:45pm)


Annael
Immortal


Dec 20 2014, 3:44pm

Post #3 of 5 (188 views)
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well done! [In reply to] Can't Post

One of these days we really must wake up to the reality that fossil fuels are finite and that it's time we turn to sustainable, nonpolluting forms of energy. The technology's all there already; the only problem is that it's harder for corporations to make huge profits from sustainable practices.

Since evidence can be adduced and interpreted to corroborate a virtually limitless array of world views, the human challenge is to engage that world view or set of perspectives which brings forth the most valuable, life-enhancing consequences.

- Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind

* * * * * * * * * *

NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967


demnation
Rohan

Dec 21 2014, 10:39am

Post #4 of 5 (173 views)
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Congratulations! [In reply to] Can't Post

I don't know much about fracking, to be honest. But that's because I'm an idiot. But I'm glad that something you cared about got done. It's always nice when that happens!

"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." Gandalf, "The Last Debate."


Avandel
Half-elven


Dec 24 2014, 8:55pm

Post #5 of 5 (149 views)
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Thanks to all of you [In reply to] Can't Post

NY, the Finger Lakes, is God's country. I will never forget my first sight of it under a golden afternoon sun on a perfect summer day, rolling hills of green, the gorges, the waterfalls and pools, the trees, the beauty.HeartHeartHeartHeartHeart

Land and waters worth poetry, and songs, and is truly treasure. Worth fighting for, worth saving. HeartSmile

 
 

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