By John Vibes
Shailene Woodley, the actress who plays a hero revolutionary in the Divergent film series, was recently arrested for protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and she is hoping to use her arrest to bring attention to the injustices taking place. Woodley was charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot, and pled not guilty in court this Wednesday.
For those of you new to the story of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline is being constructed by the Energy Transfer Partners corporation and will stretch 1,172 miles from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois, crossing the Missouri river.
The pipeline runs alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, and according to the National Historic Preservation Act, the tribe should have been consulted about the project before it was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to a lawsuit filed by an organization representing the tribes, “The construction and operation of the pipeline, as authorized by the Corps, threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the tribe” — indeed, it already has.
Despite the fact that thousands of native people have been protesting the project for months, the situation was largely absent from the mainstream media until Woodley’s arrest, which prophetically occurred on Oct. 10, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which was formerly known as Columbus Day in many places.
In a recent article for Time, Woodley laid out a strong case against the pipeline, saying that,
When the Dakota Access Pipeline breaks (and we know that too many pipelines do), millions of people will have crude-oil-contaminated water. I know it is easy to be apathetic or detached from the reality that fossil fuel contamination could actually affect you and the ones you love… But hear me loud and clear: If you are a human who requires water to survive, then this issue directly involves you. Don’t let the automatic sink faucets in your homes fool you—that water comes from somewhere, and the second its source is contaminated, so is your bathtub, and your sink, and your drinking liquid. We must not take for granted the severity of this truth.
Humbly, she called attention to the 26 others who were detained in the Morton County jail with her and pointed out that it is a shame that the media will not recognize the arrests of peaceful protesters unless a celebrity’s name is involved.
“Treaties are broken. Land is stolen. Dams are built. Reservations are flooded. People are displaced. Yet we fail to notice. We fail to acknowledge. We fail to act. So much so that it took me, a white non-native woman being arrested on Oct 10th in North Dakota, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, to bring this cause to many people’s attention. And to the forefront of news publications around the world,” she said.
Adding later, “What if we took the hashtag #FreeShailene and made it #ProtectCleanWater, or #HonorNativeTreaties, or #IStandWithStandingRock?”
Woodley also pointed out that Native Americans are entirely ignored and forgotten in mainstream settings, and yet they still face a considerable amount of oppression.
The racial group most likely to be killed by law enforcement are Native Americans, followed by African Americans, Latinos, Whites, and Asian Americans.
Native Americans, 0.8 percent of the population, comprise 1.9 percent of police killings.
Shailene Woodley should be commended for her actions, and for using her influence to branch out into activism and get others involved. People who are in the public eye have a choice to either be a propaganda mouthpiece, or an avenue for change. There is no middle ground. In times of great injustice, those who are silent side with the oppressors, especially if those who are silent have wealth, notoriety, and a platform to reach people with important messages.
It is rare for people to use their positions in the public eye to stir up moral and philosophical debate, however, because examples have been made of people who have tried in the past. We’ve seen this media tar and feathering very recently with the controversy surrounding football player Colin Kaepernick, who has refused to stand for the national anthem ritual that the military pays the NFL millions to recite at the beginning of every game.
Yet, despite the risks of becoming a pariah in the media and losing job opportunities, Woodley has taken a stand for what is right, and you can get involved too. Will you join us?
John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. He writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. John is currently battling cancer naturally, without any chemo or radiation, and will be working to help others through his experience, if you wish to contribute to his treatments please donate here.
I wish them luck. There must be someway to make the gov listen!!
Oh right there is a way – Trump Pence 2016!!!!
Trump’s family money is based on segregation & cheating the little guy. His father was KKK. Why do you think they endorsed him?
Agreed, CAWS, he’s a fraud and another globalist scum, just saying what people who hate Clinton want to hear. He’s a lying freemason, too, just like the Clintons. Clinton = 33 in numerology, Trump, whose real name is Drumpf = 33, of course 33 is for 33rd degree freemasons like so many of our political and commerce leaders.
They’re also both working for the same people who are not us; they’re related like every US president, candidate and senator (see: divine right of kings, treaty of 1213 which is a contract between the Pope and King John of England who every leader is related to because so long as there are heirs to this contract which is anyone distantly related to this King, and there will always be a Pope, the contract stands. This is the contract where they agree the Pope owns everything, including us). Trump and Hillary have the same 18th grandparents.
They’re just the left wing and the right wing of the same old dirty bird.
One in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan; where are the Hordes? Just wondering since, for you, genetics control us all. lol
You don’t have to tell me it’s a crock of woo! I’m just saying they’re standing on the Treaty of 1213 where they claim “the divine right of kings” and so long as there are heirs to both sides of this contract between King John of England and the Pope, and there will always be a Pope, they make this claim and the contract stands and their thugs enforce it (that’s all it is, a treaty is a binding contract).
These are psychopaths we’re dealing with – probably from all that inbreeding, and yes, every US president, and now US senator is related to each other to continue this tyranny legally (but obviously not lawfully). I’m related to them, too, I hate to admit, and you probably are too! It’s ONLY a tool they use to “cremate their care” and justify in their abominable psychotic minds the tyranny they deploy on us – and call it “the law”.
How about his platform? Like what he wants to do for America? That is the GREATER question. If Killary’s infamous misdeeds don’t count…then Trumps shouldn’t either.
They both count & neither should be president.
To the liberals, her misdeeds don’t count. That’s why I said that Trumps shouldn’t either. However, they are both on the ballot. So we have to vote for someone if we are going to vote. Voting for either one of the other 2 are wasted votes.
Too bad so few are willing to fight for a third party to ever have a voice. This is why we have a duopoly with two sides of the same coin.
CAWS: True or False?: Donald Trump and his father are one and the same person?
True or false?: the man Hillary calls “my mentor” was a former KKK Grand Wizard?
Trump’s a lying freemason and Pence is an attorney. Lawyers aren’t even US citizens, they must give up their citizenship in order to accept a title of nobility, that of Esquire – one degree above a Gentleman, and one degree below a Knight, so that’s a lose-lose situation for us all. Just like voting for Hillary and Kaine who are both lawyers and have “attorned” or turned from natural law (real) to commerce law (“color of law” or having the appearance of law, but with no authority without our consent/contract), which means 3 of the 4 people running in this race are traitors and have lied to us all along about what being a lawyer really means.
Never hire a lawyer, because when you do you admit you’re an incompetent imbecile. Lawyers may ONLY represent infants, wards of the court/state (which you become when you hire one) and persons of unsound mind – so you’d have to be an imbecile to hire one! I wish I were kidding, but I’m deadly serious, they’ve been lying to us for centuries.
The only vote that makes sense is for Nobody, because Nobody will end war, Nobody will lower taxes, Nobody will end hunger and poverty, Nobody will create jobs, Nobody will fix the economy, and Nobody doesn’t lie. God save us all.
Trump Pence 2016!!!
Hitlery for prison 2016!!!!!!!
I wouldn’t put too much stock in Trump.
He’s much less likely to provoke WWIII than Killary, but is that really good enough?
I suppose it’s enough for me to prefer him winning over Killary.
But it’s not enough to get me to vote for him.
But to get back on point, good to see Ms. Woodley doing the right thing, at least in this instance. Sad to say, she’s a supporter of Bernie Sanders, which means she’s not a defender of the Non-Aggression Principle.
Not voting for Trump is a vote for Hitlery. Don’t care what your reasoning is!!