permaculture

[Bob Waldrop <bob@bobwaldrop.net>]

Three years ago I chained myself to an excavator working on digging a 
new oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma south to Houston.  It was 
considered to be the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline from the 
Canadian oil sands ecocide.

After the series of protest actions, another protest was carried out the 
new 50 story skyscraper of Devon Energy, a leader in fracking and the 
largest Oklahoma based independent oil company. Two advocates of planet 
earth unveiled a banner "The Odds Are Never In Our Favor' from the 
second story atrium.  More is in the story forwarded below.   They are 
being brought to trial on June 30th.  I am not aware of anything we are 
asking of people not in the area, but if you know some Okies, we are 
wanting people to attend the trial.  If there is something folks can do 
from elsewhere, I will post a followup.

The odds are never in our favor, but that doesn't stop us from doing 
what's right for people, the planet, and the future.  Please feel free 
to forward this on elsewhere.

Bob Waldrop, Okie City



-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:        [New post] Glitter Activists Face Trial!
Date:   Mon, 27 Jun 2016 17:30:40 +0000
From:   Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance <donotreply@wordpress.com>
To:     bob@bobwaldrop.net



WordPress.com
GPTSR posted: "On December 13th, 2013, Moriah Stepheson and Stefan 
Warner were arrested while taking part in a non-violent peaceful 
protest. The two activists were taken into custody after hanging a 
glittery Hunger Games themed banner in the open-to-the public atrium of"


   New post on *Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance*

        

<http://gptarsandsresistance.org/?author=3>       


   Glitter Activists Face Trial!
   <http://gptarsandsresistance.org/glitter-activists-face-trial/>

by GPTSR <http://gptarsandsresistance.org/?author=3>

On December 13th, 2013, Moriah Stepheson and Stefan Warner were arrested 
while taking part in a non-violent peaceful protest. The two activists 
were taken into custody after hanging a glittery Hunger Games themed 
banner in the open-to-the public atrium of the Devon Energy Center. The 
activists were booked into the Oklahoma County Jail under the felony 
charge Terrorism Hoax, which carries up to 10 years in prison. The 
activists’ arrest gained international media attention due to the 
severity of the arresting charge. Documents obtained by journalists 
proved that the Joint Terrorism Task Force, TransCanada Corporation, and 
the Oklahoma City Police had met together prior to the construction of 
the Keystone XL pipeline to strategize ways to prosecute environmental 
activists as terrorists. The terrorism hoax charges have been dropped, 
but Stefan Warner and Moriah Stephenson will stand trial for misdemeanor 
disorderly conduct on June 30th at 8 am in the Oklahoma City Courthouse. 
A charge which their lawyer argues is still a violation of free speech.

Glitter Banner 
<https://earthfirstnews.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/glitter-banner.jpg>The 
glittery banner in question read, “The Odds Are Never in Our Favor.” The 
banner highlights the disproportionate ways in which oil and gas 
development occurs, granting power, wealth, and access to oil 
corporations while disenfranchising communities of color and 
low-income-rural communities. The reality that “The Odds Are Never in 
Our Favor” has become even more clear in recent years as Oklahoma’s 
budget deficit has resulted in funding cuts for public education and 
public needs programs while continuing to offer tax incentives to large 
oil corporations.

Warner and Stephenson had no intention of causing panic or alarm, they 
simply were using free speech to highlight the similarities between The 
Hunger Games series and our everyday lives in Oklahoma: a small group of 
people profit off of the resources and labor of many, while exploiting 
marginalized communities. These activists wanted to highlight at least 
three primary injustices perpetrated by Devon Energy: 1) Devon Energy is 
involved in extracting and transporting tar sands oil, the heavy and 
toxic crude that the Keystone XL pipeline carries from Canada to the 
Gulf of Mexico to be sold on the global market, 2) Devon Energy’s 
practice of tar sands extraction is environmental racism, most 
negatively impacting low-income, indigenous communities in Canada and 
across the U.S. such as the Lubicon Cree First Nation, Mikisew Cree 
First Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation 3) Devon Energy 
lobbies for and receives large tax incentives which have resulted in the 
disastrous budget deficit Oklahoma is currently facing. In all of these 
ways the dominance of the oil and gas industry and the failure of the 
Oklahoma state government to diversify the economy create a situation in 
which “The Odds Are Never in Our Favor.” These activists’ arrest 
highlights another way that “The Odds Are Never in Our Favor,” violation 
of free speech. The odds are not in our favor when the oil and gas 
industry is protected when environmental catastrophe or economic crisis 
occurs, but individual residents are persecuted for spilling glitter 
from a banner. Stephenson and Warner invite community members to be 
present at their trial on June 30th at 8 AM.

*GPTSR <http://gptarsandsresistance.org/?author=3>* | June 27, 2016 at 
12:30 pm | Categories: Uncategorized 
<http://gptarsandsresistance.org/?taxonomy=category&term=uncategorized> 
| URL: http://wp.me/p3p57e-nt

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