If Not Now, When? Mr. President, Stand Up to Big Oil. Say No to the Keystone XL
Posted October 20, 2011 in Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, Solving Global Warming
If I am not for myself, who will be? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?
Perhaps you are familiar with these words because you’re a fan of the multi-platinum rock band, Incubus, whose sixth album, If Not Now, When? was released last July.
Or maybe you remember hearing President Obama say this to Congress during the tense summer deficit reduction negotiations: It’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder. So we might as well do it now -- If not now, when?
These words, in fact, originate from religious text dating back to the Babylonian period.
So, whether [or not] you’re religious, a political junkie, or a rock-fan, you have most likely heard this saying or a similar call to action. Recently, I heard these words and I immediately thought of the Occupy Wall Street fervor spreading across the country and what it means for the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
If I am not for myself, who will be?
The Constitution says the government is our provider and protector. But why are 99 percent of us still struggling?
Big Oil companies are making record profits and the President has done little to push back, despite his promise to “end the tyranny of oil.”
Why has it taken so long for we, the people, to unite and stand up for what is right?
How much longer can our planet sustain this type of negligence?
If not now, when?
I find these words prophetic; an admonition to those who choose to put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Hope, therefore, lies in the hands of individuals to step up, perhaps take a risk, but to make that leap.
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and Tar Sands Action organizer, spoke at Occupy Wall Street in New York last week to show the link between corporate greed and the Keystone XL- the enormous dirty energy pipeline that would deliver crude oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas:
The reason that it’s so great that we’re occupying Wall Street is because Wall Street has been occupying the atmosphere… The sky does not belong to Exxon. They cannot keep using it as a sewer into which to dump their carbon. If they do, we’ve got no future and nobody else on this planet has a future.
The beauty of living in a democracy is the right and duty of the people to alter or abolish the government when it becomes destructive. It is not the government, but the land on which we live, that creates our sense of place. And nothing is more iconic to our collective identity than the vast and fertile Great Plains.
This is the same land now threatened by Big Oil. The Keystone XL pipeline would cut across the Ogallala aquifer, the country’s largest freshwater source. One leak would have devastating consequences to our health and our agriculture.
The Obama administration has the authority to stop the pipeline. And before the end of the year, they will decide upon a course of action, which will hopefully manifest what we all know to be true, that this dangerous pipeline is not in our national interest.
McKibben, NRDC, and hundreds more will create a human chain around the White House on November 6th, exactly one year before the next election, to send a clear message that we oppose the Keystone XL. Americans want leadership that reflects this public interest. Join us and please ask the President to stand up to Big Oil by going to NRDC’s action site.
It’s the 21st Century, we’re not about to turn back now. Mr. President, stand up for American workers and our land. Stand up for energy security. Stand up for the energy future you know we deserve. Say no to the Keystone XL pipeline.
–Robert Redford
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