Monday, December 5, 2016

When Shall We Have Good News?

When shall we have good news?

From the Guardian days 2 ago, Sat. December 3,  2016:
 
"Cat Bigney, part of the Oglala Native American tribe, waits on the shore of the Cannon Ball river [North Dakota] for travellers to arrive by canoe at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline [DAPL].
--Photograph: David Goldman/AP *
I cried when I hear the news last night---I'd assumed this would end the way these things usually end, either with a bang––the arrival of the National Guard and a fleet of bulldozers behind them––
or a whimper––roadblocks starving and freezing the people out.

This isn't the case, I know, but it feels like the only good news we've had in 2016, a year of spectacular (and a spectacular amount of) bad news.

Of course this isn't the end of the pipeline itself, but what a great boost as we head into Trumptime, a reminder of the power of persistence.
Never, never, never, never give up.

What Churchill really said:
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."


Churchill made the speech on October 29, 1941, to the boys at Harrow School.

* The rest of the caption to the Cannon Ball, North Dakota, USA, photo, top:
"
Despite state and federal evacuation orders, a government roadblock, escalating police violence and aggressive prosecutions that attorneys say lack basic evidence, thousands of veterans are preparing to travel to Cannon Ball this weekend to support the growing movement to stop the pipeline."

5 comments:

ArtSparker said...

I know, right? Not so local, but the right wing candidate in Australia lost in the election there, which makes the strong man thing across the globe seem less inevitable.

ArtSparker said...

Er...Austrian.

Frex said...

LOL! I don't follow news very closely, but I do skim the Economist weekly; I wondered how I'd missed the news from Australia...

Jeepers--and I see the Italian p.m. just resigned. The Guardian writes, "Period of uncertainty predicted..."

Justin Trudeau in Canada gives some hope--just 489 km, 304 miles away! (I would never move, but, you know, it's a nice neighbor.)

Laura B said...

What an amazing photo that is of the Standing Rock Woman....it seems iconic.

Frex said...

LAURA: I thought so too--there's so much in it--the coat!!! her glance! the slush, and the red canoe... you could even teach photo composition by it!
It was among the Guardian's photos of the week--by a photojournalist.