Earth First!

The Rendezvous was an experience of important self-discovery, and profound learning experiences. It was almost a small Buffalo Campaign reunion, so there were quite a few people I knew. I was somewhat cautious to make deeper connections mainly because I knew I would be flying to the Philippines in 6 weeks. I also couldn't talk for the entire week I was there. In my thirst, I filled my water bottles at a gas station in an area that I knew had poisoned water. After all, that was part of the reason the Rondy was happening there. I think it was something in that really wretched water that made it hard to get my voicebox to work at all for more than a month afterward.

The Rondy is basically an activist training camp that also serves to inject a deeper involvement in a particular campaign. This one was hydrofracking. Fracking is a last-ditch effort to harvest natural gas where chemical-saturated water is shot deep into the earth to fracture shale rock, and thus releasing natural gas. It poisons entire watersheds, makes the surrounding air unbreathable for miles around, and even causes earthquakes. And, it's happening on public land all over the United States in fragile habitats, national forests, and protected parks. It's the wholesale of public wildlands for the profit of the very few with the support of huge amounts of taxpayer dollars.

One of the many plants in the Allegheny National Forest where the Rondy was held was shut down for an entire day. It's the very first time a plant has been shut down, and it cost Halliburton millions of dollars. You can bet there will be more actions taken against hydrofracking in this country in the coming months and years, but for each action, there are 10 new plants that become operational. It may be a losing battle, but Earth First! has a motto of No Compromise. Culture can sell a lifestyle of moderate luxury to the masses, companies can sell them bottled water after they've poisoned public water, entire habitats and species can go extinct, hospitals can demand health bills far out of proportion even for the life-threatening illnesses in millions of people as a result of hydrofracking. But no matter what downwards spiral capitalism forces us into, you can bet that at least a very very small percentage of us will go down spitting, kicking, and screaming to the last breath to protect the Earth and her precious resources upon which we all depend absolutely.