The last of the Dakota Pipeline protestors have left the areas in North Dakota where they had remained encamped for so many months. So what have they accomplished?
Their ostensible purpose was to protect potable water in the Oahe river from the risk of the new pipeline’s possible rupture. I say new, because there are currently 7 other existing pipelines under the Oahe river, including one much more shallowly placed that has been running without incident for 30 years. In addition, the protestors stated their presence was to help safeguard the tribal rights of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose sacred land is near, but not on the site.
The protestors (or “protectors” as some asked to be known) camped on both private and federal lands, and at times, they numbered over a thousand. They lived on site through the harsh North Dakota winter. At intervals they clashed with police and security personnel from the pipeline site. They lived in tents, yurts, tepees, makeshift wooden housing, and RVs. Their existence on the site was partially subsidized by donations of food, clothes, and other materiel.
One week ago, the last of the protestors were forcibly removed from the area as the proximity of the North Dakota spring thaw threatened to engulf the region with flood waters.
And what did the protestors/protectors leave behind? What is the legacy of their act of “protection” and “protest”?
- Fires of their makeshift wooden housing, which they set, and in which at least two of their number were burned.
- A mountain of garbage and human waste so vast that it threatens to poison the Cannonball River and Lake Oahe-This latter being the very lake they purported to be protecting.
- Their animals. At least 6 puppies and two dogs. Rescuers have found these animals injured from exposure and are searching for others.
Clean-up teams, hired and paid for by the North Dakota taxpayers, have had to take special precautions in their work as the conditions of the abandoned camp are so awful that they fear there may be human remains in the detritus. Forty-eight million pounds of garbage contaminated with human feces has been removed so far.
In medicine, there is a saying, “First, do no harm.” Whatever these people say they were trying to accomplish, through their actions they have left the Dakota Pipeline Access area in far, far, worse condition than they found it. They despoiled and polluted the very lands they claimed they were there to defend from spoilage and pollution. What shameful hypocrisy.
One Response
Your final sentence in this article could probably sum up every leftist protest in recent memory.
Clean water is life? Lets become human pollution.
Love trumps hate? Let’s beat the hell out of people wearing the wrong color hat.
Only women should have opinions on abortion? Let’s tell pro-life women to shut up, not welcome in our parade.
The list goes on…