I often shake my head that more people are concerned about the tiddlewinks that goes on in DC then in what goes on every Tuesday at our city council meetings.
Tonight I was presented that cold hard facts again. I attended the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Falls Park, there was several hundred people in attendance (many local, including former state lawmakers). They were protesting the section of the pipeline several hundred miles away.
I ask where were these people when the 1st and 2nd reading of the easement of this pipeline to our very own landfill was voted on? (March 1 & 8, 2016).
1st Reading (FF: 27:00 – also listen to my public testimony)
At the 1st reading, I was the only one to speak out. At the 2nd reading only one person (a landowner that was affected) spoke out. At first, the easement failed 4-3 (councilor Erickson recused herself) It needed at least 5 votes to pass. At the end of the meeting, councilor Rolfing had a brain fart and didn’t realize his protest vote counted as a real vote, and he changed his vote to pass the easement.
The councilors who voted for the pipeline easement argued that we already have several gas lines running through our city, so what is another one?
My bigger question is where were these hundreds of people those nights? Well I blame apathy of local government. Just think if several hundred of these people, including former lawmakers would have shown up those nights to protest this easement, maybe all of the council would have voted differently, maybe it would have failed unanimously, maybe Rex would not have changed his vote.
I even spoke to a local journalist tonight who said he had written several stories about our local easement, so the information was out there.
This is further proof that local politics do matter, get involved on a local level, you can make a difference, or you can hold hands, burn sage and sing songs of mother earth in a park. Speak out on a local level as well as on a national and state level. All protest is important, make it count where it matters most, right here.