My Aberdeen neighbor Bill Fuhrman represented the worst of Trumpism in his comments in our local paper last week. But in this week’s AAN Reader Panel on hopes for the new President’s first 100 days, Fuhrman challenges Trump to put the good of our American Indian neighbors above Trump’s own financial interests and cancel the Dakota Access pipeline:
I run with the elephants, but he must understand the harm that has been done to our Native Americans since at least the mid-19th century. Treaty after treaty has been broken. The Dakota Access Oil Pipeline could devastate those dependent on Missouri River water. Trump must stop it! [Bill Fuhrman, Reader Panel, Aberdeen American News, 2016.11.21]
Making up for Fuhrman’s lapse from Trumpism is Bernie Webb from Gettyburg, who recommends this unconstitutional and unconscionable action:
I would like to see Trump in the first days — in loving memory of the victims and their families — privately, without fanfare or delay, execute the terrorists likely linked to the Sept.11, 2001, mass murder and the Fort Hood radicalized terrorist incident. Also dispose of their remains at sea [Bernie Webb, Reader Panel, Aberdeen American News, 2016.11.21].
Asking the Commander-in-Chief to perform summary executions on individuals “likely linked” with illegal activity—hmm, that doesn’t sound like a Trump voter focused on economic issues to me.
Ah, but we can’t accept wishes for atrocities from anti-Trump readers, either. Aberdeen builder Sea Atwood asks, “Can I go with a plane crash and a car fire?”
No, no, no, Sea. Only Trumpists get to wish violent death on their political foes. We in the Resistance have set the moral example. The only justifiable call for death in this sample is Fuhrman’s call for the death of the Dakota Access pipeline.
One thing that unites South Dakotans of all races and ideologies is water. It runs through the heart of the state over rocks that come from the basement of time, to borrow some great phrasing from Norman Maclean, and it runs through all life.
Water has also been a divisive issue in the state’s history. Folks differ about what should be considered Waters of the United States versus what should be regulated by the state versus what should be considered private. Everybody will argue about the details, but South Dakotans know that water is life.
Wow, Mr. Webb is a man of consequence in South Dakota. He’s a historian and a former President of the SD Historical Society not to mention one of South Dakota’s Three Outstanding Young Men For 1972.
Wonder if he can use his go-back-machine and tell us what the actions he is enthusiastically promoting have meant to past societies? Somebody get this guy on TV and have him show his ignorance and hate to a broader audience, and then ask him intelligent follow up questions.
He signed his name to it and it probably made his inner unshackled-by-ethics-self feel better to boldly rebuke the constitution, international law and God’s laws…but he needs to stand behind his statement and answer to the intended and unintended consequences of his evil wishes.
I’m thinking he’s just another drunk at the end of the bar inspiring the worst of ourselves to agree with him when our senses aren’t clear. Kind of like Trump.
That the AAN would print this crap is probably a bigger indiscretion. Hey, Aberdeen American News, care to do a follow up on this story or are you just going to let him light the torches and sharpen the pitchforks for the mob?
Given the hate speech in Aberdeen around those of the Muslim faith, this is precariously close to yelling fire in a crowded theater. Do your job AAN!
In the name of love, kill?
As I watched the video of Indian being hosed down in frigid weather by law enforcement I thought of Sheriff Bull Connor in 1960’s Mississippi and imagined how Trump and Webb would be cheering them on. It is no wonder that South Dakota is often referred to as Northern Mississippi, before you correct me about the protest taking place in North Dakota not South Dakota, we do have plenty of South Dakota cops up there.
Donald Pay,
While there are many non-Indians in our state and nation that believe that water is sacred, there is an element in South Dakota that believe oil is more sacred than water.
The ongoing battles over KeystoneXL and DAPL clearly show that many republicans put oil over water in value.
Roger, the ND police behavior also reminds me of the Kent State protest against the war in Vietnam where national guard members shot and killed 4 college students and harmed a whole bunch of young protesters.
You would think we would learn from such mistakes. Either we need to stop harming protesters or repeal the 1st Amendment so they can all be slaughtered at will by law enforcement.
True, nobody wants to be drinking oil, but you can’t power your car with water either.
If its any consolation, Drumpf now says he believes in man made climate change. He also said if he thought Steve Bannon was a racist or had anything to do with the alt right, he wouldn’t hire him.
Doc- I have decreased my driving considerably, even with lower gas prices. I decreased spending because a Social Security check barely gets me by from one month to the next. My landlord pays the water bill because his livestock use more water in a month than I ever used in a year or more. More and more of our precious water is going to massive cafos at as cheap a rate or cheaper than I ever paid for the minimum amount monthly. No one seems to want to talk about how much water even a small cafo uses/wastes each year. Bet it is unbelievable.
He still has a question regarding the extent of man-made climate change, but it is a step in the right direction.
bear-the high sheriff claims they used water cannons because the protectors had started fires. You hose people down in sub-zero weather because they had fires and were going to self-immolate?
My best guess was the fires were to dry themselves out so they wouldn’t catch pneumonia. Sounds like there was a lot of ingjuries including fractures.
Sounds like there is room for measures to recycle the water that such operations use while capturing some of the essential nutrients as well, like phosphates. A lot of those are currently mined, and recycling will become more important if those external sources dwindle.
The powers to be are getting desperate. As noted in these blogs, if these guys don’t flow oil by the 1st of January, contracts must be renegotiated from the Hundred dollar a barrel price to current levels. That is one helluva haircut. https://trofire.com/2016/11/18/dapl-investors-getting-antsy-pipeline-doesnt-move-oil-january-first-contract-expires/
Jana, I would think a historian would know better than to advocate summary execution of “likely” suspects.
Water as a unifying value—if water can bring Fuhrman and Indians together, water can bring anybody together. But then, thinking of what Roger says, we see the petro-imperialists use water as a weapon….
What’s it going to take to get everyone, including two of the three Reader Panelists quoted above, to believe we can solve problems non-violently?
We all live down stream.
Iraq Veterans Against The War are bringing supplies into the camps there. If you want to donate to the good fight, here ya go https://www.ivaw.org/ Help bring up the gear, this is about your water, defend it.
Veterans for Standing Rock mobilizing for peaceful unarmed demonstration to show solidarity. Help fund if you can. This is your water that they will be protecting. Read and donate if you can. https://www.gofundme.com/veterans-for-standing-rock-nodapl