Thursday 24 April 2014

Law and lore (at the Bentley blockade)

The situation unfolding here at Bentley is as much to do with language as it is to do with environment. We all recognise ourselves as protectors of the land, protectors under a common lore held by the people.


This is a very different point of view for government (and others) who see us as 'protesting persons' under a Roman legal system. But we are free people, working together, helping to protect the land from damage. This is our home for now.


While it is well understood that fracking pollutes land and water directly, few people understand that carcinogens and other toxins are also released into the atmosphere by the fracking process, only to be inhaled by us and other organisms, or end up settling on our roofs, ponds and watercatchments, and eventually consumed through our food and water supplies. The elders here know what damage is, know its form and its hatred, and they know it is time to move from law that permits extractive damage and return to lore that enacts generative and generational succession of all things.


It's about the food we eat,


and how we produce and prepare it.


It's about the way we converse,


and the reconciliation we walk.


It's about what remnants of the old world we recycle and reuse to build the new,


and it's about what energies we use to power it,


energies that don't cause damage.


We remain commited to our all night vigils here at Bentley because this place is every place.


Damage only prevails when good men and women do nothing.


Welcome to Bentley!

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