Read

User menu

Search form

35,000 Say to An Audience of One: "No Keystone XL"

35,000 Say to An Audience of One: "No Keystone XL"
Mon, 2/18/2013 - by George Zornick
This article originally appeared on The Nation

Over 35,000 people descended on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday, huddled together against a stinging cold wind to deliver a message of opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline. Their audience was really just one man, the only one with the power to stop the project: Barack Obama.

“This movement has been building for a long time. And one of the things that’s built it is everybody’s desire to give the president the support he needs to block this Keystone pipeline,” Bill McKibben, president of 350.org, told reporters just before the rally began.

“The time for him to stand up is now. He’s been saying good things about climate change, but the easiest, simplest, purest action he could take is to not build this long fuse to one of the biggest carbon bombs on earth.”

That message of constructive support is evident in the rally’s title, the “Forward on Climate” march, which co-opted the president’s campaign 2012 campaign slogan.

The famous Obama “O” from campaign signage is also part of the rally’s graphic messaging, and numerous placards with inspirational quotes from Obama about climate change could be seen in the crowd. Several speakers, including U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, addressed the crowd before a March to the White House.

So this isn’t your standard protest, but rather a rally of support. But organizers aren’t naïve about political realities—and there was some tough talk for the president, too.

Van Jones, who worked in Obama’s White House in 2009 as his “green jobs czar,” made it clear in a pre-rally interview that the burgeoning anti-pipeline movement would not be bought off with other initiatives, like tougher EPA rules or more great speeches.

“I think we should take the president at his word, but make him honor his word,” Jones said. “This pipeline, if it goes through—the first thing that the pipeline runs over is the credibility of the president of the United States. That’s the first thing it runs over. He said that he’s not going to let us be a generation that cooks the earth.”

Jones continued: “If we lose, we lose everything. We’re fighting for the children of all species. This isn’t just a fight about Democrats versus Republicans in the United States. The children of all species forever are going to be impacted by what we do in this town for the next twelve to twenty-four months.

“So when you have that kind of fight, and people know that’s the fight that it is, you’re not going to see the sort of compromising you saw in the past. This is a different environmental movement. This is a different moment.”

And if Obama does approve the pipeline? Jones said it would define Obama in history’s eyes.

“Every other gain this president has done will be erased over the next ten, twenty, thirty years by floods, by fires, by droughts, by superstorms. His legacy is on the line.”

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

On the eve of the historic November vote, it seems important to ask: What's wrong with men, how did we get here, and can we change this?

Posted 1 week 4 days ago

Former President Donald Trump is growing increasingly deranged, yet the media is asleep at the wheel.

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago

Former President Donald Trump is now openly fantasizing about deputizing death squads against Americans.

Posted 4 weeks 8 hours ago

The 2024 Republican ticket’s incitement of violence against Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, is revealing in more ways than one.

Posted 1 month 1 week ago

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.

Posted 3 weeks 1 day ago

As Trump’s campaign grows increasingly bizarre, his team appears to be more tightly controlling his movements and carefully scripting his public appearances to minimize the negative impact his erratic behavior may have on undecided voters in swing states.

Throughout history, fascist governments have had a similar reliance on the use of lies as a weapon to take and retain power.