Between The Lines - “Compassionate Earth Walk”'s Shodo Spring: 1,300-Mile Walk from the Tar Sands of Alberta to Nebraska (Week Ending Nov. 22, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Buddhist Priest Leads 1,300-Mile “Compassionate Earth Walk" from the Tar Sands of Alberta to Nebraska

RealAudio MP3

Posted Nov. 13, 2013

Interview with Shodo Spring, Zen Buddhist priest, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

From July to early October, Shodo Spring, a 64-year-old Zen Buddhist priest, who is a mother of two and grandmother of four, led a walk from the tar sands oil extraction region of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, 1,300 miles along the proposed route of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project.

After being arrested in Washington, D.C. in August, 2011 during a protest against the pipeline that would transport dirty tar sands oil to Texas refineries for export abroad, Spring decided to walk the route to meet people on all sides of the controversy and to bring peace to the area. She says the central impulse for the “Compassionate Earth Walk,” was a response to climate change, which she believes is the most likely cause of the current droughts, floods, and extreme weather events the world has witnessed in recent years. Spring asserts that the situation will get much worse unless people collectively take drastic action. She made the entire journey, walking about half the miles, while a core of six to eight others walked in either Canada or the United States. Other participants joined the walk for shorter periods.

Growing opposition to the extraction of tar sands oil has been provoked by scientific research that finds the energy source produces far more greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming than conventional production methods. President Obama is expected to make a decision on whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project sometime in 2014. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Shodo shortly after she finished the walk and returned to her home in Minnesota. She shared some reflections from her journey and summed up what she considers the walk’s impact.

SHODO SPRING: There was a rancher in Alberta who we met through a church, and we had dinner at his house, and we had a very lovely conversation about the whole thing, you know, climate change and what can you do and what can't you do, and everything. But he took us out to his ranch where he was keeping part of it as native prairie, and he talked about how he ran the cattle, and he knew exactly how long it was safe to leave them on the prairie, and then how long he had other fields, like alfalfa and the regular stuff, but he was protecting his prairie. So later on, we learned more about this, and every rancher we talked to we learned something from. Later on there was a rancher who, we didn't talk about his practices, but he actually drove a considerable distance to come and talk with us. I said I wanted the walkers to hear from him, because I had met him last year, and it's (the pipeline) coming across his land, and he refused to sign, and they took him to court, and he lost.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Can you say more about that? He refused to sign what?

SHODO SPRING: So, what happens is that TransCanada comes in, and they have a contract for an easement, and most people say, Oh, look, money! and they sign it. So you're getting some money and you're doing a good thing because it's getting energy for people, and it's needed. Some people have gotten together in groups and bargained for better easements is what they usually do, and then a very few people just refused to sign. And he said he wasn't against the pipeline in the first place, but they lied to him so much that they turned him against the pipeline. People keep saying lying and double-dealing, and refusing to answer questions, and high pressure tactics. He was referring the the Cowboy-Indian Alliance; he said it had put him in contact with so many different kinds of people that he never would have been involved with; he would have stayed with the people who were like him. And instead, he's become totally easy with people of all kinds.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, that's white ranchers and indigenous folks who are all against the pipeline, is that right?

SHODO SPRING: Right, yeah. I mean, what a great title, right? And of course the great thing which we've observed and everybody's noticed is, Oh, look! the same people whose ancestors came and took the land away from the Indians now need help from the Indians to protect their land, which used to be the Indians' land, because treaty rights are major, major help.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Would you say that in general people in the U.S. and Canada have a different view about the pipeline?

SHODO SPRING: Not exactly. In Canada, we met a few people who were against the pipeline, but mostly not; most people were for it. Oh, but we met some farmers and ranchers who were kind of grumbly about it, because they can't get farm help anymore, because you can make $28 an hour right out of high school if you go to work for the oil and gas industry, and the farmer can't afford to pay $28 an hour. And so people...this one guy we camped at his place, he said, he could have gone with...I don't know if he meant sold his land or whatever, but he wouldn't do it, but it's really hard to do agriculture anymore, because the labor force is going where the money is. It seemed like till we got about half-way through South Dakota, most people were pro-pipeline. They weren't thinking about oil spills and they weren't thinking about climate change. We heard more of the religious thing there – God's in charge. Then, like southern South Dakota and all of Nebraska, the people we saw, it was all about pipelines and spills and the aquifer and they're ruining our land and they're violating our rights, and everything.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Shodo Spring, what did you set out to accomplish, and do you feel like you accomplished it?

SHODO SPRING: The single clear intention that we all had was to walk every foot of that way, and we took turns, so what walking every foot meant, the staff went every foot. And except for three miles where there was road construction and there was no option, we did that. So that we accomplished. Other things were, we did have a lot of positive encounters with people. We don't know what the effect of those encounters was. Certainly the people who were anti-pipeline frequently felt encouraged and inspired by our being there. The group that was on the walk, I think learned a lot. There were people who just kind of stumbled into it, and they learned a lot about politics and activism and native issues, and all the stuff that came up there. But the people who came more intentionally, they matured in being able to work in a group. People were speaking in front of groups – not often – but everybody made beautiful statements. And so I think in terms of building activists, we had a positive effect.

Find links to more information about the “Compassionate Earth Walk,” by visiting compassionateearthwalk.org.