I've never posted a diary before. I've never started a petition before. I've never been an activist before, even though I've been a voter for forty-five years.
But I took the first step today. If it's an incorrect one, if it was not my place to do what I did, I humbly apologize. It did occur to me to ask first if it was appropriate, but instead of waiting for validation, this time I went ahead and started a petition on whitehouse.gov: Save Oak Flat
Here is the description I entered:
Oak Flat, currently a part of Tonto National Forest, has been a sacred place for the San Carlos Apache tribe for generations, used for coming-of-age ceremonies for young girls and for traditional acorn gathering. An addition to the most recent National Defense Authorization Act makes it part of a land swap between the Forest Service and Resolution Copper Mining, a subsidiary of two multinational corporations. This land has been protected from mining since the Eisenhower administration. We call on President Obama to use his designated authority to establish National Monuments in order to preserve this sacred place from destruction.
If I've trespassed in any way, I apologize. But assuming this is acceptable, I hope others will join me in asking President Obama to protect Oak Flat from people who are incapable of seeing anything except dollar signs.
Update at 2:27 AM, my time. It's been suggested I include links to other diaries that give a broader view. A great idea I should have thought of myself, but as I said, this is my first.
A good jumping-off point would be Hilltop Mama's diary. Davej's diary goes into more details, and has additional links.
If you're wondering why this one issue got to me jump in with both feet, read on. For what may be my first and only time, I'm going to invite you to jump over the puffy orange cloud with me.
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