The Green Action club and Black Student Union held a silent rally and protest against the Dakota Access pipeline and Wells Fargo Bank on Nov. 16.
Members of Lehigh University, the LEPOCO Peace Center and the Alliance for Sustainable Communities – Lehigh Valley gathered around the UC flagpole for the rally. Dar Khabbaz, a Cherokee ceremonial leader, Dan Hunter, Rob Aptaker and Grandmother Shirley Khabbaz, of Cherokee heritage, began the silent rally with drumming and singing.
After the rally, protesters marched off campus and headed to Wells Fargo, located on 301 Broadway. There, Andrew Goldman, ’19, a member of Green Action’s executive board, lead a protest against Wells Fargo Bank for supporting and funding the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The protesters later returned to campus to end the protest in a discussion at the flagpole. On the walk back to the flagpole, the protesters were stopped by Bethlehem police who questioned what the protesters were doing and where they were organizing from. The photos from the protest can be seen here.
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Dakota Access Pipeline protest.
Dear friends at Lehigh University, I was a native of the Great Plains near the Standing Rock location. My great grandfather is buried in an unmarked grave near the site of the DAPL. As a European immigrant, he wound up in the environmentally daunting area which had no heating fuel. There were no trees, but only animal manure and grass to burn in the frightfully cold winters. They had to rely on beast of burden ox and horse to till the soil and harvest the crops and transport their products to market. Inventions of tractors, thrashers and combines early in the 1900’s .certainly brought a change in humanity. The poor animals were spared of their pitiful duty by gasoline powered tractors thrashers, and trucks. The upper Midwest is a vast area dedicated to production of food. This would not be possible without the sacrifice of the Native Americans and the invention of energy consuming machines. The discovery of petroleum in North Dakota has turned out to be a valuable asset in our quality of life. The use of the Dakota Access Pipeline seems like a good alternative to having refineries scattered all along the waterways of the .Missouri River. Certainly there is room for many opinions on this. I am an elderly person, and I understand the worries about the environment. In my lifetime, the population of the world has nearly doubled. The need to feed ourselves can only be satisfied through the use of energy. I hope you will consider these arguments when you set forth your opinions.
Thank you.