Dances With Ghosts

Dances With Ghosts: "The Gwich'in tribe has lived on its ancestral lands for 20,000 years in harmony with the natural world. The drilling for oil in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, called by the Gwich'in 'the Sacred Place Where All Life Begins,' will disrupt caribou calving grounds, leading to the long-term decline not only of the herd but of the tribe that depends upon it for survival.

This will not only violate internationally recognized human rights of the Gwich'in; it will also make a mockery of our founding principles of belief in the inalienable right of each person to 'life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.' Members of Congress will come to the floor today and say we need to drill to protect our economy, to defend our country, to keep our way of life.

I intend to point to the reciprocal nature of our moral decisions. Christian teaching tells us to do unto others as we would have them do unto ourselves. We learn from other spiritual insights that what we do unto others we actually do to ourselves. We cannot in the consciousness of true American spirit return to a history of slavery, a history where women had no rights or a history where native peoples are objectified and deprived of their humanity, their culture, their religion, their health, their lives. We must make our stand now not only as to who the Gwich'in are but, in a world where all are interdependent and interconnected, who we are and what we will become based on our decisions today."