ghostsofevolution's video: Emily Johnston Withdrawing Consent from Catastrophe

October 11, 2016 Emily Johnston joined with four other climate activists to access the emergency shut-down valves on all tar sands pipelines entering the USA. Here she speaks from a Unitarian Universalist pulpit of the moral journey that led her to direct climate action. Her sermon was delivered May 21, 2017 at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirkland, WA. Ms. Johnston, along with Annette Klapstein, is facing two felony charges in Minnesota, with a maximum possible sentence of ten years in prison. For more information on the "valve turners" action, go to http://www.shutitdown.today/ Other "valve turners" videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_fKl4ju8HA&list=PLJvRBS695TaVximvL2g0VhDDGSTaab_lH Emily Johnston's sermon text is available in full at: http://www.shutitdown.today/emily_johnston_s_sermon_at_northlake_uus Resilience website cross-posted the text of this sermon on June 2 at this url: http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-06-02/fighting-for-our-lives/ AUDIO of this sermon is available here: http://thegreatstory.org/valve-audios/emily-johnston-sermon-seattle.mp3 Here is her conclusion, which begins at timecode 19:27 "... Normal politics has utterly failed us; we know that voting and petitions won’t do it. So what will you do about that? What can you imagine doing, knowing that your family and everyone else’s is on the line? Can you join an oil train blockade? Can you plan a lock-down at the Governor’s office to demand that he press Trudeau to revoke the Trans Mountain expansion permit? Can you shut down a bank branch to demand that the bank no longer finance projects that we know would are disastrous? Can you demand that Kirkland greatly improve its mass transit, so that ambitiously reducing fossil fuel use within a year or two is more feasible? "If we can imagine climate change bringing mass disruption all over the world, but we can’t imagine doing those things, then we don’t have a problem of climate change: we have a failure of imagination, and a failure of agency. We have to rise to this challenge. "Can we have a future without fossil fuels? Yes, we can—we know, in fact, that that is the only future we have. Can we start it in the next few years? "Sure we can. Other countries have already done so. The fossil fuel companies cannot devastate this world without our consent—we have to stand up for all that is good and beautiful, and consent instead to the still, small voice inside us. We have to reclaim our moral imaginations. We must be—we will be—brave and resilient. "We face a profoundly uncertain future, but all we really need for the road ahead is our moral compass and our deep and abiding love. I am asking you—I am begging you—to think about what that means to you, and what you can do rise to the challenge. "My life, and your life, and all the life around us—they’re worth fighting for."