The Crusader Newspaper Group

Jesse rips Trump on giving OK for Dakota Access pipeline

By Chinta Strausberg, Chicago Crusader

After signing a bevy of executive orders that attempts to wipe out the legacy of President Barack Obama, President Trump’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline over the objections of the Standing Rock Sioux is nothing but “brutal force” and moral decadence, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. said late Tuesday night.

Rev. Jackson, who recently stood in solidarity with the Native Americans, denounced Trump for his approval of constructing the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipeline project, which was opposed by President Obama. Jackson told an ABC Sidney Australian TV station late Tuesday night.

Jackson said he supports the Standing Rock Sioux Native American Indians in their opposition of the project and not just because he is part Cherokee.

“We all belong to each other. We cannot separate ourselves from the crisis…. We’re a family. We live in a global community. What affects one of us directly affects the rest of us directly,” said Jackson.

Saying this is a religious and moral matter, Jackson said, “The use of brute force ideology” in erecting this pipeline” is wrong…” ruthlessness…. “It is their grounds…a burial ground…. There are environmental hazards. A chance of a leaky pipeline…that can kill m millions of people.” He hopes Trump will change his mind.

While Obama gave the Indians a reprieve, Trump is sticking to his campaign promise of increasing the production of domestic energy vowing to complete the $6.1 billion project.

Trump ignored the pleas of the Indians prompting Standing Rock Tribe chairman Dave Archanbault, II to say, “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipelines route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.”

Rev. Jackson said they could have chosen a different path to lay those pipes needed to bring heavy crude from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

“This brutal use of force is unacceptable,” said Jackson, but Trump said he’s looking forward to creating 28,000 jobs which contradicts a 2014 U.S. State Department’s environmental study that claimed it would create 3,900 construction jobs and 35 permanent jobs. The issue, Jackson said, is a moral one including the retention of Native American’s sacred grounds.

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