the following was submitted to Forsooth for publication If we want a healthy future for our children and the children of future generations, we are called to break our addiction to world-warming and ecosystem-polluting fossil fuels and to commit to the sustainable future that renewable energy forms offer. In this corporate driven age, if we want a healthy future we have to be willing to stand up for it. A literal and symbolic example of this choice lies in the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline which would transport the dirtiest of fossil fuels, tar sands, from Alberta, Canada through 7 states to refineries in Texas crossing over (and endangering) the Ogallala aquifer, an essential underground source of fresh water along the way.   It is worth noting that these are the same tar sands that the Bush administration deemed too dirty for US government consumption in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.  It is also worth noting that the existing Keystone pipeline has already leaked or spilled a dozen times in twelve months spilling more than 23,000 gallons of toxic tar sand petroleum into the water ways and onto the lands of the Dakotas and Kansas. To allow the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline to move forward is to enable our own demise.  It is akin to an addict going back to their dealer even as their world collapses around them.  At a time when we should be getting "clean", it represents a commitment to keep mainlining fossil fuels and a promise to add untold carbon into the atmosphere when our very future is already threatened by current carbon levels. Due to it's international nature, the decision for the pipeline to move forward rests with one man, the president of the United States, who will in the next few months decide whether or not to issue the necessary permit.  And while denying the permit fits well into the hope uttered by candidate Barrack Obama who in 2008 said "Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil,"  there are few signs that president Obama holds the same conviction in 2011.   With big oil spending huge sums to lobby congress, and the White House afraid of the money they might put up against President Obama's reelection campaign (should he disallow the pipeline's permit), hope appears small and distant on the horizon.  Other signs of concern include the State Department's recently released and painfully biased environmental impact study and the presence of a former Hillary Clinton staffer amongst the pro-pipeline voices lobbying the State Department. In addition, pro-pipeline forces are exploiting deep-seated fears related to the economic crisis.  They are throwing up the smoke and mirrors argument of jobs vs regulation and vastly misrepresenting the number of jobs the pipeline will provide. In recent months the Keystone Pipeline moved to the forefront of the environmental movement when Climate Change activist and author Bill McKibben joined with other environmental leaders calling for two weeks of sustained acts of civil disobedience in front of the White House with the expressed goal of calling for the president to reject the Keystone Pipeline permit. With thousands more supporting us onsite and over 612,000 petition signers backing us up, I along with several other Louisvillians decided to take a stand and participate in a peaceful sit-in on Pennsylvania Avenue directly in front of our duly elected leader's residence.  In the end 1253 of us concerned citizens were arrested standing in for all those who believe that we can not turn our future over to the fossil fuels economy and corporate interests. We "sat-in" because other modes of communication --lobbying, voting, and litigation, are failing to allow those who are trying to protect the planet's life-giving and life-sustaining abilities to be effective. We "sat-in" because we believe that is individual citizens, not corporations, that should be shaping our future. We "sat-in" invoking the same time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience that brought us women's voting rights and the end of sanctioned segregation.   On that sunny August day, having been warned by the Park Police Swat team that we were to disperse or face arrest, our resolve only strengthened.  As they came and picked us off one by one placing us in hand cuffs and into paddy wagons our numbers dwindled yet our power seem to grow.  As we were each arrested the remaining protestors chanted our names, calling out words of appreciation for each individual who had so willing placed their freedom on the line. Meanwhile, the much larger crowd of supporters gathering in the park across Pennsylvania Avenue joined in the chants providing a choir of voices ringing out our names, literally singing our praises.  It was electrifying. The sit-in itself brought other epiphanies.  Among them was the amazing sense of brother/sisterhood that emerged between myself and my fellow protestors.  I had no need to know their individual stories or their particular motivations in order to feel deeply bonded with each of them. In that action, I felt an intense respect and appreciation.  It was an honor just to be amongst them. In that action, I felt an almost disorienting sense of familiarity and love that transcended knowledge. I knew clearly that these people were my family and I knew that I would go to the ends of the Earth for them.  I knew they had my back and that they knew, I too, had theirs. And in that moment of my own arrest (something I had successfully avoided for all of my 49 years) it became quite evident that we are sitting on the greatest source of power needed to create a better world -- ourselves.  In that moment I knew that justice and balance could be ours if we are only willing to stand-up (or in this case "sit-in") for what we believe.  We have the arch of justice, the arrow of empathy, the curve of compassion on our side.  In that moment I came to understand fully that it is time to sacrifice our comfort zones for something larger, something more powerful than surviving for another day. Perhaps in this age of globalization (and with our corresponding expanding sense of empathy) it is our right to have a healthy and sustaining environment that will unite and call many of us to act on behalf of both present and future generations.  I certainly believe in this as a distinct possibility.  The choice will be ours. No doubt, the Keystone pipeline issue offers great opportunities.  It offers the opportunity for the president to demonstrate his convictions, it offers the opportunity for environmental watch dogs to raise awareness. It offers an opportunity for us as a country to bring our commitment to renewable energy sources front and center. It offers the people an opportunity to recognize their power and to remind the government that they work for us, not the other way around. In the end I am left pondering a few key questions: What are we willing to do to protect our children's access to healthy air, water, land and food?  What are we willing to do for someone else's children? What are we willing to do for the dolphin, the polar bears, and for Earth herself? What is possible should we choose to stand and act together? For more information or to participate in the upcoming November 6, 2011 action at the White House visit tarsandsaction.org. Mark Steiner