met with chuck schumer’s staff today, with my wonderful friend sue smith, in order to talk about #NoDAPL and our own personal experience of traveling to standing rock. we focused on human rights (tied it to schumer’s opposition to jeff sessions as AG), gave context to NoDAPL (a history of theft and river dams that have made land uninhabitable, but also unemployment rates of close to 80%, rampant poverty and consequent social problems including suicide rates that are double the national average), and insisted that the racist language being used by ND congressional reps on the floor of the senate (calling water protectors and their allies terrorists for example) be challenged and stopped. we described the oceti sakowin camp – how well-organized, clean and spiritual it was – and reiterated the right to free speech and peaceful assembly. i hope that these face to face meetings work. sue insists that they can be effective, if they take the form of ongoing conversations. that’s exactly what we need to do then. next: kirsten gillibrand.