Tim DeChristopher

Photo courtesy Utah for Bernie Sanders

Watch the live stream recording of the August 14, 2015 Utah for Bernie Sanders  event at the Impact Hub Salt Lake City, UT.

Event Description: Utah for Bernie Sanders, a grassroots organization, is excited to present a night of music and educational discourse of  current environmental and climate change issues facing our nation and the world. Tim DeChristopher, prominent environmental activist and founder of Peaceful Uprising, will speak at the Salt Lake Impact Hub, 150 South State Street, #1, Salt Lake City, Friday, August 14, 2015. The free event will begin at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time and can also be viewed via livestream. Read full event  press release.

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 Watch Live Stream Here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Utah for Bernie Sanders, a grassroots organization, is excited to present a night of music and educational discourse of  current environmental and climate change issues facing our nation and the world. Tim DeChristopher, prominent environmental activist and founder of Peaceful Uprising, will speak at the Salt Lake Impact Hub, 150 South State Street, #1, Salt Lake City, Friday, August 14, 2015. The free event will begin at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time and can also be viewed via livestream at https://www.facebook.com/events/1450299071945846/

In addition to Mr. DeChristopher, musician Pablo Blaqk will perform. Pablo Blaqk is also an environmental activist and founder of the GreenCity Music Festival, an Eco friendly fest which features huge acts to support green ideas in energy, food, clothing, and re-purposed designs.

DeChristopher will discuss his experiences with climate justice that began in 2008 when he single-handedly prevented the controversial sale of Utah public lands for oil and gas leases through a spontaneous act of civil disobedience. For his civil protest, he was sent to prison for 21 months.  His creative and effective approach received wide media coverage, and was the subject of the independent film, Bidder 70.  DeChristopher went on to co-found Peaceful Uprising, a nonprofit collective committed to action to combat the climate crisis and build a just, healthy world. It works toward achieving climate justice and illuminating the relationship between the destruction of the planet and social oppression and inequality.

As a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, my first reaction to hearing about yesterday’s Black Lives Matter protest at Netroots Nation was disappointment.  This looks bad, I thought.  Bad for Bernie, who is the only presidential candidate with any chance of challenging structural injustice.  And bad for Black Lives Matter, who could easily be interpreted as shutting down progressive discussions about immigration and economic inequality to make people focus on their priorities.  I’ve had my share of mistakes during protests, as have all the activists I respect most, so I certainly had some sympathy.  But I thought their protest was just that: a mistake.

Then I watched the video of Sanders responding to the protest, or should I say, failing to respond and instead just speaking over and past them.  He tried to just continue with his stump speech and seemed annoyed with the disruption.  Several times he looked at moderator Jose Antonio Vargas as if he expected Vargas to control these women, once asking, “Are you in charge here?”  The closest he came to discussing policing issues directly was mentioning his success with community policing in Burlington, VT, a city that was pretty much all white and pretty much irrelevant to the discussion of racist policing.