Stand Up

Stand up
Stand up
wherever you are

No more apologies
No more fawning to corporate interests
No more black death -
piped through someone else's land
No more abuse
Of our fellow human beings

Let's
Stop playing nice
when it comes to threats -
You think fascists respect
your acquiescence?
Yeah,
As much as Hitler respected
Neville Chamberlain?
A good man,
if not a great one.

Stand up
Stand up
whoever you are
and stand tall
knowing your life matters
racism is not "a mask"
donned on fundamentally good people
to scare their grandmothers -
It's a cancer,
a hate
that eats you
from the inside -
An affront to us all
Replacing love with hate
until only bitter loss is left

So stand up
stand up and
join me 
I'm standing for
           Standing Rock
I'm standing for
            democracy
I'm standing for
             the world we live on

What are you standing for?

A.J. Ponder 
 
And so in that spirit three sets of links: Standing Rock, Environmental, and sites that promote democracy.

Democracy

http://www.fairvote.org/  - promoting ranked choice voting - so split votes don't leave the least popular candidate in power.
http://voter.org/ - assiting voters and fighting voter suppression
http://libertytreefoundation.org/ - promoting the popular vote winning so all states are equally important in an election in America
There is also democracy international - but I suspect the best way to promote democracy is to find a grassroots organisation in your area and get involved.

Environment

There are so many, I'm taking the shortcut to Wikipedia's list of environmental organizations, which includes both governmental and non-governmental organizations all around the world.

Standing Rock

Amnesty international  http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/amnesty-international-usa-to-monitor-to-north-dakota-pipeline-protests
No DAPL site with petition and upcoming events http://www.nodapl.life/
There's a wonderful indigenous site, but I can't find it. Probably, hopefully incompetence
search #NoDAPL or standing rock
One of the YoungTurks {Jordan) has also been extensively covering the protests. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqSpk99bLYIRhTrDy1WU4xR5xqTDT4KCP


A.J. Ponder

PS for me, human rights are an essential part of democracy, and a clean environment is an essential human right -so
Dream it 
Demand it
Democracy Now