Ralph talks to author and conservationist, Terry Tempest Williams about her lyrical paean to our national parks, The Hour of Land. And intrepid investigative journalist, Allan Nairn, tells us about Donald Trump’s connections to ISIS in Indonesia.
Terry Tempest Williams is an American author, naturalist, and conservationist. Ms. Williams has been called “a citizen writer,” who speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. Her work ranges from issues of ecology and wilderness preservation, to women’s health, to exploring our relationship to culture and nature. Her latest work is entitled The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, which is a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of twelve of our most prominent national parks, while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making.
“Close to three million citizens like you and me wrote letters to the Department of Interior saying, ‘Keep your hands off these twenty-seven monuments.’ Now, will they listen? Will they listen to the American people who say, ‘keep the open space of democracy open’?”
Terry Tempest Williams, author of The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks
Allan Nairn is an award winning investigative journalist, who while reporting in East Timor was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman, Suharto. In the early nineties, he and “Democracy Now’s” Amy Goodman were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after witnessing a mass killing of Timorese demonstrators. His writings have focused on U. S. foreign policy not only in Indonesia but also in Central America where he reported on U.S. corporate supported of right wing death squads; and in Haiti where he revealed the American government’s role in supporting the Haitian paramilitary.
“Freeport-MacMoran is a giant mining corporation, which is devastating West Papua, a region in Indonesia… And Freeport is currently under the de facto control of Carl Icahn, Trump’s close friend and White House deregulation advisor. And one of Freeport’s main corporate attorneys in Indonesia – a man named Munarman – has been helping to lead street demonstrations seeking to topple the elected president of Indonesia… And this Freeport corporate lawyer also has been recorded on video at an ISIS pledge of allegiance ceremony. He’s sitting in front of a group of young men who are pledging their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.”
Investigative Journalist Allan Nairn
Hands Off Our National Parks!/Trump Connections to ISIS?