Award winning filmmaker Andrew Morgan’s latest film is the documentary, TEXAS, USA. As in his earlier films such as THE TRUE COST and THE HERETIC, he informs us about big topics through the impacts on individual lives.
TEXAS, USA explores what it takes to build a new, hopeful vision for democracy against entrenched, well funded forces against the full participation of all Texas citizens. The film follows progressive candidates, Lina Hidalgo, Greg Casar and Beta O’Rourke, as well as community organizers, Tori Gavito, Brianna Brown (Texas Organizing Project – TOP) and Adri Pérez, during the 2022 elections.
We see the human side of politics – whether going door to door in major cities or addressing crowds in small, rural town-hall meetings. It documents that democracy is very much alive and succeeding even in an era of reactionary politics aimed at suppressing it.
We spoke with Andrew on October 2, 2023 via Skype.
Robert P. Jones is the author of the book, THE HIDDEN ROOTS of WHITE SUPREMACY and the PATH to a SHARED AMERICAN FUTURE, published by Simon and Schuster.
His earlier award winning books include WHITE TOO LONG: THE LEGACY OF WHITE SUPREMACY IN AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY; THE END OF WHITE CHRISTIAN AMERICA; and PROGRESSIVE AND RELIGIOUS: HOW CHRISTIAN, JEWISH, MUSLIM AND BUDDHIST LEADERS ARE MOVING BEYOND THE CULTURE WARS AND TRANSFORMING AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE.
In this latest book, he reminds us that the enslavement of Africans was not America’s original sin, but rather the continuation of a pattern of genocide and dispossession that began with the first European contact with the Indigenous peoples of this land. His reframing of America’s origins explores how the founders of the US could build a democratic society on the foundations of mass racial violence, and why this paradox survives today in the form of White Christian Nationalism. Through three stories from our history and current re-examination and reckonings by those living today, he has illuminated the possibility of a new American future in which we finally fulfill the promise of true democracy.
We spoke with him on September 20, 2023 via Skype.
Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. A world renowned earth scientist, historian and public speaker, she is the author or co-author of nine books, including the best-selling book, Merchants of Doubt, and a leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action.
Her latest book, co-written with Erik Conway, is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market, published by Bloomsbury Press.
The week beginning August 14th, 2023 has been historic for first rulings and actions for the environment and democracy. That morning, MT District CourtJudge, Kathy Seeley, rendered her masterful 103 page closely reasoned and well cited verdict in the case of Held v MT, ruling that the 16 youth plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under the Montana State Constitution were being violated by the Montana government’s laws and practices, including amendments to the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) that specifically prohibited consideration of climate change in the granting of permits by the Dept of Environmental Quality.
Ann Hedges of MEIC
We spoke with Anne Hedges of the MT Environmental Information Centerhttps://meic.org/, who testified in the case, as well as Claire Vlases, one of the youth Plaintiffs who testified.
Claire Vlases testifies as Judge Kathy Seeley listens intently
Then, on August 17, in The United States District Court for the District of Montana, Federal Judge Donald Molloy, rendered his judgment in favor of The Alliance for the Wild Rockies & Native Ecosystems Council suit against the US Forest Service, to protect the dwindling remnant grizzly bears population and to stop the Black Ram massive old growth logging project in its tracks. https://allianceforthewildrockies.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/093-ORDER-Granting-MSJ-2023-08-17.pdf This is historic, because it’s the first time in the Federal Courts that climate change was cited in a ruling. We spoke with Mike Garrity of the Alliance for the Wild Rockieshttps://allianceforthewildrockies.org/ about that decision.
Then, on Sunday, August 20th, Ecuador became the first country in history to restrict fossil fuel extraction through the citizen referendum process. Nearly 60% of Ecuadorian voters backed a binding referendum opposing oil exploration in Block 43, a section of Yasuní National Park, the most biodiverse area of the imperiled Amazon rainforest, which is home to uncontacted Indigenous tribes, as well as hundreds of bird species and more than 1,000 tree species.
Maya K. van Rossum
Finally, we spoke with Maya van Rossum, founder of Green Amendments for the Generationshttp://www.ForTheGenerations.org about her decades long efforts to secure Green Amendments in state constitutions nationwide. According to van Rossum, currently only 3 states benefit from Green Amendment constitutional environmental rights — Montana, Pennsylvania and New York. In addition to leading the effort that secured New York’s Green Amendment just over 2 years ago, and being responsible for the litigation that brought strength to Pennsylvania’s amendment, van Rossum is working to pass Green Amendments in 15 other states with more getting in contact since hearing about the Held victory.
It is worth quoting the relevant parts of the Montana State Constitution, upon which Judge Seeley based her verdict.
Article II, Bill of Rights, Section 3, Inalienable Rights:
All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life’s basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways. In enjoying these rights, all persons recognize corresponding responsibilities.
(1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations. (2) The legislature shall provide for the administration and enforcement of this duty. (3) The legislature shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources.
I recorded the entire proceedings and produced Daily Audio Digests. After the trial, I produced archived editions of each witness’s testimony, as well as closing arguments. Unlike the trial transcript, from which the plaintiffs’ witnesses’ pre-rebuttal testimony was stricken, in these archived recordings of their testimony is intact. Here are the links to those recordings in the order in which they occurred:
Andrew Seidel is a constitutional and civil rights attorney and the author of two books: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American and American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom. He’s also co-editor of an academic text, Law and Religion: Cases and Materials 5th Edition, with Prof. Leslie Griffin of UNLV law school.
He has been fighting to keep state and church separate for more than a decade. Currently, Andrew is the Vice President of Strategic Communications at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the largest organization fighting for that founding principle. Previously, he served as a constitutional attorney at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) beginning in 2011 and later as the Director of Strategic Response, running a nimble unit known as the Strategic Response Team.
Andrew Seidel is a Senior Correspondent at Religion Dispatches, a prolific author of op-eds and scholarly articles. He organized and contributed to the groundbreaking report “Christian Nationalism at the January 6, 2021, Insurrection,” which was published by the Baptist Joint Committee and FFRF and which aroused considerable congressional interest. He has appeared on Fox News to debate Bill O’Reilly, MSNBC, and hundreds of other media outlets.
Andrew graduated cum laude from Tulane University (’04) with a B.S. in neuroscience and environmental science and magna cum laude from Tulane University Law School (’09, part of the first post-Katrina class), where he was awarded the Haber J. McCarthy Award for excellence in environmental law. He studied human rights and international law at the University of Amsterdam and traveled the world on Semester at Sea. Andrew completed his Master of Laws at Denver University Sturm College of Law (’11) with a perfect GPA and was awarded the Outstanding L.L.M. Award for his work as the Erik Bluemel International Environmental Law Fellow.
Before dedicating his life and law degree to keeping state and church separate, Andrew was a Grand Canyon tour guide and an accomplished nature photographer.
Tennessee Pastor burning THE FOUNDING MYTH: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American
Theresa Nichols Schuster, whose first novel, We Are the Warriors, was named a 2015 USA Regional Excellence Book Award Finalist in Young Adult Fiction, Western Region, grew up exploring the rivers, hills and mountains outside Billings, Montana.
She shares her passion about the many facets of nature through her writing, where she also expresses her belief in the power of each person to learn and adapt, as well as the significance of each ones’ unique story, and that history comes alive with the accounts of real people—their joys, griefs, loves, losses and triumphs. After three decades of family life and work in Wolf Point on the Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine Reservation in northeast Montana, she moved to Bozeman, where she continues to enjoy the gifts of the outdoors, family, friends and a little clay-work on the side.
Her latest book, Brittle Silver, was featured in a review in the Montana Quarterly. It’s a time travel adventure set in contemporary Phillipsburg and the historic mining town of 1893 Granite, Montana, high in the Flint Creek Mountains. We spoke with Theresa Nichols Schuster at the Beyond the Deep End studio on July 18, 2023.
You can find her books at Barnes and Noble here in Bozeman, Wheatgrass Books in Livingston, and The House of Books in Billings, or Amazon and Barnes and Noble on-line. You can find out more or contact Theresa Nichols Schuster at her website, tnschuster.com.
For the past couple of years Bozeman Tenants United has been meeting regularly to address and find solution to the high cost of housing here. We met with two members of the Bozeman Tenants United’s Steering Team, Katie Fire Thunder and Olive Nakano Sohn, to talk about their goals and perspectives. We spoke with them at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bozeman on August 1, 2023.
This edition of Forthright Radio is in in two parts. In our first segment, radio& TV host/journalist and author, Thom Hartmann, returned with the latest in his Hidden History series, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: REDISCOVERING HUMANITY’S ANCIENT WAY OF LIVING, published by B-K, Barrett-Kohler Publishers. This is the 8th book in the series and the 32nd of the books he has written. He has hosted his nationally syndicated show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003. We spoke with Thom via Skype on July 24, 2023.
In our second segment, we spoke with University of Chicago Political Science Professor, Robert Pape, about the Project on Security and Threats (CPOST). You may recall their initial study published a few months after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, analyzing those who had been arrested & the surprising details they discovered. They have published a follow-up study and report from their most recent of 7 surveys since then, from this June, 2023, titled “The Dangers to Democracy.”
Robert Pape has been studying and writing about the causes and solutions to political violence since 1992 during the Bosnian War; and the 1999 War in Kosovo. In the 2000s, he studied suicide terrorism, as well as humanitarian intervention centering on appropriate international responses to political violence related to the Arab Spring in Libya and Syria. Professor Pape has testified before Congress, briefed the National Security Council and the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. In 2020, he published the results of his analysis of the impact of the deployment of Homeland Security agents on political violence in Portland, OR, during the George Floyd demonstrations. In 2021, he published the first systematic study of the demographic profile and political geography of individuals arrested for assaulting the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Project on Security and Threats, has continued the surveys, and recently released the report on their 7th survey, titled The Dangers to Democracy. We spoke with Professor Pape on July 26, 2023 via Skype.
This interview was originally broadcast on July 14, 2023, Bastille Day, when the French celebrate the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. It was a day of insurrection, so it was fitting that we shared our interview with award winning journalist and author, David Neiwert, that day discussing his latest book, THE AGE OF INSURRECTION: THE RADICAL RIGHT’S ASSAULT ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, published by Melville House.
For over four decades he has worked in newspapers, television, the blogosphere, as well as having been the Pacific Northwest correspondent for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Among his nine books are RED PILL, BLUE PILL: HOW TO COUNTERACT THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT ARE KILLING US; ALT-AMERICA: THE RISE OF THE RADICAL RIGHT IN THE AGE OF TRUMP; and OF ORCAS AND MEN: WHAT KILLER WHALES CAN TEACH US. We spoke with David Neiwert on July 9, 2023 via Skype.
Since the historic Held v. State of Montana trial began on June 12, 2023, in the Lewis and Clark County District Court in Helena, MT, Judge Kathy Seeley presiding, we have recorded and archived the audio testimony to preserve the record to inform our listeners, and allow you to hear for yourselves what transpired.
In this special Ecotones edition of Forthright Radio, we share the testimony of our own Bozeman youth plaintiffs, Claire Vlases and Georgianna “Georgi” Fischer.
For the first time in the United States, youth plaintiffs were able to present their case in a court of law, that their inalienable constitutional rights under Article II Section 3 of the Montana State Constitution“to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life’s basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways.” ….. were being denied and violated by the policies and actions of their government. Further, that The State was in violation of their responsibilities as required under Article IX, Environment and Natural Resources, Section 1. Protection and Improvement that “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.Section 2.The legislature shall provide for the administration and enforcement of this duty. and Section 3. The legislature shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources.”
Furthermore, the Montana State Constitution includes under Article II Declaration of Rights: Section 15.“Rights of persons not adults. The rights of persons under 18 years of age shall include, but not be limited to, all the fundamental rights of this Article unless specifically precluded by laws which enhance the protection of such persons.” It is said that it is the only state constitution to specify this, and the youth plaintiffs in Held v State of Montana are holding the state to the letter of this supreme law of the state of Montana.
In this special Ecotones edition of Forthright Radio, we bring you the testimony of two of the youth plaintiffs from Bozeman, MT, Claire Vlases and Georgianna “Georgi” Fischer. Although they and the other 14 youth plaintiffs are the first to have their case heard in the United States, they are by no means alone in their efforts. There are at least five other youth led climate change suits.
In the matter of Juliana v United States, filed by 21 young Americans in 2015, in the US District Court in Oregon, asserting that the federal government’s fossil fuel energy system and its affirmative actions that cause climate change violate their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as their rights to essential public trust resources like air and water. It had seemed that the legal maneuvers by the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump had succeeded in blocking their efforts. However on June 1, 2023, Federal Judge Ann Aiken, of the US District Court in Oregon, granted their motion to amend their complaint, putting their case back on track to trial, where evidence of the government’s conduct will be heard in open court.
These 21 youth plaintiffs are seeking a judicial declaration that the US fossil fuel energy system is unconstitutional, and violates their fundamental right to a safe climate. According to ourchildrenstrust.org’s website, “A victory in their case would mean that U.S. climate and energy policy – whether executive or legislative in nature, and regardless of political majority or party – would need to adhere to the court’s declaratory judgment, protecting the rights of our nation’s children and ending the physical and mental harm they have experienced due to the actions of their own government.”
However on June 22, 2023, The Department of Justice of the Biden Administration filed yet another motion to dismiss Juliana v. United States, one day after receiving an online petition signed by more than 255 organizations and over 50,000 individuals delivered by the People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition, urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to end opposition to the Juliana case proceeding to trial, and only two days after the plaintiffs rested their case in Held v. State of Montana, which now awaits the decision of Judge Cathy Seeley.
Meanwhile, the 14 youth plaintiffs in Navahine F. v Hawaii Department of Transportation, whose case was filed in June of 2022, succeeded on April 6, 2023 when the Environmental Court of First Circuit in Honolulu denied the State’s motion to dismiss. They are awaiting a trial date to be determined, after their motion to maintain their September, 2023 trial date was denied, when Judge Crabtree granted the State’s motion to continue the trial date to give the State more time to prepare their defense.
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