Vernon Benjamin

I think perhaps nearly every person in this country has heard of the Keystone XL pipeline and the showdown that took place a few years ago at Standing Rock. Sadly a majority demonstrate a complete lack of understanding as to what took place there, its importance, and the victory hard won by the Native American community through the protests at Standing Rock. This little book struck me in ways no other book concerning Native American affairs in this country has ever done. I have read of the countless injustices, the land grabbing, the grossly inequitable compensations through treaty that represent the vast majority of American history in Native American relations. I have felt the anger of injustice, which is what any tale of injustice should do. This little book made me feel something different. All those feelings and emotions, while important, and surely should move any person to act, support, even to protest, are the feelings and emotions and thoughts of an outsider. One who does not belong, can never belong, who will always be on the outside looking in, and thusly, can even while all that empathy for the plight of Native American injustice exists within, can then walk away from it and go to whatever life they have. Even while still feeling those emotions and moved by that passion, it can still not move a person to demand changes. Crossing Divides is great statement for activism, for the need to become involved, to demand change, to become part of it. I thoroughly enjoyed this little book and would recommend it for reading and contemplation. It is insightful in ways I have attempted here to explain, but the impact it had on my mind still resonates deep within.… (more)

Vernon Benjamin, the author of Crossing Divides, appears to have led an interesting life doing many things including advocating for causes of native Americans in his home region of the Hudson Valley, New York. In this short book of 34 pages, he describes his trip from upper state New York to Standing Rock, South Dakota. He traveled there to support the protests of the gas line that was being built across sacred Native American lands, taking hay and food for the horses and protesters. His story is a reflection of the times, his age, and his life experiences as he travels across half of the country and back.… (more)

Won this off of LibraryThing.

This may be a small book, but it has a big punch to it.
A small book that will tug at you .

Vernon Benjamin at the age of you who undertakes a journey, that not
may of us at that age would do. He packs up supplies to bring to the
protesters at Standing Rock.. These protesters a native Americans, who
are protesting against the pipeline that is to cross through their land.

I have heard the word Fracking and about people fighting against the
pipeline. Just never really seen what it meant.

This tells how he stood up with the people of Standing Rock.

A interesting read.… (more)