Minor Terry: “This fight is not over…I’m ready to continue this battle shoulder to shoulder with you.”

From Minor Terry:

This fight is not over.

I took the evening and most of the night to absorb the day’s events. I spent it with my family, friends, and my person. We laughed, we got angry, we expressed our feeling about the pipeline and those “just doing their jobs”. We ate bacon cheeseburgers and stayed up too late.

I finally got my shower close to midnight. After I was clean, I stared at myself in the mirror. I’m 15 pounds thinner. I’ve got freckles from too much sun because sunscreen is a “luxury item”, and in my opinion, my eyes are harder. This was a new person to me. I haven’t seen her yet.

As I type this, the chainsaws are taking down the trees my mother and I worked so hard to protect. The water ways and EPA guidelines mean nothing to MVP, LLC and those they have hired to do the dirty work.

I am speaking for my mother and myself. We are both disappointed in how the judge ruled. The next steps to be taken were going to be close to torture techniques. Judge Dillon found my father in contempt of court and fined him $2,000. Daily fines – that would go to the very company we are fighting – were set to start at midnight for both my mother and I. $1,000 a day per sit. And they would increase over time. And the U.S. Marshalls would be taking over jurisdiction. Eventually, they would extend our barriers for ground support to a 150 yard perimeter, essentially cutting us off. With the trees leafing out and the undergrowth taking off, we would be cut off from seeing and talking to our ground support. Isolation was the hardest part of this journey so far for me and I am a strong person, but I have no shame in saying that my ground support is what kept me going. Then, they would spot light us 24 hours a day and cut our meals down to one a day. I know there are those fighting this battle who are not receiving food at all – looking at you Nutty – and the thought that one of the tactics to get us down was to starve us until we were too weak to come down on our own terms (forcibly removed) does not sit right with me. So we came down under our own power and before this company tried to bankrupt my family.

The landowners in the path and our neighbors who will be impacted never asked for this battle, but we have shouldered this burden for years. But now that my mother and I are on the ground, you can guarantee that we are ready to share this horrifying dystopian atrocity with all that can hear our voices.

Thank you to everyone that has been with us for this battle. Thank you for donating, spreading the word, sharing the information through word of mouth and social media. Thank you to those that camped, brought food, water, and supplies. Thank you to those that made a point to come see Red and I while we were in the trees. Thank you to those that were there to celebrate us coming down safely. Thank you.

I’m ready to continue this battle shoulder to shoulder with you.