A ‘Fast for the Future’

SANTA FE, N. M. – On Jan. 17, Navajo state legislative candidate Lyla June Johnston announced a seven-day hunger strike in her District 47 Democratic primary campaign against House Speaker Brian Egolf. Her “Fast for the Future” kicked off at the Capitol Building on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Each day of the fast is designed to serve as a mechanism to announce the campaign planks in her “Seven Generations New Deal” election platform, a plan for New Mexico’s action to address climate crisis.

“First and foremost, this is a prayer for life on earth in a time of crisis. Secondly, it is a chance for our community to discuss how we are going to unite and act in the name of future generations,” Johnston said in the announcement.

The kickoff date highlights the importance of the need to honor King Jr.’s “courage to act in times of crisis,” she said.

Johnston’s upstart, grassroots campaign highlights New Mexico’s global role in the climate crisis, as the state is home to the Permian Basin, which attained notoriety in 2019 as the top oil producer in the world.

A perceived lack of leadership on the urgency of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil industry led Johnston to challenge Egolf.

“With all due respect, we no longer have time for leaders who take oil industry money, who write laws for them and obstruct laws that would hold them accountable. We need protectors of the earth, protectors of the people,” said the 30-year-old PhD student and Stanford University graduate.

Born in Santa Fe and raised in Taos, New Mexico, Johnston was a notable figure during the 2016-2017 Oceti Sakowin resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline construction across unceded treaty territory near Standing Rock, in which opponents coining their description as water protectors supported tribal governments’ legal challenge to project parent company Energy Transfer Partners and associates.

She graduated with honors in environmental sciences from Stanford, earned an education degree from the University of New Mexico, and now is pursuing a PhD with a focus on sustainable food systems.

In the past few years she has spoken at 24 universities, among them MIT and Agnes Scott College, given 14 keynote speeches including at Bioneers and the Parliament of World Religions, written nine research papers (two of which are in the process of being published), won the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Seminary, and published a book on the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She guest lectured at a British university, published two videos that received over 1 million views, was chosen out of over 900 PhD applicants to represent and receive a $15,000 PEO Scholar Award for her research, traveled to Palestine to assist in the peace making process, widely performed original poetry, and looked after her 95-year-old grandmother.

“Despite all these achievements, I know that the power of the people is far greater than anything I could ever achieve alone,” she says. “Please know that when I win this election, I will be presenting legislation that is on par with the most forward-thinking governments in the world.”

At the same time, she says, she relies on traditional knowledge of her Diné ancestors, “which helped our communities thrive for tens of thousands of years. As your representative, I will not stand in front of you, but behind you. I will honor your voices and the dreams in your heart and facilitate their realization.”

Johnston had intended to sleep overnight on the Capitol steps, but upon learning that the Capitol police would not allow it, she decided to move in the evening to fast at the Quakers Meeting House at 630 Canyon Rd.

If others would like to join her, she requests, “Please pray for me and eat for me the first six days and fast with me the last day if you wish.” Her supporters have planned a large breaking of the fast event for 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 26, on the west steps of the Capitol Building.

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com)

Visit Original Source