Trespassing Across America

“To travel alone, I learned, isn’t to rely on yourself. To travel alone is to force yourself to depend on others. It is to fall in love with mankind.” Trespassing Across America by Ken Ilgunas

“Now that President Donald Trump has revived the Keystone XL pipeline that was rejected by former President Obama, Trespassing Across America is the book to help us understand the kaleidoscopic significance of the project. Told with sincerity, humor, and wit, Ilgunas’s story is both a fascinating account of one man’s remarkable journey along the pipeline’s potential path and a meditation on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and the extremes to which we can push ourselves—both physically and mentally.” Amazon

I was taught that to be a good citizen required at least these things.

To vote.
To be informed.
To be involved.
To hold elected officials accountable.

A Pass Under Obama

As our nation faces seemingly insurmountable problems, fulfilling the role of good citizenship feels like a full-time job.

Everyday, I read about or experience news through emails, posts, conversations and the media that concerns me deeply.

I felt as though I could take my eye off the ball some when Obama was president.

His integrity gave me a free pass for a few years.

I believed that Obama and his administration were working to the best of their ability for reasonable and just causes for all people.

I do not believe that is true of our present administration.

Read, Research, Think

Remembering the blind men describing the elephant, I have sought to form my opinions from many different sources.

I have tried to understand the immediate and long-range impact of our policies and laws.

I have tried to understand the concerns of those with opposing viewpoints.

Trespassing Across America appeals to me as a book that would provide another perspective into the Keystone XL pipeline.

In the author’s words:

“In September 2012, I stuck out my thumb in Denver, Colorado, and hitchhiked 1,500 miles north to the Alberta tar sands. After being duly appalled, I commenced my 1,700-mile hike south following the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. It would become a 4.5 month journey across the Great Plains. To follow the pipe, I couldn’t take roads. I’d have to walk across fields, grasslands, and private property. I’d have to trespass across America.

The book is about my journey–fleeing from cows, taking cover from gunfire, and keeping warm on a very wintry and questionably-timed hike. But it’s also about coming to terms with climate change and figuring out what our role as individuals should be in confronting something so big and so out of our hands. It’s about taking a few months of your life to look at your country from a new perspective. Ultimately, it’s about embracing the belief that a life lived not half wild is a life only half lived.” Ken Ilungas

Release date for Trespassing Across America is April 19, 2017.