by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
May 2, 2010
The scope of the tragedy of the undersea oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is shocking. Please don’t call it a “spill” the gash in our Mother Earth is literally hemorrhaging oily death-blood.
British Petroleum, the company who owns the offshore well, gave “liberally” to candidates in the 2008 election cycle, with the largest donor receiving $71,000 for his campaign—Barack Obama.
We should scream bloody-murder about BP and boycott them straight to bankruptcy. Additionally, the company that everyone on the “left” loves to hate: Halliburton probably shares a majority of the blame for this catastrophe of biblical proportions, too.
BP and Halliburton should be forced to pay for the clean up and all the future disaster, but will their tools in Congress make them do that? Will the courts force them to pay for their crimes against the planet? Has Exxon had to pay fairly for its crimes when the Valdez crashed and burned in Alaska? It’s been over 21 years since that calamity and Exxon has paid only two-billion in cleanup and a paltry one-billion for damages—a figure that was slashed by a District Court and the Supremely Corporatist court from the original five-billion dollar award. And the cleanup and adverse affects from the Valdez disaster continue until today.
This world is addicted to the death-blood of fossil fuels. Big wars and little wars are being waged all over the world for this “black gold.” Here in the U.S it’s no different, and probably even worse than other parts of the world.
I don’t own a car myself, but each one of us uses fossil fuel products to some extent or another. Fossil fuels can be found in everything from paper to clothing—and the ubiquitous plastic that is found everywhere and in almost manufactured thing.
You know one of the major reasons we are addicted to war in this country is because we are addicted to petroleum. Our cars are precious (Freudian?) extensions of ourselves and their use is encouraged by the relative cheapness of gas—the average price for a gallon of gas is about 50 cents lower than a gallon of milk.
We can sign petitions to demand that offshore drilling leases be terminated or not granted, but the oil companies own our government in large part. What can we do besides taking the profoundly simple and effortless step of signing a petition? We can become more responsible for this planet and the future of ALL life on it.
No matter how much, or little, petroleum is in our life, we can reduce that figure. Here are some steps that we can take—I remember some of these from the “energy crisis” during the Carter Administration.
1) BOYCOTT BP AND ALL OF ITS PRODUCTS AND SUBSIDIARIES.
2) DRIVE YOUR MAYHEM-O-BILE LESS.
3) USE LESS PETROLEUM PRODUCTS FROM ANY COMPANY.
4) WALK, BIKE, OR USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.
5) WALK OR BIKE TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.
6) USE LESS ELECTRICITY.
7) IF YOU HAVE TO BUY GAS, TRY TO BUY FROM CITGO.
8) INVESTIGATE PRODUCTS MADE FROM HEMP OR OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO PETROLEUM.
9) BUY LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE AT FARMER’S MARKETS.
10) DON’T STOP PROTESTING THE OIL WARS.
11) Sell your Dino-Car.
Even though we are propagandized through the media and Madison Avenue, most of us are not wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporations, yet.
These steps will take a little more effort than signing a petition, or calling your Congress criminal, but these steps are urgent to overcome the stranglehold Big Oil has on our government and our lives.
The U.S. Military Industrial Complex is the world’s number one user of fossil fuel and our efforts can but make a tiny dent—but as I like to say: “How does one eat an elephant?”
One bite at a time.
see
Report from the Inferno by Greg Palast
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Dear Cindy and All,
Thank – You for addressing the “abomination of desolation” The Gulf Oil Explosion, NOT spill, as it IS, via the Dandelion Salad news blog. It is a “calamity of biblical proportions”, however unlike a natural disaster, it is entirely man-made, and just another indication that corporate greed knows No Bounds, has no integrity, and is grossly immoral. There is no excuse for the inability of oil companies to not have in place sufficient safeguards and remedies for that which cannot be reversed.
The dis-passionate response to what should never have happened is disheartening. Was nothing learned from the Exxon Valdez? When is enough enough? An outcry needs to be voiced fully.As with everything, or so it it seems to me, it is more “business as usual.” It is up to persons such as myself and yourself to TALK LOUDLY about this and to form a coalition to use this “opportunity” to demand CHANGE, once and for all.
Right now writing this is all I can do, but believe me this travesty is percolating furiously throughout the very core of my being. I am beginning to formulate ideas and connect others to this cause which is the REAL & ONLY threat to National Security.
We are nothing without the ground upon which we walk, the air which we breathe, and the water which sustains all life. To speak of the economy when everything is dependent upon the ecology and having a healthy eco-structure is just more of the same insanity and inane, unconscious, greed based, enforced ignorance that is destroying our planet.
The silence is deafening, as so very many people engage in everything other than what really matters. I have begun to act, and a large part of this is to get others engaged. Yet what I see far too frequently is widespread apathy, with people generally in some state of avoidance, disregard, lacking common sense, not able or willing to think things out, face facts, and see cause and effect, much less realizing that without some act of participation and using the power to speak out little or nothing will change.
When will the people WAKE UP? I fear when it is too late. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve lost till its gone”? Joni Mitchell I will not allow this but I Am only ONE. May we connect on whatever level there is and stand together on the NUMBER ONE ISSUE. Save The Planet, by stopping the perpetration of poisoning, carelessness and reckless disregard for those things that sustain life for all, and that which cannot be replaced after it has gone.
I speak for those who have no voice: The 4 leggeds, the winged ones, the finned ones, the trees, the plants, the children, the unborn. Must I speak for those who have voices but who are too distracted, or disconnected to know, to care and to be counted? This I cannot do, but I AM calling to each and every one of of you to stand for something that truly matters, as it is the very basis upon which everything else relies. Beyond politics, beyond religion, beyond any and all differences is the foundation upon which everything sits, the integrity of this planet we all share.
It is time to become responsible. Later is too late. Act Now. Be the Change. If you are not a part of the solution, you are the problem. We can be victims, or we can be empowered. It is very definitely up to every human being to save that which is within your power to save. No one can or will do this for anyone else. This is our truest purpose for being born, and I pray that you will heed the call in time, but time is running out. We have the power to create heaven on earth or hell. What will you choose? I pray you choose wisely…..for upon this choice…..all life depends.
Dabra Grant
Thanks for your commentary, Dabra. Excellent points.
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