Our Planet, Our People are not Expendable! We Refuse To Sacrifice Life for Corporate Profits
by Stephanie McMillan
The Gulf of Mexico has been destroyed. Immeasurable, irreparable damage has been done to wildlife, the health of the ocean, and people’s livelihoods. We have been cursed for years to come. It can not, as BP promises, be “made right.” In fact, even after this utter catastrophe, crimes against the planet and its inhabitants continue without pause.
We are told that the government is supposed to guarantee the rights of the people. But when a big corporation decides our rights are not in their interests, then POOF! They vanish into thin air. In a clear violation of our rights to free speech and a free press, government agencies have assisted BP’s lies and cover-up by restricting media access, threatening journalists with felony charges and $40,000 fines. Uniformed police officers in Louisiana have harassed photographers at public beaches. BP has threatened workers with firing if they talk to anyone about anything.
We are also told that the government’s purpose is to protect the country and us. But instead the government helps big corporations plunder the country and trash our lives. The Minerals Management Service allowed BP to cut corners and violate safety regulations, leading finally to the fatal decision to save a few hundred thousand dollars by not installing a backup valve.
When BP ignored an order by the Environmental Protection Agency to stop using the dispersant Corexit 9500 (a poisonous compound banned in Europe), the EPA did absolutely nothing. Millions of gallons are still being dumped into the Gulf, even as it has been shown to evaporate and fall as toxic rain, and is damaging plants far inland.
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates during the past 20 years, with the biggest portion going to Obama. It also spent $15.9 million on lobbying last year alone, for the purpose of controlling energy policy.
What does all this tell us?
The government repeatedly sells us out to corporate interests. It sells out our rights, our health, our safety, our livelihoods, our lives, and the natural world. The government is merely a tool to facilitate the conversion of life into profit.
The BP spill is not an accident. It is an inevitable consequence of a global economic system that values profit over life. The BP spill is not unique. Oil companies have ruined large areas of the Niger Delta, Ecuador and other parts of the world, and they will continue to do so until they are stopped.
The ruthless pursuit of profit has caused 98% of old growth forests to be cut down. 99% of the prairies are gone. 80% of rivers worldwide no longer support life. 94% of the large fish in the oceans are gone. 120 species per day becomes extinct. Now the Gulf of Mexico has been ruined. Clearly, a global economic system based on perpetual growth is unsustainable. Yet those who run this system do not stop, will not stop.
At what point will we stop accepting this?
We can not stand by while big corporations like BP, with the assistance of the US government, destroy our lives and our planet. We should have stopped them a long time ago. Now we must stop them before they do even more damage, before they kill everything. We depend upon the natural world — we must now urgently come to its defense.
” In a clear violation of our rights to free speech and a free press, government agencies have assisted BP’s lies and cover-up by restricting media access, threatening journalists with felony charges and $40,000 fines. Uniformed police officers in Louisiana have harassed photographers at public beaches. BP has threatened workers with firing if they talk to anyone about anything.” (from the article)
I like to see the best in everything and everyone. Not to long ago I was talking to a friend who is Progressive and we were talking about BP and I said that I hoped that BP would be made to do the right thing. She didn’t think that they would be, though she hoped they would be made to do what was needed.
Reading this article, makes me think that maybe our government won’t make BP do the right thing. Maybe our federal government is so corrupted that it CAN’T make BP or any large muli national corporation do the morally right thing for the people and the environment?
As a Daughter I truly believe that at one time the government of the United States was founded as a government for the people and was governed by the people. We truly were a great nation because we were a moral nation. Our principles of truth, justice, freedom, and hope that our nation would be a beacon of hope and light. It isn’t like that anymore, and the question is what are we the people alive in 2010 going to do about this situation? Does the American public have the courage and will to fight those who have allowed our government and political process to be corrupted and used as a force of evil in the world instead of a source of good? Has America become a nation of zombies who are so brainwashed that they don’t see our true condition or even care enough about future generations to stand up to the BP’s of the world and those governments who for the sake of large sums of money throw the people under the bus?
We are loosing the first ammendment everyday when our press who is supposed to be a free press is denied the tools to do their very important job of being a check and balance by educating people to the truth and making those in power have to give an accounting for their actions rather good or evil. We are loosing our free press and hardly any American speaks out when the press is denied access to those in power. This Administration who said they were going to open up the process and let the press in has not been very open with the press. There is still to much being done behind closed doors and pushed through without the light being shown. Alot of Americans are deceived into thinking that the press is so far to the left that it is destroying America, or that our press has become controled by the state. The truth is corporate America has control of most of the media.
I listen to Coast to Coast Am and they were talking about the pressure readings on the test and what it means that the pressure is not where they like it to be. The man that was interviewd said he felt like he was watching BP tv, as the press wasn’t able to do their job because BP is not being totally open about what is going on there.
I came to love LA and the Gulf South and it breaks my heart to see what is going on there and the lies and deception that is going on. Local governments are coming up with plans and BP has agreed to pay for them yet the federal government won’t let them carry out their plan and doesn’t have a plan to try themselves so nothing is being done. That is a disgrace. Either the federal government come up with a plan or let the local governments do the plan that they want to try. Doing something is better than doing NOTHING. The people who live there are strong people who love their land and they will fight to save it. Untie their hands and let them do what has to be done.