On July 14th, 2010 (Bastille Day), send a message to the oil corporate elite that we've had enough of the way they do their do business. The Gulf Oil Spill from the Deepwater Horizon proves that there were no active corporate ethics followed and no ecologically sound method in place to correct their mistakes. The powers in control of the spill effort have used the American environment as a testing ground for their authority and experimentation.
BP and their sub-contractors have denied access to members of the press and denied entry to public thoroughfares. In so doing, the means of the United States military and the police (both State and local) have been utilized against the American people in their due exercise of rights. Since when does a foreign owned company have more rights than the citizens of our nation? Since when can they exert undue pressure through force over our citizenry?
Therefore, in order to send the message the "we the people" are tired of the way their business as usual is conducted at our expense, let this day of boycotting all of big oil's enterprises be the first of many messages. The only way the corporate elite listens is through the power of financial loss. If all they listen to is the sound of the dollar, then let this be a clamor to their ears!
Why Bastille Day? Bastille Day is the day symbolized to celebrate the French Revolution that brought democracy to that nation. One of the prevailing themes of the French Revolution was "Common people against the government." Well, we're not boycotting the government, but feel the maxim be adjusted to the modern day aristocracy of big oil. Thus, "Common people against the oil corporations" is a fine tuning to the current situation.
In addition, there is symbolic symmetry to the heritage of the first state affected by this engineering failure. Louisiana was once part of the Louisiana territory purchased by France which almost doubled the size of our nation. This engineering disaster has now spread across four states and it continues to spill into our coastal waters.
If you are not living along the Gulf Coast, it is easy to forget about such things. Perhaps for some, it is easy to be cynical about the Gulf region leading someone named Jill from Ohio to make the comment: "well...there's so much voodoo and debauchery... don't you think that maybe the region brings it upon itself? Don't you think there's something to that?" Passing comments that bear no fruit are easily said, but as a reminder to Jill, Louisiana alone supplies 30% of the nation's seafood demand, 34% of the nation's natural gas supply and 30% of the crude oil supply.
It is true that Louisiana bears a heavy burden for providing what she does, to the amount of 1,900 square miles of coastline that has been lost in the last 50 years. Coastline that has been cut up to supply our nation with her energy needs. Coastline that provides storm protection for the largest breakbulk port in the nation (a port that provides for 21% of all waterborne commerce in the United States). Despite that burden, the greater burden for these needs falls on us as consumers and it is time for us to take responsibility so that the corporate elites will begin to exercise there responsibility.
Call it a mistake if you like, but this is nothing short of a man-made failure caused by greed. Whether MMS oversight had failed, corporate ethics went awry, or individual spirit of responsibility is to blame, it is a failure of epic proportions.
Your purchasing power is also your vetoing power. It's time to dictate what you rightly control. The choice is yours this July 14th...Purchase no gas on this day...
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