Spill Into Washington - No More BPs! -National Rally

Spill Into Washington - No More BPs!

BP may have finally plugged its 3 ½ month long oil rig leak, causing the most massive marine oil spill in petroleum history, but no amount of corporate cover-up will stop the realizations this monumental attack has brought to so many folks in the Gulf Coast, the United States, and Globally: Corporate Greed Should Not be Prioritized Over Human and Environmental Need.  While the U.S. Government has made insincere motions to enforce BP’s accountability for the havoc it’s wreaked on the Gulf Coast, we have seen the consequences of the spill on the ground:

• Gulf Coast Residents have lost the incomes they depend on.  After fishing waters were closed, the initial cost estimate to the fishing industry is $2.5 billion and the US Tourism Board estimates the losses over a three year period could be more than $23 billion.

•  Suffering the consequences of living in a toxic environment, clean-up workers and residents are experiencing dizziness, headaches, vomiting, nausea, chest pains, skin rashes, and boils leading to staff infections.

•  Our precious and fragile eco-systems have been ravaged – 8 US National Parks are threatened, 400 species are at risk, coral reefs could be smothered and it may take years to decades for these eco-systems to recover.

• The original Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20, 2010 caused 11 deaths and 17 injuries.

• corporate accountability, 
  
• more regulations that promote the environment and limit corporate influence and control, and 
  
• no more alliances between big business and government that keep us from our goal of clean, safe and renewable energy.

SPEAKERS include: 

·         John Wathen – As part of the organization Waterkeepers Alliance (Save Our Gulf), working with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and as seen on Keith Olbermann, John will speak about his work documenting evidence about the disastrous effects the BP oil spill has had on the residents and environment of the Gulf, including the illness spreading amongst fishermen, their wives and children, the blight on crops ruined by acid rain, and the destruction on the water and wildlife of the region.  John does this courageous work in the face of BP, a corporation that insists on covering up the terrible consequences of its oil spill.

·         Diane Wilson- a founding member of Codepink, Diane will speak about her history as a fourth-generation shrimper from the Texas part of the Gulf.  Diane started fighting toxic pollution in the Gulf waters over two decades ago when her role as an environmental activist began in her own community. She insisted that the truth of corporate-caused pollution in Calhoun County, Texas be told. 

·         Medea Benjamin – a woman who wears many hats in the arena of fighting for social justice, a co-founder of Codepink and founder of the international human rights organization Global Exchange, Medea will speak about her tireless post-9/11 work to promote a U.S. foreign policy that respects human rights and gain us allies instead of contributing to violence and undermining our international reputation.  She will link the United States’ dependency on petroleum-based energy to our foreign policy and point to clean energy as our future.

PERFORMERS include:

·         The DC Labor Chorus with Shepherd Elementary School Students – the choir will be singing Pete Seeger’s newly written BP protest song “Countin’ on Me, Countin’ on You” as long as other positive environmental songs

·         David Blanche – David will perform his BP oil spill-inspired tune, “The Fisherman’s Revolt.”  A lifelong musician, David currently plays a mixture of Folk Blues and guitar instrumentals inspired by the Blues, jazz, surf, swing, country and rock/pop.

·         Sharon Wendy Robertson – a mother, a businesswoman, a humanitarian, and now a singer/songerwriter, Sharon will perform her song “Give Us Back” a song about the loss the Gulf has suffered as a result of the BP oil spill.