By The Steering Committee of World Can’t Wait 
On April 20th 2010 the world witnessed what is becoming one of the worst man made environmental disasters in history. The oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon oil platform will have severe consequences for humanity and life on the planet for years to come.
And who is too blame?
While mainstream media and the Democrats want to pretend that this disaster is just another problem left over from the Bush Regime that Obama was encumbered with, Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report in his article Yes, Obama Is ‘Engaged’ – in a Colossal Crime put it this way, “Any meaningful discussion of the oceanic version of Chernobyl would challenge a political system in which huge corporations are empowered to seek profits with absolutely no regard for the consequences to Earth or Man.” And Ford is dead on here. Obama is engaged in a colossal crime and has been since before his election. Ford quoted a statement from Obama during a campaign speech in August 2008 in Florida,
“My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices. If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage – I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done,"
And what’s worse is that Obama is downplaying this disaster. While dolphins, sea turtles, and other sea life wash ashore dead this is what Obama had to say to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show. “I’ve been down there and the people are resilient and these ecosystems are more resilient than, uh, I think we anticipate right now. If we act swiftly, if we act seriously, there are going to be marshes for example where the oil g
oes in and the, the sea life that’s there is decimated for a season, maybe two, but potentially we can preserve those estuaries, and those marshes so that three years from now, uh, things have come back; things have bounced back.” This statement is far from farcical…it’s criminal.
It is an attempt to legitimize the crime already perpetrated on the environment while at the same time legitimizing future crimes to be perpetrated on the environment. What Obama is attempting to do here is to ensure that profit continues to come before the interest of humanity and all life of the plant. Obama administration’s recent move to reopen waters for shallow water drilling underscores this point.
Glen Ford has it right when he says “When history passes its verdict on the current era, she will not assign much import to the advent of the First Black President of the United States. Rather, history will mark 2010 as the year a servile political operative in the White House exposed the seabed to deep defilement by the oil colossus, from which the world never fully recovered.”
All This Must Stop. People living in this country who care about the planet must take the lead in stopping the crimes of our government against the planet! World Can’t Wait is calling on people to join in protests at BP gas stations, corporate offices, in the streets and on the beaches wherever they are happening demanding Stop the Planet Killing: No Offshore Drilling!
Join many others for an Emergency Summit In New Orleans, LA
Saturday June 19th
10AM-End Time TBA
First Unitarian Universalist Church, Sanctuary
5212 South Claiborne Avenue
www.gulfemergencysummit.org