June 19 is the International Day of Action against BP.
Diane Wilson is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. She inspired about 100 of us to join her in exposing British Petroleum's unbridled greed and the naked truth behind drill baby drill. Concerned Texans from all over the state gathered, mostly nude, outside BP's Houston headquarters to drive home the message that we too, are mad as hell.
Yesterday, outraged that a member of the U.S. Senate was actively pushing to keep the liability cap for BP and all other oil companies at a minimum, Diane disrupted the Senate Energy hearing as the committee chair (and proponent of Big Oil, low liability caps and limiting the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions) Senator Murkowski, took to the microphone. Diane belted out, "I'm a commercial fisherman from the Gulf of Mexico and we're tired of being dumped on," and poured fake oil over herself (she said if it were real oil, she might have been attacked for polluting). She was immediately arrested for illegal misconduct and will return to DC in July for her court date.
The biggest irony is that Diane Wilson goes to jail for dumping a jar of fake oil on herself and Tony Hayward -- dumper extraordinaire CEO of BP -- doesn't even have to answer to the U.S. public, and certainly not to those fisherwomen and men on the coast whose livelihoods are ruined. Anderson Cooper has invited him onto his show every day with no response. Men are dead, lives are being ruined, fish and fowl are dead or struggling for a life drenched in crude oil -- which isn't much of a life at all.
Here's what needs to happen. Tony Hayward should be arrested. BP needs to be investigated, thoroughly. Then we all need to follow Diane's lead and raise the volume on this catastrophe. The pressure on the administration and our congressional representatives to hold BP accountable for its legacy of negligence must continue, otherwise we will be paying for BP's disaster.
Today, the Murkowski resolution to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases was rejected 47-53 in the Senate. But we will find ourselves up in arms about another oil spill in a few years if Senator Murkowski has her way and they can write a $75 million check and be done with it). Offshore drilling was heralded by the president, supported by our tax dollars and we will watch as the drilling, the mountaintop coal removal and oils sands exploitation annihilate our planet. Diane told me, "I'm just a shrimper with a high school degree, a pile of kids and a broken-down truck. If I can stand up and make waves, so can you."
Join CODEPINK and many other activists around the world as we gather on June 19th and call for an International Day to Boycott BP and demand those responsible to be held accountable.