New Orleans Protests Gulf of Mexicide - 5/31/10

We helplessly watch the disaster unfold in the Gulf of Mexico through the camera way down at the bottom where the oil spews, relying on the culprit that cultivated the culture that led to it happening to dictate what we know and what we don't know, letting them maintain control of the scene of their crimes. It can't help but feel like we're being led. There's been a pattern of shame-based corporate or institutional behavior for a long time that includes malfeasance resulting in loss, harm or death, followed by an almost pathological focus on appearances in favor of reality, truth obfuscated by badly executed and mistakenly directed Public Relations, as pathetic as children insisting to mothers their innocence while standing in front of the hopelessly broken vase, believing that somehow she'll never see it. It's not just British Petroleum. They've simply joined Toyota, most recently, and the Catholic Church as the recurring champion of deploying the PR strategy of denial and cover-up (with John Edwards' valiant effort garnering Honorable Mention in the Individual Category).  The Federal government, particularly the U.S. military establishment, has almost made an art form out of favoring appearance over actuality. Don't Ask, Don't Tell is the obvious example, but any short list of their greatest hits would also include inflated Vietnam body counts designed to help perpetuate funding of a hopeless and misguided war and improperly constructed and misrepresented flood protection systems (remember the levees?) with, in my opinion, a criminally insufficient response to the failure thereof (oops, they didn't work, we'll be right there). We're only at the beginning of BP's calamity, and maybe this time there can be more concrete consequences for the perpetrator, but I can't help but wonder if they won't also find some way to blame the victim. Isn't it what comes next? At least there are assets to seize. Sunday, May 30th, protesters gathered in intermittent rain on the Moon Walk across from Jackson Square in New Orleans to call them out, them being not just BP, but Corporate Greed and our government's complicity in it. There was a healthy dose of we're not going to take it any more, artfully expressed. Dr. John and Phyliss Montana LeBlanc spoke, among others, the latter carrying a sign that read, "Louisiana didn't land on BP, BP landed on Louisiana." Spike Lee was there with a crew. When he was pointed out to me, I questioned, more thinking out loud (and rather slowly at that), that he appeared to be directing people, and was reminded that, well, he was, in fact, Spike Lee, that's what he does, but I digress. The good news here is that at least part of the event was professionally documented.  There was a celebratory aspect to the protest, as is the way in New Orleans, with costumes and clever play with words and pictures. A group approached featuring Joan of Arc and men in mail on horseback but couldn't pass through the crowd. Some folks were costumed or smudged with oil. Cousin Pat gives an excellent account of the protest with an excellent pictorial record of the wonderful signs, quoting one for his title "Never Poison the Food or Water" (seems like that would be obvious, doesn't it?). The Gulf States, particularly Louisiana, continue to be disproportionately victims of land and culture pillage and rape. Perhaps the protesters yesterday knew that there's little we can do beyond saying it out loud and cleverly, these ugly truths that we're left dependent on the very people who created this problem to make it stop and clean it up, calling BP and our government out for hiding the truth and making matters worse in order to make them look better, for using dispersants like Corexit, which takes the oil out of camera sight but into the bellies of the food chain, as elegantly explained in this Op-Ed piece by Susan D. Shaw for the New York Times, her report of Swimming Through the Spill (Go. Now. Read). They said it colorfully, creatively and intelligently, with relish, and hopefully to notice. I'm so glad I got to be there. As for the culprits, continue as they will, we will not sit by quietly. Update: It's a little-known fact that there's a Hunt For Red October quote for every possible situation (you'd be surprised how often "and I thought I heard singing" is applicable). Today I have this one stuck in my head, "You arrogant ass, you've killed us." H/T Mark Folse.