"You'll Pry My Car out of my Cold-Dead Hands" by Cindy Sheehan

The scope of the tragedy of the undersea oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is shocking. Please don’t call it a “spill” the gash in our Mother Earth is literally hemorrhaging oily death-blood.

British Petroleum, the company who owns the offshore well, gave “liberally” to candidates in the 2008 election cycle, with the largest donor receiving $71,000 for his campaign—Barack Obama.

We should scream bloody-murder about BP and boycott them straight to bankruptcy. Additionally, the company that everyone on the “left” loves to hate: Halliburton probably shares a majority of the blame for this catastrophe of biblical proportions, too.

BP and Halliburton should be forced to pay for the clean up and all the future disaster, but will their tools in Congress make them do that? Will the courts force them to pay for their crimes against the planet? Has Exxon had to pay fairly for its crimes when the Valdez crashed and burned in Alaska? It’s been over 21 years since that calamity and Exxon has paid only two-billion in cleanup and a paltry one-billion for damages—a figure that was slashed by a District Court and the Supremely Corporatist court from the original five-billion dollar award. And the cleanup and adverse affects from the Valdez disaster continue until today.

This world is addicted to the death-blood of fossil fuels. Big wars and little wars are being waged all over the world for this “black gold.” Here in the U.S it’s no different, and probably even worse than other parts of the world.

I don’t own a car myself, but each one of us uses fossil fuel products to some extent or another. Fossil fuels can be found in everything from paper to clothing—and the ubiquitous plastic that is found everywhere and in almost manufactured thing.

You know one of the major reasons we are addicted to war in this country is because we are addicted to petroleum. Our cars are precious (Freudian?) extensions of ourselves and their use is encouraged by the relative cheapness of gas—the average price for a gallon of gas is about 50 cents lower than a gallon of milk.

We can sign petitions to demand that offshore drilling leases be terminated or not granted, but the oil companies own our government in large part. What can we do besides taking the profoundly simple and effortless step of signing a petition? We can become more responsible for this planet and the future of ALL life on it.

No matter how much, or little, petroleum is in our life, we can reduce that figure. Here are some steps that we can take—I remember some of these from the “energy crisis” during the Carter Administration.

1) BOYCOTT BP AND ALL OF ITS PRODUCTS AND SUBSIDIARIES.

2) DRIVE YOUR MAYHEM-O-BILE LESS.

3) USE LESS PETROLEUM PRODUCTS FROM ANY COMPANY.

4) WALK, BIKE, OR USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

5) WALK OR BIKE TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

6) USE LESS ELECTRICITY.

7) IF YOU HAVE TO BUY GAS, TRY TO BUY FROM CITGO.

8) INVESTIGATE PRODUCTS MADE FROM HEMP OR OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO PETROLEUM.

9) BUY LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE AT FARMER’S MARKETS.

10) DON’T STOP PROTESTING THE OIL WARS.

11) Sell your Dino-Car.

Even though we are propagandized through the media and Madison Avenue, most of us are not wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporations, yet.

These steps will take a little more effort than signing a petition, or calling your Congress criminal, but these steps are urgent to overcome the stranglehold Big Oil has on our government and our lives.

The U.S. Military Industrial Complex is the world’s number one user of fossil fuel and our efforts can but make a tiny dent—but as I like to say: “How does one eat an elephant?”

One bite at a time.