Rally for the Gulf Coast – NOLA 5.8.10
I just came back from New Orleans where they had a rally for the Gulf Coast this afternoon, and I wanted to share with you what I saw and heard…
My journey began at 8:45 this morning as we departed Lafayette for Baton Rouge to pick up more people in a large charter bus. There were only 5 of us at first including myself. A mother with her daughter sat in front of me and I listened to her talk about how important it is to voice your opinion when so much is at stake like this. The trip organizer (a representative from the Sierra Club) was friendly and had snacks and juice boxes for us as we all discussed how this was going to affect not only us but the generations to come after.
When we got to Baton Rouge there were not many people standing around, but soon people started coming out of the woodwork and we were 17 – 18 people strong. College students, concerned couples, all heading to New Orleans in an act of solidarity with those affected by the oil spill.
Finally we arrived at Lafayette Square where the rally was already underway. Two ladies were singing very politically charged songs about ending drilling in the gulf and how it was destroying our environment. A couple more musicians played as people walked around in shirts that read “Clean it up” with a picture of a gushing oil well. Other representatives of the Sierra Club asked people to sign petition cards to President Obama to encourage him to “engage every resource available to address the immediate cleanup and recovery needs of Gulf Coast residents, businesses, wildlife, and marine life.”
There was probably around 100 or so people walking around and listening to the music, with small card tables setup on the outskirts of the park with various organizations trying to mobilize volunteers to help clean up the gulf. Then different speakers came up, mostly focusing on how the spill has affected fishermen. Vietnamese fishermen in communities such as Venice beach that had immigrated to America long ago, now found themselves without jobs. Another fisherman told us that the dispersant being used currently is the same one that was used after the Valdez spill and that it has sickened and killed people involved in the cleanup effort. It is also responsible for the sterility of marine wildlife that came into contact with it. He warned that our estuaries are in grave danger, especially in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita which made the estuaries extremely fragile.
Jonathan Carpenter, a biology student at LSU spoke about his organization (scholar?) which is also working on the problems that this will cause. A state representative from Orleans Parish also spoke about how government should be working to regulate and have more oversight so that this never happens again. The press was abound at the event, I counted at least 4 or 5 HVX200s, 2 News crews, and members of the newspaper press. Speakers and participants alike were giving interviews about the day’s events and what causes they stood for.
Some of the participants were carrying signs voicing their displeasure for offshore drilling, and British Petroleum. Although everyone seemed to agree that something had to be done about the current situation, I didn’t feel there was a powerful call to action to help solve this debacle. I tip my hat to the Sierra Club and everyone else involved in making today’s rally happen, and hope to see more action in the future.