What Must Dolphins Think?

Make no mistake! The future will judge us. And judge us harshly!

For those unaware, today marks 6 months since BPs Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, “killing eleven workers and triggering the worst oil spill disaster in US history.” On today’s broadcast of Democracy Now! they interviewed writer and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams, where she spoke some mighty haunting words;

One of the most moving stories was really flying with a barefoot pilot named Tom Hutchings. In the American Southwest, we would call him a coyote. Again, an activist, he was taking people, as a volunteer for SouthWings, anyone who would go with him, to fly over the Macondo well site. We went with him on Day 100. Upper right-hand corner of the New York Times, you know, remember the article that said most of the oil is gone, 80 percent. You remember a week later, Carole Browner of the Obama administration said 75 percent gone, poof, Mother Nature is doing her job. What I can tell you is that as we flew out to the Gulf to what they call “the source” to see the Deepwater Horizon rigs, for as far as we could see, for as wide as we could see, for as long as we could bear it, oil. All we could see was oil. I mean, it’s just—I wonder, where is our outrage? And I was saying to Tom, this brilliant pilot, you know, that must have made twenty, thirty, forty flights at his own expense, “Why isn’t this story being told?” And he was saying that most of what we’ve heard has been shore-based knowledge. I mean, there were rivers of oil as wide as the Mississippi itself. Stunning. When I asked him what has stayed in his mind most in terms of his witnessing, he said that when they were burning the oil off the surface of the sea, he remembers on the edge of the flames seeing a pod of dolphins, side by side by side by side, watching, simply watching the ocean burn…

Forget being judged by people who, more than likely will never exist — or at least in the same way we do now, if we continue to carry on like we have — what must those dolphins think?

Giving Thanks

Today, in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving Day. A day which is traditionally set aside for giving thanks. So rather than briefly touch upon a few of the mind numbingly abundant numbers of absurd reasons why such a practice is so misplaced — given the world in which we live, and the costs many are forced to pay to the few — I’ll merely cite one reason why I’m thankful.

I’m thankful for people like Bill Quigley, and his writings. Like the one, Nine Months After the Quake: A Million Haitians Slowly Dying, that showed up in my inbox today. This is something everyone needs to read and think, hard, about, today, of all days. Please, when you are giving thanks, consider someone else.

If you’re in a position to, of course, a donation to Partners In Health, for their work, on the ground, in Haiti, wouldn’t be the worst thing you could do…

You’re Vegan? And Healthy?

I’ve recently had quite a constructive, speaking from my point of view at least, back and forth, concerning veganism, with an old friend. And yesterday the subject of health and the merits of how I eat came up.

All Starting with said friend forwarding me a link to a blog post — that I found fairly problematic and somewhat short sighted — of an ex-vegan intent on bashing veganism for its supposed poor health consequences. With absolutely no valid arguments toward the reasons for his alleged feeling bad, other than a few horrible pictures of himself. I digress.

This was largely my response to his forward — to which I’ve added since sending…

Continue reading You’re Vegan? And Healthy?

Another Time

I’ll refrain from adding any comment to the bunch of words I’m urging people to read today. And, for the purposes of my point, I’ll say it’s a little late for this post — at least in relation to when the article was posted, being the beginning of last week — however the content of Tim Wise’s piece is not any less relevant today. Nor will it ever be at any point in the future. Please read Your House Is On Ground Zero (And Quite Without Permission) and actually consider what Tim wrote…