Here’s a few things to ponder …
Where’s PETA and the Tea Party?
Where the hell is PETA? Yeah i said it? Lemme repeat that incase I was misunderstood.. Where is PETA? You know them, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals… Where are those guys around this Gulf Oil Spill Issue?
For many of us this disaster didn’t hit home until we started seeing dead turtles and pelicans immersed in oil come washing up on our shores. I mean we lost 11 people and for the majority of us, it was in one ear and out the other.. People losing jobs?…Again-it was in one ear and out the other. But all those dead animals struck a chord. It was exasperated when we heard idiots like Alaskan Congressman Don Young try to explain this off as if it was natural and the animals killed weren’t no big deal. Sounds to me some serious animal rights violations took place, both by BP and those who support and explain away their actions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuozWIsDyyU
When the oil spill started and was said to be headed toward the wild-life packed marsh lands of Louisiana, I half jokingly and half seriously tweeted ‘Where’s PETA?’ I was joking that if folks like a ‘dog killing’ Michael Vick and a fur coat wearing Jennifer Lopez could incur this organization’s wrath, wait till Tony Hayward CEO of BP crossed paths with PETA. I even included PETA (@Peta) on the tweet and never heard back.
That was a good 50 days ago. Here we are on day 60 and as I perused their website I see there’s still no mention of the Gulf Oil Spill, which I find to be beyond strange.
As you can see from the front page of their website which was taken today June 10th, they have updated information including the recent passing of Golden Girl Rue McClanahan. There’s also a recent story of porn star Jenna Jameson and her doing a shocking video about how chickens are treated, but no Gulf Oil Spill…
The website PETA.org has an action center page where people can join campaigns against KFC, Petsmart and others but no BP. I don’t wanna be petty and I realize some of these campaigns are probably worthwhile but to see how vehement PETA was over Michael Vick and the NFL where members could be found picketing outside games and stepping to fans who supported Vick, why so silent on BP and Hayward? Will members show up at his next outing and throw blood on him for all the oil soaked rare Brown Pelicans his company’s negligence harmed and killed? Will they be picketing BP stations the way they did NFL games? Thus far I haven’t seen them at the BP in my area..They were out and about during the NFL games when Vick returned..
Not to be unfair with PETA, I have to also ask this question about the Tea Party crowd? It was just a few months ago we saw a big Tea Party rally in New Orleans where folks skewered Obama for giving away government money. Some went so far as to have Obama’s face made to look like Hitler… Where’s the Tony Hayward posters that vilify him? Where’s the Tea Party crowd whoo-riding the CEO’s press conference or townhalls like they did during the healthcare debates? Where’s the venom and outrage being directed toward BP executives who seem tell endless lies about the spill to people who live in regions that the Tea Party found major support?
One has to wonder if these organizations are all hype, scared or in the back pockets of a multi-national like BP and their friends. In any case, it was bugging me to see these outspoken groups absent from the fight while others like the Hip Hop Caucus in Washington DC picketed Hayward’s New York office last week and attempted to secure a citizen’s arrest. CNN did a story on a young girl who was 10 or 12 years old launching some sort of protest for the destroyed wild life..Rap star Talib Kweli stepped to the plate and dropped a searing song called Ballad of the Black Gold which deals with issues around oil. Everyone’s been stepping up..Just wondering why we haven’t seen and heard more from these two groups that garnered reputations for kicking up dust?
They’re waiting to see how they can fault Obama on the response.
good catch. good article.
Where is Peta? You are 100% correct–this seems like a job for Peta against cruelty and inhumane treatment of an animal?
Teaparty — they are wondering how they gonna ask for their corporate handout or government assistance — since they just was preaching keep government out of our lives. It seems almost poetic that along the southern line where these teapartiers live their bread and butter is being destroyed by corporate greed.
As it relates to PETA – and although I disagree with the way that they handle most things as it relates to animal cruelty (i.e. throwing paint on people) – I think that their focus is on people who intentional and willfully participate and/or support animal cruelty.
Although the oil spill has created damage beyond measure, the fact of the matter is that it was an accident; and the way that it is being handled is incompetence (in part of BP as well as the Obama administration). However, if BP would have intentionally put the oil in the water, then I’m pretty sure that PETA would be throwing paint on them.
Tungz
naw Tungz.. check their webpage thaey have campaigns against negligent industries..before i wrote the article I peeped their stuff, BP was within their sites especially once it became clear that BP was lying and preventing folks from seeing the wildlife they killed.
In addition once this article came out PETA went and got a T-shirt line calling for us to give BP the Bird.. Face it my friend they dropped the ball
Yeah, it’s pretty quiet around their way, especially the tea-partiers…it’s like they ALMOST disappeared!
The common denominator around these groups is the reason they are not here to challenge a white CEO or the corporatocracy generally.
Both members of PETA and of the so-called Tea Party are motivated first and foremost, not by the missions of their respective group but by the mission of their larger common group, the white group. These groups are a part of the broader racist national landscape-the Tea Party more obviously than PETA. Their silence here highlights their commonality.
Personally, I hate PETA. But I would have sent them a huge donation if they could stop the dispersant spraying and help the barge placement!
There are plenty of people screaming about this but you have to go to alternative news to hear about them., example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbyEeMS10cs
And marcg—-you are wrong about it being racial. Most of the Tea Partiers I have met are “Ozzie and Harriet” They are clueless about corporatocracy. And if you don’t do your part to wake them up and stop being divisive, we will all lose to the international corporations.
Sheri,
Rush Limbaugh doesn’t need you to help with the ‘divisive’ line. He’s got a radio program and millions of dollars to do that routine all by himself.
Now that the leaders of the Tea Party are forthrightly expressing their outright racism (Rand Paul says he wishes the Civil Rights Act had not passed and wouldn’t vote for it today) are you still touting the right wing line about the targets of racism being the ‘divisive’ ones when they attempt to combat racist deeds and words?
If, as you imply, you want to defeat the corporations, you should base your strategy around the most anti-imperial population base in the country, Black people.
Not temporarily pissed off white Tea Party members.
By the way, on day 65, the BP Oil Disaster finally made front page news at the PETA website. The PETA org called/is calling for folks to press Congresspersons to do something.