Did you know that there has been, essentially, a 40 year old oil leak going on in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, which to this date has spilled about 550 million gallons over an estimated 2000 spills? There are hundreds of outdated, leaky oil wells all over the region, as well as the river itself. Shell and Exxon, as well as a slew of other big friendly giants are the main perpetrators, while gangs, in fighting, and imperial demand for oil and money are facilitating the problem.

Why, now, when renewable energy is a reality, must we, like a sadistic rapist trying to squeeze one last tear from the victim, sap dry the earth of its resources, burn it in our engines, slather it on our beaches, breath it through our lungs, cloud our ozone layer, and spill it on the lawn on the weekend.

Is it because we are lazy, apathetic, or greedy? Or is it because we are smart industrious servants of the world? Is the notion that humans are the earth sentries, guarding ourselves against ourselves, so naively Utopian as to be foolish?

I asked a new old friend yesterday, ‘when does apathy become cruelty?’, their reply was that it becomes much worse than that, it becomes genocide. I don’t think he meant the sea life holocaust happening in the gulf, and I doubt there are many, if any, fish at all left in the delta, but the truth rings stark. Those people behind that blockade in Gaza may just become extinct in front of our very eyes, luckily the plasma screen will filter out the reality of it for you; and shame us all for allowing it.

And the president wants the kill switch, to shut down the internet with a button, to protect the finance institutions,… they say, not, of course, to squash our own little iran/twitter fiasco?

So what do we do? Buddy everybody, you me, the man in the street? When is reading the article, arguing about it over the internet for the sake of vanity, then forgetting about it at the end of the day going to give way to the genuine outrage and action which is necessary. When do we look at our hands, building a house, creating art, tilling the earth, and say as people, “I am human, which makes me special, for I have the ability to learn from history, myself, and each other.” When is a companies bottom line going to come far, far behind our natural resources, our oceans, our diet.

When do we realize that there is no way to make a compassionate double cheeseburger for all involved that costs only 99cents? Who could believe anything could be sold so cheaply and still benefit anyone but who is selling it?

We vote with our money. We push imperialism with our tax dollars. Everyone of you, without exception, could be locked up, fined, or both, for something “they” don’t know about you. That is the way the system is designed, that is how they yoke you in fear, they have us all, in a sense, afraid to speak up or say a word for the punishment we are all perpetually narrowly avoiding; when do we stand together against the rising tide to not only quell the high water mark, but also begin to roll it back, revealing some of our lost, now barnacle covered civil and cognitive liberties in the process?