Jesus Was A Tree Hugger Too

Whenever BP, or any other major establishment, such as insurance companies and drug manufactures, comes across a group of people, who speaks the truth, they shut them down by making them sound like a bunch of radicals, hippies and tree huggers. Or even terrorist, with some hidden agenda to overthrow the government. And these accusers, often hide behind a cross to make themselves appear to be righteous and beyond approach. But you know, Jesus was a tree hugger too.

Jesus had long hair, wore sandals, often spoke of love and peace, fished, hiked, and he pissed off the establishment (the Jewish High Priest) often. They eventually killed him, when they noticed Jesus, a Jew himself, was getting a little too popular. You could say, they labeled him a terrorist. The people who crucified him are the same kind of people that hide behind the cross today; the same evil hypocrites. I don't normally like to use the word evil, but how else can you describe these power hungry personalities that put money above life?

I have seen what BP has done to the Gulf Coast. I see the million dollar commercials they are airing, telling you all up North that the oil is gone, and it's safe to swim off our shores. It's not true. The oil is still here. I live here, and I have no reason to lie to you; I have nothing at stake, except pissing a bunch of money hungry people off, like the CEO's of the corporations, who own the hotels in the area (including Jimmy Fn' Buffett). Anyone who says it's safe for your children to be on the beaches in this area are not friends of Jesus. They're more concerned with what's in their wallet, than they are for you and your family.

I'm not the only one posting blogs, and photos, and videos. Put "BP oil spill" into any search engine (youtube for sure), and you'll see for yourself. Mississippi has got to be the worse, and the state line is only about an hours drive from here (Pensacola). They have dead dolphins and sea birds washing up daily. And it smells rank. None of us want to be burdened with the responsibility of tracking this sad mess. But the media isn't informing you of the dangers. So we sacrifice our health and well being with the hope of by keeping America informed, we can force BP to fix what they made wrong. And possibly stop this runaway madness for oil.

So call me a tree hugger or what you will. But I stand in front of that cross, not behind it.

The Crude Oil Adventure of the Human Re-Evolution

I recently wrote a short story regarding the BP Oil Spill, and how it has affected Pensacola Beach in particular.  As well as the morality of it all.  This past summer, after grieving for a year, I realized that sometimes bad things have to happen in order for there to be a greater good.  It's tragedies like 9/11, and the BP Oil Spill that deeply touches our hearts and motivates change in humanity as a whole.  With the year 2012 upon us, and the threat of mankind destroying itself, the book also addresses the spiritual evolution of the human condition, which will save us from destruction. 

Not only does my book include a historical account of the spill in regards to Pensacola Beach, but it's an inspirational piece as well.  It's also a story about nature and learning to heal ourselves as well as the planet.  It's not too late.  It is as easy as learning to control and direct our thoughts.  It's learning to believe in ourselves, and in others. 

This book is also interactive with my Youtube Channel:  www.youtube.com/user/WoMenHead101

AVAILABLE ON  Amazon.com

NATIONAL SHRIMP FESTIVAL BP PROTEST Gulf Shores, Alabama

You know when 2011 rolled around, I really didn’t have any hope for myself, let alone mankind. But as the end of the year draws near, I can feel little seeds of encouragement growing inside. We’ve gone from silence and dead birds falling from the skies, to a time when thousands are standing up across America protesting the banks on Wall Street, our corporate government, and the environment injustices that our nation faces today, as well as the entire planet.

Here in Florida Trisha Springstead and Trisha James have stepped up and made headway regarding the health of Gulf Coast victims of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. And in Alabama, Michele Harmon and Kimberly McCuiston have risen as leaders in their communities, uniting a BP demonstration during the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama this past Saturday. In comparison to the thousands of people who showed up for the festival, only a couple dozen people demonstrated. Some may find this discouraging. But considering this to be the first demonstration that has taken place, east of the Louisiana boarder, since capping the Macondo well, I applaud the day.

In contrast to Hands Across the Sand, these two women had to get a permit to demonstrate. At first the city refused their request. Then after speaking to the ladies attorneys, there was a reversal by city officials, with restrictions. The demonstration had to be two hundred feet away from the festival, and on the beach. And the use of a bull horn or any other type of devise, electric or battery operated, was prohibited. And my favorite was, if you were wearing a t-shirt that is associated with the oil spill, you were not allowed to walk through the festival to get to the beach; you had to walk the beach to get to the demonstration. In turn, this meant one would have no access to a toilet, or food and water, without walking a mile to a restaurant. Considering the protest began at noon and was to end at four p.m., it made for a long day. But I can say that I did walk into the festival area to use the bathroom and get a drink on two occasions, without any hassle. And we didn’t disperse until 4:30, without dispute from the police or security. I guess they didn’t see our small group as a threat.

But what they didn’t realize at the time is that our little demonstration was photographed and video taped and plugged in to the masses across the Internet, before the day was over. And within twenty-four hours those twenty-four people shared their day with all their friends, who in turn shared the event with their friends. As a result, our story touched the lives of thousands. And that day will continue to live on. And it will inspire others too.

There is hope for the Gulf life as well. Recently I learned of a technique called bioremediation. It’s a natural, fast, effective and cheap way to clean up the oil that remains in the Gulf of Mexico. And it has been around for over thirty years, and used successfully in twenty other countries. It’s even on the EPA’s list of approved remedies for oil spills. Yet, our bureaucratic government has not approved its use to this day. If you don’t believe this technology is effective, put the word, bioremediation, in a search engine and read on. I even found YouTube videos going back four years on the subject.

And this is all we want . . . we want the Gulf of Mexico restored to the way she was before the oil spill.  We want to eat fresh Gulf shrimp. We love it! We want our children to be able to dig in the sand, without worry of what kind of cancer they may die from in ten to twenty years. Or to be able to breath the air, without assistance of a nebulizer. This is what we protest to. And what American wouldn’t want these things?

“The oil is still here and so are we!” We are not going to disappear or be silenced. As one protester pointed out, there were only fifty-six people who signed the Declaration of Independence. And at that time, the forefathers of this country were considered renegades themselves. Now they are considered as heroes. Be a hero! Stand up for your county, because it’s your land that’s under attack! The gas companies are fracking the land across the state of Pennsylvania, and there was the Exxon oil spill in Yellowstone River, outside Billings, Montana, this year And the list goes on and on, and it will continue until we as a people demand a change. The technology is available. All we need to do is spread the word and act upon it today. Even if it’s in some small way, like standing on a hot beach with a sign in your hand, or surfing the web for new energy solutions. Everything counts, even in small amounts.

PETROLATUM, MEDICINE?

The other day I was transplanting cactus, when I ran the tip of my finger into one. It felt like a dart jammed me. The needles broke off deep in my skin in three places. Instead of picking at my sore finger with a needle, I decided to go to Walgreens and see if they sold some sort of drawing salve. I was surprised and relieved when the lady behind the pharmaceutical counter said she could help me. Even though a prescription was not needed, they didn’t keep the product on the shelf, where a shopper would have access, but instead they kept it behind the counter. I didn’t question why they kept the product hidden. But when I got home, I was floored to find not only was this medicine brown and greasy, but it smelled like used motor oil!

The product is called, Ichthammol Ointment 20%, distributed by Perrigo. The ointment contains petrolatum (which is used in make up and skin care products, as well as petroleum jellies such as Vaseline), Ichthammol (also known as black drawing salve, and a home remedy used for skin disorders, derived from sulfur-rich oil shale), light mineral oil, and lanolin (wool wax or wool grease).

Coming from a Gulf Coast perspective, I find it somewhat suspicious and outright crazy that medicine would smell like dirty motor oil. So I decided to do a little research.

PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), are common contaminants in petrolatum, also called petroleum jelly. Petrolatum is found in one of every fourteen products on the market, including fifteen percent of all lipstick and forty percent of all baby lotions and oils. Exemplifying lip balm, sun screen and tanning oils; everything you need for a day on a Florida beach.

Studies at Columbia University show that women with breast cancer were two point six times more likely to have elevated levels of PAHs. To further the concerns of using a petrolatum based products is the European Union’s Dangerous Substance Directive (2004) restricting petrolatum use in cosmetics, by targeting it as a probable human carcinogen. And of course, not only is it legal to use the product in cosmetics here in the United States, but the FDA has taken it a step further and approved petrolatum as an indirect food additive as well.

Petrolatum became known as a a medicine in 1859, by the men who worked on the first oil rigs in the United States. These men would use this worthless substance that forms on rigs to heal their cuts and burns. It dose not heal, but instead it seals keeping germs from getting into the wounded area. And that’s how petrolatum got its start as a medicine.

The reason why Petrolatum became so popular among the cosmetic industry is that it’s used as a barrier to lock moisture in the skin and it makes your hair shine. So be sure to check your bath soap, shampoo and hair conditioner, if you find this information concerning, along with all the other products I mentioned.

As always when dealing with corporate America, there are two sides to every story, but the moral seems to stay the same - greed. I think for myself. Common sense tells me, if it smells like dirty motor oil, then it most likely is; medicine it is not.

How Can You Miss The Shit?!

Last Tuesday evening I went to the Pensacola Beach with a small group of friends.  It's kind of a new ritual we have started amongst ourselves to help the Gulf heal from the oil spill.  Each of us collects water from the Gulf of Mexico, in a glass container, and we tape words/affirmations onto the glass, such as Love, Gratitude, and Heal.  Then we take it home and sit the glass container somewhere special and/or pretty and meditate on it here and there, until we meet again in a month.  Usually on or close to a full moon, and then we return the water to the Gulf again.

Anyway, I had just returned from a weeks trip to Ohio, so I grabbed my back pack, which just happened to have two cameras in it along with the other items I needed, and made my way to the beach to meet my friends.  I wasn't planning on video taping oil on the sand or Corexit in the water.  But low and behold, we're standing at the waters edge, collecting new water to take home, and I see this brown foamy crap right there on the shoreline not even five feet away from us.  This is like the fourth or fifth time I've collected water for the purpose of healing, and this time my water had a yellow tint to it, and the sand in the bottom of the container is brown (vs. white). 

I do not normally go to the touristy beach, known as Casino Beach, because I don't like being crowded.  But it seemed logical to go the pier to return the water we had collected four weeks before, instead of standing on beach, where the water comes ashore. Knowing this is the tourist spot, it is kind of scary when you think of all the people from around the country who came here and played in the sand and in the water.  I wonder how many people are walking around wondering why they don't feel well?  There doctors clueless, because they are not aware of the symptoms that accompany chemical exposure.  But that's not what my blog is about today.

Instead, it's about how easy it is to find oil on Pensacola Beach, especially after a good storm.   On March 5th, 2011, I recorded a video that showed a lot of dead sea life that had washed ashore after a blustery storm had passed through the Gulf.  And on Sept 3rd, 2011, while Tropical Storm Lee passed through, I recorded a thick oily substance all over the Casino Beach.  It was awful.  Both of those videos went somewhat viral and afforded me the option to become a YouTube partner.  That's how badly the beach looked!

And here we are on a calm day, Sept 13th, and this brown shit is floating along the shoreline.

Two days later, Celia and I go to the beach to chill for a minute.  Walk-out #27.  The temps are in the seventies, it's a beautiful day.  We set our chairs up, and Celia goes for a walk, and I sit there and take it all in for a minute.  And I swear, I don't know where it came from, but it begins to rain.  I rush to pack out stuff up, then Celia come along finishes, while I bee line it to the truck to shut the sunroof.  I know if we give it a minute, the rain will pass. And we decide to take a ride to pass the time.

So, we head toward National Seashores (Navarre).  And before we made it to the first parking lot, where you're allowed to pull off the road, I know we're going to turn around and take this trip again, because the sand looked that bad.  But when we made it to the parking lot, that's when I first grabbed my camera.  BP workers began pulling up into the parking lot.  And the area looked as bad as Casino Beach did when Lee splashed oil all over the place.  Immediately after pulling out of the parking lot in Nat'l Seashores, we spotted an area on the sound side of the road, where water had collected in between the dunes, and the sand was brown all the way around it.  Then after doing a second drive-by from Pensacola Beach through Nat'l Seashores, we went to Casino Beach. 

Casino Beach had little tide pools all up and down the beach.  Out of the two we investigated, one looked really trashed.  A sea gull was sitting in it.  When he seen me hesitate, he began squawking and looked up to the sky, then back down to the water.  He splashed at it with his beak, as if to say, "Hey, come look at this shit!" 

So I did.  There's some kind of black shit along the edge of this tide pool.  And there's thick brown bubbly crap as well.  And I know that birds going to die.  There are three other birds sitting on the beach with there legs folded below them, who do look sick.  And there's people everywhere playing in the tide pools and digging in the sand.  And for the first time, I said something to a couple who was sitting in black sand, "Do you know you're sitting in oil?!"  I said it so matter of factly, like how could you miss it idiot, that the dude looked at me like what?  You didn't just say, what I thought you said, did you? 

Surprised at my own words, I said nothing more and walked away.

SEPTEMBER 03, 2011 - TROPICAL STORM LEE - PENSACOLA, FL

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 - PENSACOLA BEACH & NAT'L SEASHORES

Leonard Peltier & The Gulf Coast Warriors

You know Leonard Peltier’s story is kind of similar to the oil struggle along the Gulf Coast. I am member of a few facebook communities that consist mostly of Gulf Coast residents who report and share information regarding BP and the oil spill. Some of these individuals, whom I consider leaders of the struggle, are very outspoken about how they feel regarding the mess that BP has left us with. Some are even willing to give up their freedom, in defense of their land and their families. With this in mind, I would like to share with you Leonard’s story.

In 1973 murder ran rapid on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota. It was the “Corporations,” like the strip miners after uranium reserves, who divided the people on the reservation with the promise of money and jobs. Kind of like the way the oil and gas companies took advantage of the three poorest states in the South (Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama). One of these corporations called, The Tennessee Valley Authority, was government owned. Considering our government has never honored a treaty made with Native American’s, it’s kind of insulting when the FBI starts showing up on the reservation unannounced, whenever the hell they pleased. And they weren’t there to help the Indians.

Sixty people were murdered violently on this small reservation within three years. On one occasion, the FBI coroner concluded that two Native victims had committed suicide by stabbing their selves in the face repeatedly. “Hmmmm.. . . . I always said, if I was going to commit suicide, it’s gonna be a knife to the face . . . repeatedly” Yeah right! Give me a break.

So the Indians, who own the reservation (the land), and who are to be considered a sovereign nation, decide to ask the American Indian Movement (AIM) for some protection. We’re talking about protecting the women and children, and the elderly. So a young, 29 year old, Leonard Peltier, an Ojibwa French Sioux Indian, volunteered to sit with these families, in their homes, and protect them. He’s not like standing at the entrance of the res, waiving a gun and waiting to blow away people who approach the boundary line. He’s no different than those of us who wish to protect our families and our land from the oil companies.

So one sunny day, Leonard’s out on this ranch, on the res, and he’s kicking it in a tent, when he hears gunshots. No one knows who started shooting first, or why the shooting began. But two FBI agents were killed. This pissed the FBI off. And the real kick in the ass was the fact that a whole gang of them Indians got away. Including Leonard Peltier.

From that point on, it’s been proven that the FBI fabricated evidence, hid evidence, and intimidated witnesses, without any regard to Mr. Peltier’s rights as a U.S. citizen. Even admitting that they (the FBI) don’t know who killed their agents. Leonard Peltier has been a prisoner of the United States for over thirty-five years now. Even though historically he’s been a model prisoner, he’s been denied parole twice.

www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
“Silence they say, is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence screams. Silence is a message, just as doing nothing is an act. Let who you are ring out and resonate in every word & every deed. Yes, become who you are. There’s no sidestepping your own being or your own responsibility. What you do is who you are. You are your own comeuppance. You become your own message. You are the message." - Leonard Peltier

And the reason I share this story with you today is because this man is just like one of us. One facebook group I belong to is in part called the Gulf Coast Warriors. Leonard is a warrior too; a man of honor and truth. His fight is the same as our fight - what landed him in prison is the same corporate greed protected by the same corrupt government that we are fighting today. Only the names have changed.  Because there is approximately two thousand of usook groups that I am posting this blog to, I’m asking you to spread the word and join the existing worldwide support to help Leonard Peltier break free of that prison. Please visit:

The Denial Disease

Wikipedia actually has a page dedicated to, “Denial.” The simple definition of denial is the disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing (like oil). Kind of reminds me of that Shaggy song, where he got caught butt naked, banging the girl next door, on the bathroom floor. But he continues to stick to his story, by constantly repeating, “It wasn’t me,” to his girlfriend.

A second type of denial is minimisation. That’s where one might admit a fact, but deny the seriousness.  The third is a the kind of denial where the subject admits both the fact and serousness of a given situation, but denies the responsibility, called projection. Thus, denial is a negative characteristic.

Addicts are a consequence of denial. It plays an important role in recovery, via the twelve-step program. And the American Heart Association blames the delayed treatment of heart attacks on denial. Furthermore, the first of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grieving is denial; then anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. So you see, even victims are not immune to the disease of denial.

But when your self-preserving denial begins to cost innocent people their health - I call it lying! What happened to the Gulf of Mexico hinders on the unforgivable. Not simply because it happened, but because of how the general population behaved afterwards. They were way more concerned with how many tourist weren’t on the beach, instead of how many were on the beach. The oil spill itself tore apart at my very soul; the beach stank, it was gnarly, and there was nothing natural about it. I have lived the five stages of the grieving process. Moving well past denial and into acceptance.

Fact: the oil is still here. It is not safe to swim in Gulf, due to the dousing of toxic dispersants, as well as Corexit. Where there is oil, there is a lethal dispersant of some sort. That’s what makes the oil sink.  There are oil matts along the shoreline of the Gulf Coast. And there are toxic pockets throughout Pensacola Bay, as reported by Marine Biologist, Heather Reed to The Pensacola League of Women Voters, on May 7, 2011. Although there are different types of crude and a variety of toxicities attached to each, what Heather Reed describes coincides with what Dr. Riki Ott (Exxon Valdez Spill in Alaska) describes in her book, Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$, at page 243: “Without oxygen, the oil had not weathered and it still contained measurable levels of PAHs - over four parts per million in the mussel tissues and ten times that in the underlying sediments.”

Ott also warns the word “Weathered,” is often used, by the industry, to downplay the toxicity of oil that is still harmful. And as I mentioned in my blog before, Dr. Ott reported the highest concentrations of PAHs were found, “at the waters edge at the lowest reach of the tides,” adding, “the residual oil in the intertidal sediments was potent enough to kill test animals for two years” (at page 195).

Now tell me, with the “Facts,” that I just presented to you, do you truly believe it’s safe to swim along our coast line here in Pensacola? It seems to me, if you support tourism in this area of the Gulf, and you continue to tell people it’s ok to eat the fish, and swim our waters, or sit silently by and allow this sick behavior of greed to continue, then you are contributing to the deaths of thousands of people, and you are no different than the Germans who allowed Hitler to rule.

Be Real! You live with dis-ease when you deny, lie and pretend. Only when we accept the truth can we begin to heal ourselves, as well as the Gulf of Mexico. The truth being, she needs our help, not our denial.

VIDEO POSTED MAY 7, 2011: