After the Glitter
Speech by Susan Felio Price from Rally for Gulf Change, 10/30/2010, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Good afternoon! I'm Susan Felio Price, owner of a marine vessel repair business in Chauvin, La., mother, grandmother and a child advocate for 10 years.
As I stand before you today my heart is heavily burdened....my mind is troubled...
Wrong! Eleven lives were lost..children were left fatherless.....the oil is still here..much of it hidden....with more reaching our shores each day....the beaches are simply given cosmetic coverups with the toxins remaining just below the surface....the seafood is woefully undertested for toxins....the air and rain is filled with a plethora of cancer causing/health hazard toxins....and the health of coastal residents is being greatly impacted....in some instances tragically so. Meanwhile our government and BP pat themselves on the back for a job well done...they've committed the crime of the century.....they've masterminded the biggest coverup this nation has ever known...and have even managed to lull most of America into a blissful unquestioning slumber. The battle is over...the battle was won. BP and the FEDS are the heros...they saved the day! Right?
Wrong!!!! There are those of us who KNOW the truth...who are living and breathing it each day...who fear for the wellfare of our families...our communities....our cultures...our lives. WE are not sleeping! WE will not be lulled! WE will NOT stand down. WE will NOT be silen
ced! WE WILL seek and expose the TRUTH! WE WILL FIGHT to protect and save our people, as well as the environment in which we live!!!!!
This is NOT the America we believed in....nor the 'American Dream' we imagined. THIS is not the 'change' we voted for....rallied for...campaigned for....defended! THIS is betrayal!!!! To imagine that we would ever live to see a day when the health and well being of people would be sacrified for the sake of the money gods is unimaginable! Unfathomable! What is even more unfathomable is that the very people sworn to protect the best interest its citizens is, in fact, greatly
contributing to our demise. Inconceivable isn't it? Not in OUR America, right? I mean...the very fiber of our country stands for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! Liberty and Justice for all, remember? But I ask you, where is that justice now??? Where is lady justice when the cries of a frightened, poisoned and suffering people fall on deaf ears? When a crime of monumental and tragic proportions is committed on humankind...yet the criminals are allowed to control the crime scene? And not only are they allowed to control the crime scene ,our Gulf of Mexico...but they are allowed to hide the body by the continued spraying of toxic dispersants as well! And adding insult to absolute injury... those sworn to uphold the Consitution of the United States are, in fact, accessories to the crime. They are guilty of a crime against humanity...yet they walk among us as free men! I ask you, wh
ere's the justice?
It is unmistakably clear that our founding fathers have provided us with the power to seek that justice ourselves when they established these words....
*We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
So WAKE UP AMERICA!
Although the glitter is fading ....the battle is not!
We MUST ask questions and demand answers!
We MUST speak out with a unified voice!
We MUST take action...swift action!
We MUST seek the truth and expose the truth.
We MUST seek justice for ourselves and others!
Thankfully we, the citizens of the United States of America, have been empowered to bring forth change and seek the justice we deserve through the power of our votes.
If we desire change.....we MUST evoke change!
This travesty is not a Repulican issue. It's not a Democrat issue. It's a humanitarian issue! Please remember this when you cast your vote!
America.....are you listening? WE NEED YOUR HELP! Our lives and the lives of our children may very well depend on it!
So join us....LET'S GIT ER' DONE!!!!
~Susan Felio Price aka Gulf Coast Justice