Enter Kindra Arnesen
On the street level, among the fishermen and clean-up workers, fear still holds sway, ruling the day, and night. There have been a few who have spoken out from the wetland grass roots level, but it hasn't been enough so far. However, I stumbled across one voice just now that is indeed loud and clear, and the voice of a woman, not a man. I see we should spell Terry with an i, so we can recruit both men and women to break the silence and fight back against BP and its spider-web of government collaborators.
The woman I am referring to is Kindra Arnesen, who ended up being interviewed on CNN recently after her fisherman husband and the crews of eight shrimp boats had come down sick as dogs after getting downwind of the oil spill. Watch, as she speaks out:
Her husband coming down ill, losing his livihood, then being forced to work for BP while signing a gag order, then her children getting ill and her entire, beloved environment going to Hell, all this only sharpened Kindra's tongue, strengthened her convictions and heightened her awareness, leading her to get more and more active, jumping deeper and deeper into the fire until finally on June 19, 2010 at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans, she gave one of the most eloquent, forceful "J'accuse" speeches I have ever heard against a de facto criminal syndicate:
Kindra is a unique resident of the equally unique fishing "village" of Venice, Louisiana, which was all but destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But It was another one of those American towns too tough to die. Actually, Venice isn't even incorporated, sports a population only in the hundreds unless you include nearby Boothville, which jacks the figure up to 2740, and is nicknamed, ominously, "the end of the world". That is because it is the last drivable-to outpost on the southernmost reach of the Mississippi River.
Consequently, it has also been one of the first communities in the state to become inundated with first tar-balls and then waves of BP oil, which is now wrecking havoc upon the flora and fauna, the wetlands, birds and fish of Venice and surrounding territories.
However, Venice also has this singular importance: it is the home of what has become a key Coast Guard response center against the catastrophic BP oil and gas rupture, and all manner of important officials and politicos from President Obama on down have been wandering in and out of here.
And perhaps this parade also helped prompt Kindra to challenge these ranks and their endless bromides and nonsense projections. Nothing like some local, common sense expertise and straight talk to bring folks back to earth, is there? And ever since she first spoke out in the above CNN video, the phone has been ringing off the hook, literally if not figuratively to hear more from her. To quote from Rocky Kistner of the NRDC:
Kindra has been the focus of media attention ever since she began speaking out over a month ago. When I visited her comfortable but cluttered home in Venice, a documentary film crew from Chicago was filming her family during dinner, while another film crew waited outdoors. Her husband cooked while the kids fought over the remote control.
(source)
Kindra didn't seem fazed by all the attention. She was angry and had one thing on her mind; protect her family, her community and the place she loves. She's on the warpath against the BS that she believes flows like the spewing oil well out BP reps' and politicians' mouths. Her mission is to get people involved and organized. It's a non-stop task, and her cell phone doesn't stop ringing. Network TV and national newspapers and magazines call on her regularly. She's become the Erin Brockovich of Venice (the environmental legal aid who took on mammoth PG&E in California).(source)
Here is a real, salt of the earth and daughter of the sea American with superb fighting spirit, taking up the sword of truth for about the most important cause on earth right now, saving the Gulf of Mexico and indirectly, all the oceans. Hell, run her for president! All the phony, posturing, calculating politicians out there, male or female, will just, in her presence, wither away.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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