Civil Disobedience Planned for Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Meeting in Biloxi, Aug. 30th

Continuing on the momentum begun with the acts of civil disobedience in New Orleans on August 4th, people trying desperately to hold BP and the Federal government accountable for the toxic Gulf nightmare coastal communities are dealing with have organized another action to take place on August 30th. Their announcement follows:

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (GCERT) was created by President Obama through an Executive Order on October 5, 2010, with concerns to long term recovery following the 2010 Deep Water Oil Catastrophe.

Although the Task Force is charged with development of a restoration strategy that proposes a Gulf Coast ecosystem restoration agenda, from the first meeting, advocates and citizens from the Gulf coastal communities... have been attending in hopes of finding aid in not only the area of ecosystem recovery, but also safe and effective industry concerns, and health related impacts from the event.

Of the latter issue, we have repeatedly been told by the GCERT that they are not here in response to the health issues that have arisen since the event. And yet, they are who we have been consistently directed to when speaking to officials of the continuing health, economic and human rights violations across the nation.

At one point, through collaboration with the GCERT, the Health and Human Services, "the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans," convened a meeting of what we thought would be a responsive address. We were at that time, by HHS a well as the Center for Disease Control, directed back to the GCERT with our concerns.

So, here we are 16 months later, and not one single piece of legislation (state or federal), nor one governmental entity, is adequately nor actively responding to the urgent and direct needs of the people on the Gulf for the basic human right of health.

THE TIME FOR NEGOTIATIONS IS OVER.

On August 30, 2011, beginning at 10 am, ill people, fishermen, workers, community organizers and residents will be in the chambers of this meeting. And we will QUIETLY and conscientiously assemble, with blown up photos of our beaches and signs depicting the issuance of our demands.
You are invited to join us in solidarity during these proceedings. We will come with determined respect and resolve, taking our rightful place among those who have historically answered the call for the endless struggle for moral requisite on behalf of country and humanity.

PLEASE BRING A LARGE BLOWN UP RECENT PHOTO OF OUR AFFECTED AREAS, AS WELL AS PROPER SIGNAGE AS TO THE FACTS OF THE SITUATION IN THE GULF AS IT STANDS TODAY.

THIS WILL BE A CALM, YET RESILIENT SHOW OF SOLIDARITY. THIS EVENT HOPES TO BE BOTH EMPOWERING AND IMPACTFUL. 

Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Meeting - MS Coast Coliseum & Convention Center

2350 Beach Boulevard

Biloxi, Mississippi

For more information on the meeting, including a map: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e4aekwljefe91ecc&llr=lpkzsjfab

"The question here is not just about one of the numerous individual cases in the struggle between a truth powerless to act and a power that has become the enemy of truth. It is really a question of the absolutely concrete demonstration of the point at which this struggle at any moment becomes man's duty as man.…"
— Martin Buber "Man's Duty As Man" (1962)

Please RSVP and get more info on the Facebook event page.