by Tina Grazier
Have you ever wanted them to just shut up and get a life? I mean really! A brand new cause is always on the horizon and winning is never good enough for people with a cause…the fight goes on and on regardless of concessions made. There’s always another faulty product or unfair practice, or burning need that MUST be addressed. There is always some new industry to harass, some enemy to confront, manipulate and change. It’s getting ridiculous. Those of us that have been around for a number of years have spent our entire lives witnessing protest movements. The faithful are often filled with anger and disdain and somehow seem to have a lot of time on their hands….one wonders, do they have jobs?
Professional protesters are not civil human beings in general but they certainly demand that others be. They put on a pleasant concerned face for the cameras but when push comes to shove the true nature of the beast emerges. The media love these people…controversy sells. So they feature the shouts of disapproval, the extreme claims, the obnoxious demands that are served up with plenty of whining and crying about one nit picky thing after another…and rarely check the facts or the alternate point of view. They willfully join the cause putting on concerned faces as they seriously demonize the perceived enemy. And oh, how we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated, bullied and shamed into compliance and silence. Yes I said silence! Society has not allowed the expression of certain things. Some ideas cannot be expressed last the messenger be dismissed and negatively “typed”. The ACLU and product lawyers are only too happy to take the money and the case and run.
So I’m asking…are people finally getting sick of the constant yammering? Are you?
I gotta tell ya…I am thrilled every time I read that some person or company is just not going to take it anymore. I cheer when I hear someone stand up to say absolutely not! Sorry DUDES, but we are not going to cave on that one. We are not going to be labeled, placed in a dustbin and relegated to the closet. You have asked for a good fight for many, many years and now by golly you’ve got it!
Two events recently occurred in oil industry meetings that reflect my own fed-up-ness…the story comes to us via Investors Business Daily:
“Big Oil Bites Back” – IBD Editorial
** Wednesday, Chevron was descended upon by a zoo-full of San Francisco leftists pushing rain forest sentimentalism, Burma, and other pet causes dear to the no-soap crowd. They journeyed all the way to San Ramon, Calif. to shout “Shame on you!” and “No blood for oil” and worse yet to make demands on the company. *** Among them, a vociferous crew calling on Chevron to settle quickly with an Ecuadorean activist group with a guerrilla-like name: El Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia. *** El Frente has a $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron. Its case is worthless. Chevron hasn’t operated in Ecuador since 1992 and got a clean bill of health from Ecuador in 1998. Any pollution now is a product of Ecuador’s mismanaged state oil company. *** But that hasn’t stopped the formidable publicity machine that’s roped in the gullible media covering this case. The new demand, echoed in the press, is for Chevron to “settle” with El Frente. *** Meanwhile, over at Exxon Mobil, the issue is why the company can’t go “green.” Another throng of activists tried to coax the company into scrapping its global leadership in oil production and instead to turn itself into genteel green farmers, tending corn and sugar and switchgrass in the name of biofuels. *** But in both cases, something happened this time at the corporate meetings: The companies sharply rebuked these nonbusiness interests. It was a dramatic shift from the polite courtesies and kowtowings they’ve extended to these radicals in the past. *** This time, they actually stood up for themselves and what they do. **
The election of Barack Obama appears to have been a grand triumph for many of these professional protesters and their assorted causes…and yet, when the zenith is reached decline soon follows. I sense that in the next few years we will see some unexpected change. It’s such a relief to hear people say, I’m not going to be bullied by throngs of crazed protestors anymore. If they want their ideas to be heard, considered, and respected it’s time they returned the favor. If they want to live their lives that certain way then have at it but leave us to do the same. And for heaven’s sake get the government out of the fixing business. We are adults…we can fix things for ourselves. We can compete and negotiate and move to another neighborhood or state. We can make new friends, start new clubs, and patronize businesses that are friendly and reflect our own lifestyles and ideas. We can get a different job or create one for ourselves. We can also freely express ourselves and petition our government. We are fortunate…we live in a free (supposedly diverse) country! Wouldn’t it be refreshing to celebrate that freedom for a change?