Public Citizen's Twitter Poetry Challenge, an ode to #bigoil?
Today is World Poetry Day and it is also the anniversary of “Twitter,” an online information sharing powerhouse recently leveraged by the Egyptian people to organize for social change. For those of you who don’t know, Public Citizen uses Twitter to try and organize for social change as well.
In honor of Twitter’s anniversary and in celebration of World Poetry Day, Public Citizen would like to invite those of you with a Twitter account to follow us on Twitter @Public_Citizen and take us up on our challenge:
Follow us on Twitter and then tweet us a poem, 140 characters or less, expressing your thoughts on any of the issues we cover. From energy policy to financial regulation, have your voice heard and help us get the word out about our work by using the hash tag #PCpoem. To the left, is an example from our very own wordsmith Dorry Samuels, who opted to take the challenge on nuclear in the form of a haiku. We will retweet our favorites.
For those curious about Twitter but not familiar with it or how it works, try checking out this YouTube channel.
Yours truly is about to work on a short poem about BP, that is “Beyond Pathetic,” a phase that aptly describes both British Petroleum and congressional languishing we are seeing on the Oil Spill Commission recommendations in Washington. Last week, Congress held offshore drilling hearings and the head of the House Natural Resources Committee announced that he would soon be introducing legislation to speed up the federal water lease approval process to aid the oil industry.
The New York Times reported of the hearings,
Democrats on the panel accused Interior critics of massaging statistics and neglecting the devastation caused by the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, which included the loss of 11 lives and spilled 4 to 5 million barrels of oil. . . . “This hearing is apparently taking place in a parallel universe,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) the ranking member on the committee, who pointed to the “systemic” problems with the offshore drilling industry identified by the presidential Oil Spill Commission earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration issued approval for a third deep water oil drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico. Bloomberg reported that ATP Oil & Gas Corp., the company the permit was issued to, saw an immediate jump in New York trading.
Please tell your representatives to act on the Oil Spill Commission recommendations today!