Once upon a time, there was another oil spill. On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, hit a reef in Prince William Sound and released over 10 million gallons of crude. People were as outraged then as they are now. About a year later, the Australian rock band Midnight Oil took to guerilla tactics by protesting in front of the Exxon building in Manhattan. I remember hearing about it a day after it happened, on the FM station I listened to. No video. No Twitpics. Just a DJ reading some news copy.

Can you imagine a company actually closing their blinds to pretend what was happening outside their window, wasn’t? And even though this didn’t get much press back in the day, if it were to happen now, it would be all over the planet in an hour.

For the record, Midnight Oil was the kind of band that kicks walls down.

Finally, if you read that Wikipedia article in the link above, it looks like Exxon still hasn’t paid damages. I don’t think BP will get off as easy.

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Jim Mitchem

The Dinner Guest
Birds.

Jim Mitchem

Writer. Father to daughters. Husband. Ad man. Raised by wolves. @jmitchem on twitter. First novel, Minor King, out now.

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