Almost exactly one year to the day that the oil spill in the Gulf began, young activists took over a BP gas station in D.C. last weekend. This wasn’t your usual protest- people gathered to throw a beach party at a BP gas station. LaShunda Campbell was at the angry demonstration, along with more than 1,000 others.
“The idea behind this protest was ‘you flood our beaches, so now we will flood your stores!’” LaShunda said.
The League was there on the scene at Power Shift 2009 and we want to congratulate all the participants for the biggest, most inspiring energy conference yet. Van Jones was on the scene, The Roots were on the scene…for a few days D.C. was the home of ten thousand kids from across the country, and the passion and inspiration we saw is all the motivation we need to know that Green Jobs are the way of the future, and we’ve got to spread the word.
So, without further ado, we present LYVEF’s Power Shift 2009 coverage.
DeShawn kicks it out of Atlanta GA to bring his views on the news in America today. He was down in D.C. for Powershift 09.
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Over the last few days, the staff at 99problems.org has been pouring over video and pictures from our time at the Power Shift Youth Energy Summit in D.C. last weekend, as well as interviews we’ve conducted. This footage, from Lauren London, brought everything back home for me.
Watching the passionate appeals I witnessed last week– for brotherhood, for unity– I couldn’t help but be reminded of Kanye West’s emotional, awesome honesty on live T.V. after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. His heart was open. He appeared on T.V. because he is famous, but the words he spoke were ordinarily, extraordinarily, human.
I am from Mississippi. I was in New York City working on a Bollywood film production when Katrina happened. The first people who approached me about the tragedy were members of the Indian film crew; before I even got a call from my parents, and my friends on the coast, I was embraced and comforted by these people from the other side of the world. It was less than a year after the devastating tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people on the coasts of Asia. For them, Katrina hit close to home, and they reached out to me.
In the absence of existing leaders, we must become the guardians of our people. With an incredible President like Barack Obama, we must support him, guide him, and –above all– enable him to be our keeper. The great man he is capable of being.
The Youth Energy movement must be a celebration of our world; a recognition of our human fragility, and a confirmation of our ability to transcend race, transcend culture, and see the joy and sorrow that unites our journeys through life, no matter the particular roads we walk.
Green Jobs, The Environment; Education, Pollution, Crime, Punishment, whatever.
The point is to seize your own power, or understand someone else, somewhere else, took it from you.
The point is to educate yourself, or understand you’re letting someone else, somewhere else, tell your story. Make your decisions.
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