The NY Times' Nick Kristof has put forth the call for a nationwide boycott of Anheuser-Busch products to protest the company policy of distribution of beer on the outskirts of the Oglala Sioux Indian reservation in Nebraska.
AFTER seeing Anheuser-Busch’s devastating exploitation of American Indians, I’m done with its beer.
The human toll is evident here in Whiteclay: men and women staggering on the street, or passed out, whispers of girls traded for alcohol. The town has a population of about 10 people, but it sells more than four million cans of beer and malt liquor annually — because it is the main channel through which alcohol illegally enters the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation a few steps away.
Pine Ridge, one of America’s largest Indian reservations, bans alcohol. The Oglala Sioux who live there struggle to keep alcohol out, going so far as to arrest people for possession of a can of beer. But the tribe has no jurisdiction over Whiteclay because it is just outside the reservation boundary.
You can read the column here: http://www.nytimes.com/...
Kristof's frustration at the unwillingness of the corporate brewer to even respond with a defense is palpable. His description of the victims of alcoholism shows how heartless this particular corporate citizen has become and his boycott call is well taken.
More importantly, when a columnist of this stature publicly sounds the clarion for a call to action of this potential magnitude, well Occupy activists and supporters need take notice of its implications. Occupy woke up a large portion of our citizenry, many of whom have been asking "what next"? Corporate Oligarchists, Banksters, Lobbyists and Koch-heads should be taking notice as well. When a major media outlet, often seen as a supporter of the big money interests, can publish a call to action like this one, well, hope springs eternal that the interests of society can and should take precedence over the interests of the 1%, especially profit-at-all-cost focused brewers of beer.
#OccupyBudweiser. Pass it on. In deference to the Kentucky Derby winner, I won't be having another.
