I went to Social Psychology class not really expecting anything out of the ordinary. I sat beside a few friends and proceed to talk about how nice it must be to win the Nobel Peace Prize by doing nothing. How I wish the elegant papers and speeches I have given could place me on the list to be considered for the prize. How I wish I could have beat out the guy who is building schools for Iraqi women. Actually, I don't think I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize in any way shape or form but I think I deserve it more then Mr Obama. At least I don't lie, and I keep my promises. Anyways...
So we are talking about this subject when our professor walks in with this casually dressed older woman, who looks like she just got done working out. He didn't introduce her, he just sat down in a side chair. She sat in the chair in front of the class, as we all remembered we were supposed to have some type of guest speaker today. Looking around the class I noticed that a lot of the students in the class were not from our class. They had actually just followed the professor and guest speaker in from the previous class. Apparently, this lady must have something good to say.
We all watched as the lady stood up and introduced herself. Her name is Dr. Riki Ott and she almost single handedly took on Exxon during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, here in Alaska. From there she proceeded to tell us many stories of how the spill impacted and is still impacting the environment and the residents of Alaska. She also told us that corporations own the US. It may sound like an over exaggeration but this lady had her phone tapped twice and was thrown in jail for nothing. She proved that Exxon paid Doctors to tell the residents cleaning the oil up that they had the flu, not that they had oil in their lungs. Her and her small group of friends took on oil companies, represented by 17 lawyers, in court. Obviously, she had us all intrigued and told us she was giving a lecture for the whole school that evening.
Needless to say, I went. My favorite part was hearing the questions and her answers. There were a lot of people in the audience who were quick to throw out questions that had no right answer. She answered these anyways and made believers out of us all. She is an activist and I hope that some day I will make as big a difference in the world as she already has. I hope that I will know when to stand up and fight for what I believe in, even when everyone around thinks it is a lost cause. She is an inspiration.
Www.Rikiott.com
♥ Melissa
So we are talking about this subject when our professor walks in with this casually dressed older woman, who looks like she just got done working out. He didn't introduce her, he just sat down in a side chair. She sat in the chair in front of the class, as we all remembered we were supposed to have some type of guest speaker today. Looking around the class I noticed that a lot of the students in the class were not from our class. They had actually just followed the professor and guest speaker in from the previous class. Apparently, this lady must have something good to say.
We all watched as the lady stood up and introduced herself. Her name is Dr. Riki Ott and she almost single handedly took on Exxon during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, here in Alaska. From there she proceeded to tell us many stories of how the spill impacted and is still impacting the environment and the residents of Alaska. She also told us that corporations own the US. It may sound like an over exaggeration but this lady had her phone tapped twice and was thrown in jail for nothing. She proved that Exxon paid Doctors to tell the residents cleaning the oil up that they had the flu, not that they had oil in their lungs. Her and her small group of friends took on oil companies, represented by 17 lawyers, in court. Obviously, she had us all intrigued and told us she was giving a lecture for the whole school that evening.
Needless to say, I went. My favorite part was hearing the questions and her answers. There were a lot of people in the audience who were quick to throw out questions that had no right answer. She answered these anyways and made believers out of us all. She is an activist and I hope that some day I will make as big a difference in the world as she already has. I hope that I will know when to stand up and fight for what I believe in, even when everyone around thinks it is a lost cause. She is an inspiration.
Www.Rikiott.com
♥ Melissa
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