Speaking Pie to Power

As he delivered an Earth Day speech Tuesday at Brown University, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman got smacked with green whipped cream pies hurled by a Brown University student and her companion.

No doubt the cream pie was tastier than the mud pies consumed by destitute Haitians who have been reduced to consuming mud patties made of mud, cooking oil and sugar.

The pie flinging senior literature student, Margaree Little, 22, made this statement:

"Friedman's brand of environmentalism is a "sham" because she believes he supports things like biofuels that reduce the availability of food and displace thousands in Haiti and other developing nations." (Associated Press)

Friedman, who considers himself an environmentalist, has written about the need for caution--of the voluntary kind, apparently-- to ensure biodiversity is preserved in areas where biofuel crops are grown. So far, it's not working out that way.

Little also said she and her co-pie thrower wanted to "open up a dialogue about what it really means to have free speech on an elite college campus like Brown."

She said they considered passing out fliers or preparing questions to ask Friedman during a question-and-answer session, but ultimately decided to take a more significant step. "

"I think it was successful in that those conversations are happening now in a pretty engaged way," she said. (Associated Press)

She declined to name her fellow biotic baker, or to say whether he was a Brown student. Ms. Little is scheduled to graduate in December, as Brown weighs possible disciplinary action against her, including possible expulsion.

(This writer's opinion: Brown should award Ms. Little an Academic Medal for Bravery and Selflessness, for putting the issues of the world's poorest people ahead of her own career concerns.)

Ms. Little continues in the excellent tradition of such well known working class heroes as The Three Stooges. The Stooges began their movie careers in the depths of the Great Depression, They were usually depicted as temporary workers in a variety of jobs catering to the needs of the upper class. Their films sometimes deteriorated into pie throwing chaos with the tuxedoed and gown wearing bejeweled rich getting smacked with cream pies and the Stooges getting fired.

I originally accessed the video at http://www.abc6.com/. For some reason, it's "no longer available."

It's supposedly on You Tube, but I haven't been able to find the link.

This is the text of the hundreds of leaflets thrown to the crowd at the event:

Thomas Friedman deserves a pie in the face...
---because of his sickeningly cheery applause for free market capitalism's conquest of the planet.
---for telling the world that the free market and techno fixes can save us from climate change. From carbon trading to biofuels, these distractions are dangerous in and of themselves, while encouraging inaction with respect to the true problems at hand.
---for helping turn environmentalism into a fake plastic consumer product for the privileged.
---For his long-standing support for the US Occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Such committed support to the US War Machine and its proxy states overseas cannot be masked behind any twisted mask of "green" - the US Military is the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
---for his pure arrogance. On behalf of the earth and all true environmentalists -- we, the Greenwash Guerrillas, declare Thomas Friedman's "Green" as fake and toxic to human and planetary health as the cool-whip covering his face.