Duncan Banner on Halliburton meeting protest

Here's the link to the article promised yesterday: Halliburton's meeting draws fire [Duncan Banner, 15 May 2006]

Reporter Rod Jones interviewed Darla Shelden [identified as a protest organizer for the Oklahoma City branch of Halliburton Watch] and Katie Heim of Houston Global Awareness. The theme of this year's protest is "Monopoly" [as in the board game].

The paper and ink newspaper [not the online version, as far as I can tell] includes a box listing "Some of the complaints against Halliburton by protesters:"

• Mismanagement of operations in Iraq and Kuwait, in which the company is accused of cheating the U. S. government out of millions of dollars through overcharging, bribery or waste.
• Accusations of increasing profits by employing international laborers for company contracts in Iraq and in Hurricane Katrina rebuilding projects.
• Accusations of using worker's pensions to pay management benefits.
• Using hydraulic fracturing techniques in domestic drilling projects, which protesters say has had disastrous impacts on the environment, including water supplies.
• Accusations that the company has sent workers to perform Iraq rebuilding projects without adequate protection or training.
• Allegedly giving U. S. soldiers contaminated water and food while they were serving in Iraq.

There is no discussion of the potential validity or credibility of these accusations, nor any response from Halliburton. The article says that Halliburton "has not responded to give an estimated number of shareholders planning to attend"--which the company had earlier promised to provide.

The biggest surprise to me in the article was the claim that Duncan Middle School was not closed for the day just for safety reasons; Duncan School Superintendant Sherry Labyer at a recent school board meeting stated that "there could be some educational value for students to see a protest in action." Why not close the entire school system that day? Well, one of my sons will be out of school on Wednesday, and he will get an educational experience at the protest. My other son will have to get his educational experiences that day in class.

They who are baptized inwardly with Spirit and fire, and externally with water, according to the Word of the Lord, have no weapons except patience, hope, silence, and God's Word. . . .
Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine's blood about alike.
--Menno Simons