Local rally held on 50th day of oil spill | ABC11 Raleigh-Durham

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By ABC11

DURHAM One of the vigils was held Tuesday at Duke Park in Durham. But what hasn't been seen in the Triangle is protests at BP gas stations, like the ones that are happening around the country.

The Duke Park rally wasn't about condemning BP, but rather showing resolve to see the calamity through to the end.

A few dozen would-be activists gathered to share their message.

"All our prayers go out to them, from Pensacola to Louisiana," organizer Michael Horton said.

Horton helped organize the event and says it's all about awareness. And others agree, whether people are buying plastics or driving cars everyone is, in part, responsible for what happened and how we deal with it.

"This is what I'm helping to create, I'm part of this, this is my oil spill, their oil spill, our oil spill," activist Cathy Kielar said.

Still that sense of collective responsibility didn't stop anyone from calling out BP.

"I really think it's been a slow process as far as getting the manpower down to help with the cleaning," one person at the rally said. "It's more or less; you need more bodies … definitely bodies."

But it's not that simple, as Catherine Antonopoulos found out first hand.

"Let us help clean up, stop the leak now," she said. "They're pretty much turning people away, it's really upsetting actually."

So she says she went to Durham's vigil with the others to do something instead of nothing.

"This seemed like a little thing to do, to show our concern," Antonopoulos said.

She says their hope is that if enough people do enough little things, it may spark something bigger.