Years Long Oil Spill - A heart response

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100513-science-environme...

What does it mean when an oil spill leads to and entire ocean region’s destruction? According to National Geographic this grim possibility is something we may be considering in the near future. A coastline, a fishing industry, a thriving community of sea life, all gone. Dead. Not in Alaska, not far away. Right. Here. Where we can all see it. Where residents of the Gulf Shores can smell it. Where Gulf fishermen can feel the sharp jab of lost income and displacement.

“We don’t have any idea how to stop this.”
“We are really in unprecedented waters.”

Let that sink in for a second.

How many often have American people gone along with the “drill baby drill” rhetoric because they are convinced that science will keep it safe?

Actions have consequences. Everyday you walk into that car and you switch the ignition. That is a choice based on a set of values. You know that thing burns oil. Yet you do it. Why? I know why I do it. I don’t know any other way of transporting myself in a timely manner. I also don’t want to know. I’m convinced I don’t have the time. I’m convinced it wouldn’t do anything to change the situation.

Every time I get in a vehicle I am thinking that. I am wondering what right I have to do this. I also think “what alternative do I have?” I can’t afford an electric car. I can’t afford solar panels. I don’t own a pack mule. I can’t get to my destinations safely and securely without a car. I don’t know where to get a pack mule. I don’t know how I would utilize one. I have been bred helpless. Without the societal parent, I am currently useless. I hate admitting that, but it is true.

Can I trust this parent? Well, this parent lies to me. This parent tells me that it’s all going to be ok, that the oil leak in the Gulf will eventually be contained. That those responsible will be brought to justice. That monetary reparation will solve the problem.

Repairation? How do you repair dead? Dead is dead. It doesn’t come back. That gulf life provides services, ones that no amount of money you could get BP to pay could EVER replace. How can money cure the breathing ailments of gulf coast residents? How can money rejuvenate the impacted wildlife populations? Or the protected ecosystems now tainted? How do you replace living systems? Let us put this old myth to bed. Of “things” that are “replaceable”. Nothing is infinite. Everything is unique. Everything is sacred. You cannot replace any of these. We live on with the scar forever. It is done. It is dead. We bore the risk and CEO’s run off like bandits.

There is nothing most of us can do now but mourn. In my case, for something I never got to know personally. Let us feel the pain of our gulf bleeding uncontrollably. Let us feel the pain of a community dying, a holocaust. We turned the other way at Afghanistan. We turned the other way with Iraq. We turn the other way every day with the sick, the dying, the homeless, the poor. No more. Their guidance is killing us. Let us meditate on this. Let us feel the fullness of this pain and shame. It is a deep shame how we live. It is without dignity. We are truly ravenous beasts. Our civility a sham. A cover for the savageness we have towards our lifeblood. Let’s take a long look in the mirror. Let that image of ourselves shake us to the core. Only then can we really know what to do.