The Destruction of Our Gulf

While I am not a political animal and more oft than not prefer to keep my political views to myself, I am so outraged with what is happening in the gulf, I cannot keep it to myself. The obliteration of the entire gulf coastal region is beyond a catastrophe, it is cataclysmic in scope. This man-made disaster will undoubtedly bring about a fundamental shift in the environment that cannot in the foreseeable future be redeemed to any pre-disaster level. The human and socio-economic factors involved will be incalculable and no doubt will run inter-generational in effect and duration. This is not and cannot be equated to the destruction caused by a natural disaster in that it continues to devastate minute by minute with no end in sight. Not to trivialize or minimize the damage and loss caused by nature such as hurricane Katrina, this disaster's effects are exponential in growth with no relief and no apparent plan of action to end the constant spew of crude pouring into the ocean at an unprecedented rate. 

The most egregious aspect of this entire ordeal, is that it is a man-made situation brought about by unfettered greed and despicable disregard for all that is humanly ethical and right. There can be no other explanation for the unconscionable actions before the disaster ensued, nor for the lackadaisical behavior since. The miserable corporate attitude of every person with their oil stained hand in the pocket of British Petroleum and the entire oil industry, seeking to eek out every last penny of blood money, is nothing short of disgusting. The sheer magnitude of corporate greed has nothing to compare itself to in the annals of human history and will surely, and justly, be the ultimate demise of those who have lived off the fatted calf with free and unmolested restraint.

The dead-soul expressions of the executives in charge and the outright flaunting of their own largess, and the obvious attempts to hide the magnitute of this catastrophe, coupled with their constant lying, is putrid at best. This nation must now endure a most horrific environmental disaster, either by design or through intentional negligence, and we must now face what will assuredly be a life altering event. The test of our mettle will not come with how we clear this seemingly insurmountable hurdle, but will come with how we face the corporate enemy down and force them to their knees, make them beg for our forgiveness, and drain their pockets so dry they will walk away with only lint in their pockets.

If you unwittingly feel this disaster has no effect on you, remember the immortal words of John Donne, often read in Earnest Hemmingway's book, For Whom the Bell Tolls: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."