A Slow Death

This oil catastrophe is a slow death.  It is also a particularly jarring wake-up call to us all.  For those of us who blithely go through our day with the expectation that someone will solve this problem, we can't fathom why a country that put a man on the moon can't throttle a 22 inch leak in a pipe at the bottom of the ocean!

This moment is an epiphany in other ways however.  What we are also seeing on display is something much more unnerving.  We are seeing the impotence of big government.  With all the conservative flailing about the growth of government and institutions taking over American life, now they scream loudly that the government isn't doing enough.  Sorry fellas, can't have it both ways!  Add to that the intrinsic inefficiency of bureaucracy and you have too little too late.

Also on display in the most pornographic way is the hijacking of our society by large corporations that have no interests other than their shareholders and the politicians that they are giving money to.  BP is slow to act in the cleanup, stingy in its doling out of monies to finance cleanup crews and is more concerned with reassuring its shareholders that it still intends to distribute over $10B in dividends!

Then there is the destruction of natural resources and the assassination of a way of life for literally millions of people.  Imagine living in New Orleans now, or coastal Mississippi and Alabama.  The smell of oil taints the very air you breathe.  Do you move?  Where do you go?  Is this whole area simply going to degenerate into poverty because no one can make a living?

Been watching TV lately?  The resignation of the pelicans is the most disturbing.  They are just sitting in the gooey mess waiting to die.  Our food chain is in mortal danger from this.  Think of what a hurricane would do by aerosoling this mess inland over a few hundred miles.  Health problems will spiral out of control, and people will die.  It's starting already.

Can it be any clearer why we need to break our dependence on oil?  The experts say that of the thousands of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, there are most probably at least 10% of them that have structural problems and are potential risks as bad or worse as the Deep Water Horizon. 

A new consciousness needs to arise.  Maybe this event will be the trigger.

Drill Baby Drill???