We heard President Barack Obama speak to the people tonight on most media.
I think he spoke a lot of sense. He seemed to want to level with the people, and I appreciate him for that.
He even brought up God's hand guiding us into the light of the day. Seems like he's getting religion as he finds his back up against the wall. this BP thing has really thrown people and our President for a loop. What all of this will bring to us as a country is hard to foresee.
In many ways, this speech was similar to what President George Bush II said a few years ago, that we Americans have an addiction to oil. Dah...!
President Obama reminded his audience that America has measured up to challenges in the past, such as winding up to fight World War II, or fly men to the moon.
He didn't say, however, that even with these great feats, Americans for nearly 60 days haven't been able to plug up a hole in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico that is vomiting up valuable oil into the ocean. What in the heck is wrong with us, with our world, that we let a well that an oil company dug cripple us as a people, just because we can't plug up a darn hole a mile under the surface. It baffles me!
Bring in the plumbers of the world, the construction laborers, the housewives. Surely, between us practical persons we can see what in the devil needs to be done and get to it! It just shouldn't be that hard! It shouldn't be allowed to continue to wreck an entire eco-system.
I am amazed at what happens in this country during my life. We hear a short clip on the news that a president has lied, that a leader in Iraq threatens to invade Kuwait, that guys break into the Watergate Hotel, that an oil rig more than 50 miles offshore catches on fire, explodes, kills eleven workers and oil is now streaming into the Gulf.
I tell myself, that's really a shame, but we have some smart people running around on this planet that will fix things in no time. Usually this happens, but far too often it doesn't, and the problem magnifies, multiplies and overtakes all our thinking hours.
President Obama calls BP reckless. I call our EPA, our regulating agencies as reckless. I call my fellow citizens and even myself as reckless, for thinking that no one thing could threaten our lifestyle, our quality of life as our over-dependence and trust on oil and the companies responsible for getting it to us.
Meanwhile, we fight wars over oil, over resources such as lithium (newly discovered, so we are told, in Afghanistan), we drive our cars with one person in them a couple blocks here, another couple blocks there, we eat avocados from Mexico in Minnesota, we plaster our lawns with petroleum laden fertilizers and pesticides. Wake up, folks!
We have seen the problem, and the problem is we. Our consumerism is at the core of this accident. Capitalism that feeds our consumerism leads regulators and lobbyists to cut corners, to bury important information, to not prepare for worse case scenarios.
President Obama, Google transition towns. Reader of this blog, do the same. We know that we have reached Peak Oil, that intersecting with this threat to our livelihood is the additional threat of global warming and climate change.
The people of this country are ripe, are resilient enough to change. We just need the President's seal of approval, capitalism's seal of approval, our elected leaders seal, our military's seal. We need to stop our darn running around the bush and beating a path to the nearest gas stations.
There are resilient communities, from neighborhoods to entire states, who are practicing to become Transition Communities whereby we power-down and skill-up. We learn from our ancestors who didn't have the power equipment we have today that run on fossil fuels.
Our addiction to oil, coal, nuclear, natural gas and other fossil fuels must end. We may need to go through 12-step programs. We are a sick society, and this is no time to blame others, to negotiate, to bargain, to deny. It is the time to accept this addiction and do something about it.
What can you do today? What more can you do tomorrow? The next day? What pain are you willing to put up with? Are you resilient enough to leave something of this still beautiful world for those who follow you?
I am. Join me, please!