So my girl and i got to play tourist last week at home here in New Orleans. We went to the Aquarium of the Americas. It was beautiful. It was fun. And it was also sad. But the thing that ticked me off the most was this image:
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All i have to say to you BP is this; FYYFF! follow me below the fold while i rant a bit....
If you do come to New Orleans, go visit the Aquarium. It is a fun place to visit. We must of spent almost 20 minutes alone searching a tank that was supposed to have eight frogs in it(we found three, i swear they took the rest away for feeding or something!). Again, it was beautiful to see. But in the back of my mind i couldn't help but think about what was going on in the Gulf. They had a really cool jellyfish room, but i thought about the jellyfish graveyards i had read about. Almost everything i saw there was wonderful. But you couldn't walk through the aquarium and not think about what their brothers and sisters were experiencing in the gulf and not be sad. Again, then i saw this sign:
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Really? BP sponsoring the Gulf of Mexico. How fucking ironic. Since my visit more and more information is coming to light. How many of you all saw this 60 Minutes interview?
How many of you all have seen pictures of oil covered animals, some dead, some still alive?
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How many of you all have seen the pictures of oil on our wetlands?
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This information has been building and building up into a slow burn that has started to burst with outbursts of anger and frustration:
A few minutes into the Monday night BP community meeting in Chalmette, claims representative Allen Carpenter was explaining how to submit claims for wages as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when there was an interruption from the front row.
"It's not just lost money, it's our heritage," said Erwin Menesses, a shrimp net maker from the parish. "All you've sat here and talked about is money, money, money, money. ... Can you replace my heritage?" "No sir, I can't," Carpenter replied. "Nobody can replace a heritage."
So again BP i have this to say to you, FYYFF!
If you haven't had a chance to read that last link i hope you do so. it really crystallizes how a lot of us felt after Hurricane Katrina. It seems very similar to me about how we are all feeling down here now because of the BP oil spill disaster. Another engineering disaster has been put upon us. And its pissing us off.
The pictures of our wetlands covered in oil have struck me the most. If they are not already dead they will be dead soon. Those wetlands are the first line of hurricane defense for us. Gone. BP, did you hear we just had the warmest April on record for the globe? You know what likes really, really warm water? Hurricanes. And you just destroyed our first line of defense. Hey BP, FYYFF!
Oh, as to how much oil is spilling into the gulf, you are lying to us. You know why? Follow the money, or the money owed:
Last, but certainly not least, Force said, is the money owed to the federal government for oil lost during the uncontrolled leak from the Macondo well. In entering into a lease with the Minerals Management Service to develop the well, BP agreed to produce the oil for the benefit of the nation, he said. Because of the accident, the federal government has lost both the ability to have another company successfully produce oil from the well, and the severance taxes that the lost oil would have added to the federal budget.
So when scientists actually come up with the correct amount of the spill, give us our damn money! We need it to restore our wetlands you destroyed. BP, FYYFF!
Another thing that pisses me off? BP, besides killing our wildlife and land, you are starting to kill our hope. Katrina put us down in a hole that we seemed to be crawling out of. I read this in Crashing Vor's diary:
The Louisiana marshes, hatchery for the nation's premiere fishery, are gone. The American Gulf is likely gone. The amount of oil and dispersants already in the water will adversely affect marine species for the rest of our lives.
All the booms and all the berms and all the hair and hay and cardboard will not stop the sea of poison that has already entered Breton Sound, Barataria Bay, Vermillion Bay and will soon be coming to an ecological niche near you.
Go ahead and boom, go on and dredge up some islands. And for god's sake get some cement or golf balls or a pony nuke or something into that hole. Maybe it will keep the millionth gallon out of the marsh. But do not deceive yourselves. This is done.
I've heard lots of people speaking like this in the bars i've been working in recently. They are in despair. BP, you have attacked our culture, our way of life. People feel hurt by this oil spill. It reminds me of how we felt after Katrina.....
BP, FYYFF!
Okay, i think my rant might be over. There's a ton more of other things i think i could go on about, but i think i've gotten it out of my system for now.....Well wait, i do want to say something to President Obama. I'm giving you a pass for right now with my anger. I liked what you said in your news conference this morning. Let's see if you can get what you outlined done. I do have one request though, go visit the marshes when you visit Louisiana tomorrow. Get one of those protective gloves on and stick your hand in the water filled with oil. And tell us how you feel after experiencing that. I'll bet you get pissed off at BP just like the rest of us, yes? Okay, now i'm done.
Okay, what to do now? Actually quite a bit. I'll be taking part in this sunday:
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Please go check out their website and facebookpage. Has everybody heard of Matter of Trust? Well, there are some people locally in New Orleans doing this as well:
Please send HAIR or assembled HAIR BOOMS directly to us in New Orleans. We at Evolver have partnered with Burners Without Borders and the Lower Ninth Ward Village and will be actively open from 12-8 pm for the rest of May to take action.
Lower 9th Ward Village
1001 Charbonnet Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70117
One more reference to something Crashing Vor said:
There is only one possible redemption in this horror, and even that is a slim chance. If the enormity of what has happened in the Gulf can hold the country's atrophied attention long enough, and if we can mobilize fast enough, we might, just might, be able to bring about a positive change from this:
Real and comprehensive energy and climate legislation.
We must act now to force our legislators to write law with teeth and real effect, law that requires consumers pay the true price of the carbon they burn, law that requires business to pay the true price of the carbon they spew, law that includes the costs of things "no one could have anticipated" into the price of doing business.
We are going to have to fight harder for this than for health care or finance reform or DADT repeal. We are going to have to find Republicans to turn. (You really don't think Mary Landrieu is going to oppose her owners on this, do you?) And we are going to have to do it now, this summer.
I'm on board for helping out. How do we do this?