What oil? Over here they're telling us it's Chocolate Milk and Rainbows. :innocent:
And Phil Bryant tells us that we DON'T smell the oil, we must be confused. He says we're probably smelling "the oil from our own lawnmowers"
http://www.sunherald.com/2010/05/12/2177006/bryant-doesnt-smell-the-oil.html
I wrote Phil Bryant to tell him that a) I don't own a lawn mower, since I live in an apartment about a mile from the beach. and b) even if I DID have a lawn mower, there is no way the smell would extend 10-15 miles down the coast on a south east wind, and all of my neighbors across the coast simultaneously smell our lawn mower oil at the same time.
Listen, make no mistake about this, almost ALL of us are dependent on oil. I drive a car, too. I usually walk to work because it's so close, but soon I will be working about 10 miles from my home, and will be unable to do that anymore. I'm not claiming to be an innocent party. I also drive a Blazer, because I move large paintings around. I use oil.
But I certainly don't like being lied to by my local politicians, and people telling me what I DO or DO NOT smell. I'm not an idiot. I'm not smelling anyone's lawn mower for hours on end. Just because Gene Taylor thinks it looks like "chocolate milk and rainbows" doesn't make it so. And I DON'T like that BP came to Louisiana and South MS and had people who are desperate for work, not to mention the shrimpers who are functionally illiterate (many of the Vietnamese population can't read English, either) sign contracts saying that they wouldn't sue before the shrimpers were hired to work. (Thankfully, these were voided by BP when the news hit). They bullied them using fear....fear of being put out of house and home, and feeding their families.
I also feel we were lied to about the initial amount of oil the leak was producing. First it was only 1,000 gallons a day. Then 5,000. Then 25,000. Now I'm hearing reports of 70,000?
I just want the truth. Most of us have "oil" on our hands, since we all use the oil. But I also feel like we have the technology today to make a safer form of energy more widely available to the public, but lobbyists and politicians are not finished lining their pockets and playing the oil game, so no one backs it enough to make it readily available. I think that if most Americans were offered a more mainstream, safer alternative that was affordable, we would all jump right in. It's partly our fault for doing what is "convenient" to us, I guess.
I just don't think that means it is okay to lie to us about the magnitude of the spill, or try to convince us of what we are or aren't seeing, and smelling.
People that aren't from the coast probably won't understand how important the seafood industry is to our economy, to our people, to our community. Also the tourism we get, that also supports our community. We're already taking a big hit, and we haven't even felt the full effect of this leak.
I personally signed up to volunteer the day they called for help. It's the least I can do, because I love my coast SO much. I don't just live here, I USE the coast. I fish often, I live near the beach and bay is practically in my "back yard". I sketch the boats in the harbor, I get ice cream and watch the shrimpers nap on their cots in the shade, selling their days catch. I watch the alligators, herons, dolphins, and the pelicans. I fly kites on the beach and try to snag red fish hanging around the oyster beds. This is place is my home.
Sorry for the long winded rant. Just needed to get all of that out. It weighs heavy on you when it consumes every news report, every conversation, every thought. Not long ago Katrina was a constant on everyone's tongue. It seems like we just got over that...
