some catharsis

I usually only post my 'Current in Noblesville' columns here on this blog, but sometimes I'm compelled to reach further into what I've written, what others have written, or responses I've gotten.

So here we go.  I've been torn up about this oil disaster.  Thoughts of the destruction for generations to come are never far from my mind.  I can't believe this is real. 

Last night, on (an otherwise lovely) summer solstice evening, my Women Who Run With the Wolves bookclub met.  I showed them the passage in the book where Dr. E talks about the oil barge that sank in Lake Michigan in the 50's and the havoc it wrought then.  I read that 6-6-10, 2 days after writing my column on the oil spill and 48 days into the massive hemorrhage in the Earth.

Several days ago I received 2 emails stating in part that I was misinformed and delusional.  Of course humans can't destroy the earth, after all, if 'we' have detonated atomic bombs, nuked Japan, and vaporized the Bikini Atoll and are still here to tell about it, why would we think we can?  And here's news for us all:  oil is natural, and guess what?  The ocean is a giant washing machine, so it can take it!  Oh, and I need to take down my shrine to Al Gore (yeahhhh) and get me some more edumacation. 

Yes, indeed.  So this manmade enviromental disaster is no big deal.  Just go fill up your gas guzzler, go to the mall and buy some more plastics and enjoy life as usual, OK?  Never mind the eleven men who died.

Pay no attention to the wildlife that has died, will die, the marshes and sea life that may never recover, or the people whose livelihoods are wiped out. 

No. No, no, no.  Rage.  Outrage and uproar is warranted right now.  For God's sake, my children and children's children and on and on will have to live in this mucked up world.  What kind of legacy are we leaving them?  That the earth is here to use and abuse and leave it to someone else to clean up the mess?

As CP Estes writes:
"Tell me oil gobbets arent going to wash up on pristine shores worldwide.
Tell me fish and what they eat, arent going to ingest this cr– and wind up polluting the food tables for years to come, and humans will just have to hope their bodies make adaptations to the swill of petrol in their foodchains.
Tell me the roots of the grasses of the marshes are not going to be contaminated to the seventh generation of the seventh generation.
Tell me the fragile and seasonal economies in a time of already suckerpunched incomes are not going to be affected. Much.
Tell me wildlife kill of completely innocent creatures who lift our days and nights just to see them, wont be huge, that those creatures won’t die and be disposed of like oil-sotted cordwood.
I dare you to tell me ’studying’ the problem for a few more weeks and months, while Mother Earth hemorrhages is going to solve things.
Tell me more human life will not be put at risk, the working men and women’s lives put at risk in order to bail out some Saville Row dunces who are so used to priviledge, that they all begin to look just like Ken Lay’s wife whining –after her hubby and Skillings bilked thousands of senior citizens out of what they thought were their retirement savings–, and the woman had the timerity to be snivelling about maybe she and Mr. Lay wouldnt be able to keep their Aspen mansion.
Tell me that new tech that could help solve some of these hideous issues wont get bogged down by red tape from the BP overseers, that new can break through.
Tell me that all the ‘presidents’ men’ and humpty dumpty can be sewn together again.
And I’ll believe you, believe in you again.
When hell freezes over.

I’m a woman of peace with few lapses, but BP and all their cronies and cronettes have gone too far. It’s one thing to drill with all safety backups fully seated. It’s another to move recklessly through the hearts and lives of human beings and creatures and earth, mounting a moneymaking machine for oneself, hell with safety and protocols, screw definitive and effective remedies.
And in all, the principles in this disaster for the world, not once displaying even a speck of conscience.
Who else do we know in history who moved in these ways and without conscience destroying land and people and creatures? What was their end? And what damage did they inflict before they were taken down. And weren’t they taken down when neither land nor creatures nor people could any longer tolerate rhetoric over reality…
That time has now come. Reality over rhetoric. And in spades.
That outcry you hear, is not just Mother Earth, it’s the souls of the world: us. And lest some think that cry is one of weakness, it’s not… it’s our roar of unmitigated rage.
And if some think people are becoming too incensed over this, I’d say they are under-incensed about this, and that something’s awry with one’s basic survival instincts to not see the trajectories of this situation in the present and future.
Do whatever you can to help that is within your reach. I’ll be doing same. "

from here.  As i have thought many times about this disaster, 'if THIS isn't a wake-up call, I don't know what the hell IS.'  Please, people...we are all connected.  We aren't separate from each other and from this earth.  What hurts one hurts us all.  How do you possibly go on 'life as usual', when it's not?  We've done it now, and I'm so sorry that many can't see it.  I will do what I can and stand with those who do see.