Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Oil. Oh-ill.

I am an Americorps VISTA stationed down in Chauvin, LA (in Terrebonne Parrish).
I've been warned not to drink the water and not to eat the seafood by some community members.
I still take showers with the water, and actually woke up this morning wondering if I was going to get some sort of heinous cancer from living down here.
But, according the the US government and BP, the Gulf is safe. The seafood is safe. The spill is cleaned up.
What about the millions of gallons of oil and dispersants that are floating around....

Read this:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/08

Also consider a comment made:
"I don't live anywhere near the Gulf, but I knew from day one that that BP was creating a dangerous chemical cesspool.
How many times did we write, here and elsewhere, that residents should get out?
Many didn't/couldn't leave, and amazingly, did not collectively tell BP and our government--in no uncertain terms--to shove their rules and regulations controlling our behavior. A private corporation, with the government's blessing, "prohibited" access to public beaches, the taking of photos, airplane flyovers, etc.
We offered a little bit of resistance, but effectively, we did nothing...mustn't ruffle the feathers of our bread-n-butter petro industry. Hell, how many people died during the initial explosion?. How many BP VPs are sitting in jail for those murders?...none, of course.
This is the price we all pay for the failure to react to corporate felons. We blame, blame, blame, but there are no consequences. We get sick and die, but the corporations get back their corporate lives. In all their ugly grandeur, they live on, prosper, and become our government."