Of Tar Balls and Scum Balls

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

My Dad believed in the sanctity of capitalism, the evilness of unions, and the inherent dishonesty of politicians. He learned about the importance of being able to take care of himself and his family during the Great Depression, and his world view was shaped by participation in the Second World War.

He didn't travel much - and his only international trips were to England and France during the war, and a couple of trips to the dog races in Tijuana while visiting his brother in San Diego in the 1950's. As a family we went to San Diego twice (1956 and 1958), and a big drive-through of the southeast United States in 1957.

In my Dad's later years he got hooked on making short trips of eight or ten days to the Gulf Coast. He would stay at the Sea Witch Motel in Panama City Beach year after year. He went there with my mom, and after she died he visited the pristine white sands of Panama City Beach with at least two girlfriends.

Given the facts that my Dad was a supporter of big business - owning stock in many international corporations including BP, and he loved the white sands of the Florida Gulf Coast, I feel relatively certain that he would be sickened beyond measure to know the hell that big business has wrought on his old vacation spot.

The oil started washing up on the white beaches of northern Florida three days ago. Big oil corporations and their wholly owned political animals like Joe Barton, Bobby Jindal, and Sarah Palin, have conspired through deed and greed and stupidity to kill the shrimp, the fish, the birds, the sea mammals, and Gulf Coast tourism. Some of it is gone already, most of it will be gone in a few more months, and it won't come back during our lifetime.

And now the oil companies and their political co-conspirators are railing against the Obama plan to place a six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. The shrimping and fishing economies are ruined, fishing excursions for tourists are history, and who the hell wants to lay out and sun on the black, gooey beaches of Panama City Beach and vicinity? The greedy creatures bawl about the inhumanity of stopping drilling because of all of the jobs that will be lost. Will they ever come to terms with what their greed has already cost them - and the rest of us?

The Federal Courts have begun screwing with the President's moratorium on drilling. The big oil corporations have apparently learned that buying legislators isn't enough in this complex world - so now they are buying judges as well. Adversity has always been a great teacher.

Today it was raining oil in Louisiana - literally. That used to be a good thing - figuratively. But now its just more filth falling on fouled land and water. It's time to stop the underwater gusher - if that is even possible, clean the Gulf and Gulf Coast - a task that will take decades, and end off-shore drilling completely and forever.

The death of the Gulf of Mexico is a big fucking deal.