In Memory of All That Is Lost by Amy Goodman (about the gulf)

[Are_grits_groceries]

NEW ORLEANS—The anger is palpable across the Mississippi Delta. As the Deepwater Horizon oil geyser, almost a mile underwater, continues unabated, the brunt of this, the largest environmental catastrophe in United States history, is rolling onto the coast, impacting the ecology, the economy and entire ways of life.

I traveled across the bayous and towns of coastal Louisiana for four days, meeting the people on the front lines of the onrush of BP’s oil slick. They are angry, out of work and read the papers about people getting sick.

One person, whose job remains intact—at least so far—is BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward. Hayward, who was paid more than $4.5 million in 2009, lamented Sunday: “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back.” Hayward becomes more vilified with almost each of his utterances, which are clearly aimed at minimizing the perceived impact of the BP disaster. He will probably be increasingly guarded in his remarks, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder just toured the area and, in a public statement, said: “We must also ensure that anyone found responsible for this spill is held accountable. That means enforcing the appropriate civil—and if warranted, criminal—authorities to the full extent of the law.”
<snip>
Blanchard says fishermen are like farmers: “We lose money in January, February, March and April, preparing to harvest our crop in May, June and July. So we spend a lot of money preparing to get to May.” When the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, thousands of fisherfolk, their families, and the businesses and communities that depend on them saw their annual income disappear, with bleak prospects.

Many shrimp-boat owners have now been hired by BP to work on the cleanup. One local fisherman, John Wunstell Jr., was rushed to the hospital with respiratory problems that he attributed to the noxious environment.
<snip>
Blanchard was enraged. Why, he asked, did BP confiscate the clothing of their workers once they donned hospital gowns? He said: “I don’t think you need people’s clothes to test for food poisoning. You’d only need people’s clothes to test for chemical poisoning.”

Blanchard took us out into the Gulf to see the skimming operations. None of the boat owners would talk to us. Blanchard explained, “They’re scared to talk, and they’re scared to be seen, because BP has threatened them that if they talk to the media, they’re going to be fired.”

One fisherman, Glenn Swift, whom we met in Buras, La., confirmed that he signed a contract with a clause stating that speaking to the media was grounds for termination. When I asked him why, then, he was talking to me, he said: “I don’t feel it’s the right thing to shut somebody up. We’re supposed to live in the United States, and we’re supposed to have freedom of speech.”

Down the road from Blanchard, a family has erected 101 crosses in their front yard, each one commemorating something they love, like “brown pelicans,” “beach sunsets” and “sand between the toes.” The sign next to the cemetery of dreams reads, “In memory of all that is lost, courtesy of BP and our federal government.”

A makeshift cemetery on Grand Isle, La., in the Shay family front yard, commemorating the things they love that are now threatened by the BP oil disaster.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/in_memory_of_all_that_is_lost_20100602/

[intheflow]

1. K&R

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Tragic

and, it only foreshadows what is coming.

[lunatica]

3. I thought no one at work cared about this because no one talks about it

So I deliberately brought the subject up. Not only do they care but most of them have no words to express how much. Most of them just look very depressed and all they can do is shake their heads. They can't even talk about it yet.

BP has managed to pierce the mind's natural ability to avoid thinking about things that are unpleasant. Not a single person I talked to, and I've talked to dozens, is unaware of the magnitude of this BP oil gusher and the implications as we all watch the Gulf die by inches.

[blindpig]

4. Just the beginning...

Kill Capitalism

[nashville_brook]

5. k n r

[Echo In Light]

6. K/R

[adigal]

7. Did most of them vote Republican and support offshore drilling???

Then my sympathy is for the animals. Not the enablers.

[Mimosa]

9. That's mean and vicious

By the way for your information, the congressman for the district is Charlie Melancon, a Democrat who is running against David Vitter for the Senate.

Why don't you contribute and do some good?

http://www.charliemelancon.com/

[gristy]

8. I heard her report on her show this morning.

The fishermen she interviewed would call her ma'am. Very touching.

[amborin]

10. K&R