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In Memory of All That Is Lost
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.”
On Grand Isle, we met Dean Blanchard, who owns the largest shrimp business in the area. He took us out on his boat, where he expressed his strong feelings about President Barack Obama: “I thought he was a man of the people, that he would’ve come out and met the businesses that are suffering, and look at us, and tell us, give us a little assurance that he would help us, but he just hid by the Coast Guard station like all the other presidents.” Blanchard’s parents and grandparents were shrimpers. With his strong Cajun accent, he explained the effect of the tides on the oil:
“I made my living off of watching tides. We hunt shrimp. You can’t see a shrimp. You know how we know where the shrimp’s at? Because of the tides. When the tide goes out, the more water goes out, the more water comes back, and when it comes back, it brings everything with it. It usually brings the shrimp, but this time it’s going to be bringing the oil.”
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.
He and others claim BP has prohibited the use of masks, and he has filed a request for an injunction to force BP to provide masks and other protective gear to cleanup workers. The response of BP’s Hayward? “I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill. ... It’s one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. You know, armies march on their stomachs.”
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.”
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
99 Comments so far
Show All$4.5 Million last year. Give that man a taxcut!
And a bonus for a job well done, or a done well job.
Joe
Give him a pat on the back and tell him "atta boy Haywardy"
Give him a vacation in Louisiana.
Give him some oil gumbo.
belated, but nice one!
I think her heart is in the right place, Amy does good & honest work. But you're right, at the end of the day she sleeps with the donkey people–especially around election time. :)
You know who's responsible? ALL of us. Folks, I know we are all heart-sick about this, but WE are drilling in five-mile-deep oceans for a reason. We can't divorce ourselves from the culpability of modern society. And "green" living (buying) isn't going to cut it, either.
I can't help but think of Jimmy Carter and Ishmael....
Bricks, bottles and barricades.
A while back we sold our house in CT to move to NC. In CT we tried to grow has much of our own food as was feasible at the time. (I had a crazy job that left little free time). We had a large garden, apple, peach and cherry trees. A relative of mine who still lives in the area took some pictures of the old house last week and mailed them to us. The new owners cut down all the fruit trees and put in an in-ground pool where the garden was.
This pretty much demonstrates the mindset of the average American. Screw any attempt at any level of self sufficiency and party like it's 1999!
As a side note, down here we have put in a garden, already made it bigger and have planted various fruit trees in our yard. I always find it so much more enjoyable when you are trying to decide what's for supper, and you can just go out to the garden to see what's ready to eat!
NC-Tom ...your family's way is so exemplary...and so at one with the environment and nature - even in the midst of a culture of "modernity" and convenience.
I little lump in my throat literally came up just reading at how the new owners cut those trees down.....imagine replacing all that wonderful LIVING treasure around with some egotistical
"pool"........
i sometimes wonder what has become of "civilization" and the modern world - if children (understandably many are now in cities with less awareness) - no longer grow up appreciating the natural surroundings ...and bring that with them to adulthood to help guide their conscience about being a member of society....
Whenever I talk with people and discussions about children come up - and all they talk about is the "challenges" of "social life" with their children ...but often absent anything about really being close to the natural surroundings other than just a ball game in the city park...
I feel so sorry for them and their children...when I recall that I grew up climbing trees, hanging from branches like a monkey, putting some "padding" among the highest branches as our "outpost" a good part of our town...walking in the bushes..riding a water buffalo with friends and feeling its gigantic power underneath (and always frightened i might fall off!!!)........or splashing and literally rolling on a spontaneously created "pool" 5 inches deep with water in deeply grassy meadow during a rainstorm....or climbing up fearfully on the steep upslope of a waterfall in a deep jungle..to reach the "top" where the trees open up to a sunlit clear pool where we had our "bathtubs" in the holes on the rock...and watch and try to catch the little fish in the water....i mean - my god! I can't believe how much children today know "so much" and yet know so little of the natural , even untamed, surroundings so close to them...even just in their own backyards...
i really feel sorry for them.
nowadays - where I work , which is a pretty " buttoned up" place but has nice surroundings with trees and bushes...co-workers find me ODD at times because they see me in my breaktimes ...
sitting on my haunches - like some fool - looking at trees and the grass and birds and ants and worms...but I tell them:
"this is just a habit of mine - just to relax.."..
and they find it ODD...
(incidentlly -- some thinking - a chinese thinking or indian, yoga, etc. - goes that taking the squatting position - like when we sit on our haunches as far as we can tolerate ...supposedly realigns the blood pressure and rebalances it..sort of similar to the "fetal position" because our bodily units -- feet, lower legs, upper legs, torso, neck, head - are aligned like the way we are folded naturally in our fetal position -- but to me it is very relaxing).
....taking the squatting position...
You mean like when taking a dump?
Seriously, the modern toilet puts our body in an unnatural position for waste elimination, its no wonder that Westerners are constipated amidst a plague of hemorrhoids. Eating meat only makes it worse.
Watch an animal or a person in a developing country after finishing their toilet; they are happy and vitalized. Westerners leave the bathroom with a scowl on their face, indicating a not-so-pleasant experience.
I think I used "squatting" wrongly .
what I meant was the position that is often described as "sitting on your haunches?" ...i mean: completely "folded" position. feet flat on the floor, lower leg and upper leg folded together...and so on upwards.
you know - the way we would "sit" if we didn't have a chair? children do it very often ....
WTF Right you R.
also Teddy thanks your for post about Brazil its gold, almost everything the empire touches it destroys.
We ( THE WEST ) & more specifically the conservative part of US in the broadest sense of the term. We have been trying to get ride of, suppress, repress some of our most vital, primal & necessary behaviors, feelings, thinking, postures, INTUITIONS & real spirituality in exchange of appearances , conformities, certainty & mediocrities.
We have INSURED ourselves for the content of our bodies, cars, homes, dogs, trailers, trips, marriages, divorces, deaths, children, the present the past & future & finally against LIFE itself.
For the last hundred years & specially around the birth of marketing and Edward Bernice vision of all U need is inside a SHOPPING TROLLEY we have deformed aspects of our EVOLUTION. Was it necessary? NO could we stop it, I can't answer that now, but I can say that Einstein, Lennon were dreamers ( dreaming imagining are some of the fundamental ingredients & prerequisites of a creative & intuitive EVOLUTION).
Those evolutionary tools were interrupted thanks to CERTAINTY & conservatism SHOPPING COMPLEXES & the DELUSIONAL wars on terror & everything else. ( ironic terms ).
We have attempted to stop TIME in order to be SAFE & by doing so, we have created a REPETITIVE PATTERN that ERODED some of our CONSCIOUSNESS & like a primate we're scratching the top of our heads wondering how did we get here, well that may be bad news, the good news perhaps we're standing @ the gates of a new consciousness.
Well it may be painful but we can't spend our lives reading & writing books
we may just have to LIVE some of those pages.
In Soulidarity.
Tom, I'm sorry to hear that the new owners took out those trees, which in my opinion made your property so much more valuable. Never underestimate the stupidity of the average American consumer, right?
Kudos for planting your new trees in NC. Here in Florida, we've got mango, banana, avocado, grapefruit, lemon, tangelo, olive and coconut trees in our yard, and also a kitchen garden. Like you said, one of the great joys in life is going out in the yard and picking whatever's ripe - strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, etc. If only people realized the great pleasure they're missing by shopping at Walmart instead of in their own yard.
If it wasn't for hurricanes we would have considered moving to Florida too.
We also have a lemon tree, along with an orange tree, and a coffee bush, but we have to bring them in for the winter. We also have a cold hardy banana. So far I have planted two peach trees and an apple tree and some blueberry bushes. As far as the garden goes I started an Asparagus bed and strawberry bed this year. Also have Tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, cantaloupes, watermelons, cukes, summer squash, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, white cabbage, potatoes, eggplant, lettuce and artichokes.
As a matter of fact I picked some tomatoes and lettuce heads today from the garden and had a big salad for supper. I had to cheat and buy some cukes from the store because ours are not ready yet.
One thing that was also neat was that a local farm grows hydroponic tomatoes down here in the winter. You can go right to the farm and buy them directly from the farmer. And because they are allowed to ripen on the vine they taste just about as good as garden tomatoes. A very nice treat in the middle of winter. Plus you only have to drive a few miles to get them as apposed to buying them from some store after they've been shipped 1500 miles, were picked green, and so are pretty tasteless!
Sure we are all responsible, in a sense, for everything that happens in the world but people who promote and use renewables are alot less responsible than people who profit by circumventing environmental laws and who allow and champion Nukes, coal, tar sands and oil as does Obomber.
And the naysayers who ignorantly claim renewables are not possible.
Exactly. In Iceland over 99 per cent of electricity is produced from renewable energy resources, hydro and geothermal. Of course, they are richer in these resources (particularly geothermal) than we are, but it's also the result of the fact that they have made it a national priority to develop renewable energy. We have not -- not even begun to contemplate the notion, really. And the biggest impediment to progress are the naysayers (many of whom are paid shills for the fossil fuel industry) who foolishly claim that it is "impossible" for us to get all of our energy needs from renewables. Of course it's possible, we just need to start first, and the first place to start is seizing the assets of oil companies and using them to fund green technologies.
"a national priority to develop renewable energy"
You are so right.
May I add that the US would NEVER think to follow Iceland's lead. The US maintains an attitude that foreign technology is bad technology.
Duplicate posting deleted.
-(Kim)
"but it's also the result of the fact that they have made it a national priority to develop renewable energy. We have not -- not even begun to contemplate the notion, really." (DC-PH)
–The national "priority" in America is war and only war. Everything is 'rationalized' toward that end. It will not change. There will be no 'death by a thousand cuts' administered by bicyclists or electric cars.
Even the eventuality of 'renewable energy' will be directed first and foremost, to the war machine and military applications.The fundamental logic of America is an extreme, incorrigible irrationalism that is adamantine: All is co-opted to that. It has no intention for dalliances with 'green' enlightenment or seeing the error of its ways, except as ruthlessly subject to capitalist dictates and profits.
The problem of 'oil' is not oil per se, but as with bio-genetics, capitalist (fascist) control of oil.
All the 'green' paeans to private resistance through bicycles and other quaint palliatives are fine acts of voluntarism, which cumulatively amount to mosquito bites. Even millions of mosquito bites agglomerated on the behemoth will amount to nothing.
These small acts of personal conscience may allow you to sleep better at night, but end up creating just another 'life style' ( yet another modality of individual consumption) that is officially sanctioned and permitted –since it is totally non-threatening– by the authorities.
In the end– they are passively apolitical, timorous and pathetically self-satisfying acts of private solipsism. Capitalism does not agree to self immolation by forces that are not coercive and which do not, incorrigibly demand its destruction.
Incremental environmentalist fantasies, often mask a fundamental reactionary and self-congratulatory reformist politics more hermetically monkish and monastical, than truly activist.
Electric cars might require more coal and nuclear energy for electricity so it could kill. How about biofuels such as hemp, rapeseed oil, and algae which are petroleum free completely and require no fossil fuels to produce or use? Algae for oil is the best candidate for producing the chemical equivalent of light sweet crude oil but is carbon neutral.
We would still need the factories & processing centers for all of that. We STILL need the POWERFUL powerplant concept to generate the electricity for ANY type of industrial/mass-manufacfuring/machining type of society. There is a safe, clean solution in the alternative science/free energy movement that can deliver the same level of power that oil/coal/nuclear delivers, & beyond that level. But it will take a "manhattan project" level of commitment from the open-minded scientists & engineers of the world to achieve it. And THAT would take a class of brave, visionary statesmen/women to dethrone the monetarist global oligarchy & initiate the project. I think we're on the verge of starting this process. The people are much closer to "1789" than anyone, in power, suspects.
We on the far-left haven't ruled out activism. But you have to live your principles before you can institute them. We're laying a strong foundation. So when we do rise up it will be in defense of a practice, a tradition, something we have a stake in. We want the institution to be subject to the people, not vice-versa. So you help wean the people off the petro-opiates, and when it comes time to clobber the establishment, the people will be more inclined to help.
We can live with that.
As long as the "foundation" does not become some kind of escapist reactionary fantasy, losing sight of what must be done. Because the opposition certainly knows what must be done and is presently cueing up a whole array of brutalisms which will be deployed sooner rather than later.
All the "renewable energy" and "sustainable agriculture" in the world is not going to change what is coming down the pike.
Our diatribe here was directed at those who flinch at the further ideological preparation and are all too satisfied with fetishizing the 'electric car' and the organic carrot as an ends in themselves.
That is the typical orgy of self congratulatory reverie which typifies the self satisfied state of mind which haunts bourgeois progressivism in America. And the verdict is still out on that. There is not a scintilla of evidence to believe the contrary. Composting coffee grounds is not ideological preparation for the next stage; in America it may be just the opposite.
Your view is optimistic at best and serves as a hopeful corollary to our pessimism; at worst it harbors the potential to turn into reactionary mush, as so much 'green' activism already has in America.
This is the same malaise which still afflicts those who voted for Obama, as if electing him would somehow reverse what should have been obvious for all those with a modicum of intelligence.
To see what was transparent and clear. Not succumb to false avatars.
>>Because the opposition certainly knows what must be done and is presently cueing up a whole array of brutalisms which will be deployed sooner rather than later.
Mensa level denial. The "brutalisms" aren't "cueing up", they are happening today. Perhaps you missed the flotilla massacre, the drone bombing of women and children, the slaughters on the streets of Iraq.
Your disdain of sustainable living and your nihilistic vision of hopelessness have all the earmarks of a man who thinks the CIA is rooting through his garbage like a pack of wild dogs. Brutal, absolutely brutal.
It all makes me want to cry but I have no more tears.
We need to hire this simple fisherman to go to DC and clean up all the slime that has infested that entire shell of a city--we need the common man's common sense.
Gone should be the days that you vote for a rich man against your own interests and that of your nations.
Gone should be the days we do the bidding of an evil empire
Gone will be our shame and debt, and our new peace and prosperity may begin.
Americans are brainwashed from the time we arrive on the planet to believe what society tells us to believe. However, we are capable of breaking away from that conditioning to think for ourselves. Each and every one of us is responsible for the condition of the society in which we live. Either by our negative or our positive influence, we create our world.
Instead of looking around for someone else to blame, we need to take responsibility for our own actions, and make a real commitment to changing our attitudes for the better. Its peculiar to me, how the corporate media never puts any blame on the American people for the sad state of our society. They want us to remain ignorant and easily led, so that they can have their way.
Wisdom says that the only way to change the world is to change ourselves, and that good change will spread out in ripples to affect the whole universe. Our real power is spiritual, not physical or even mental, yet most people are asleep to their inner spirit. Jesus was speaking to this when he said, "Awake, you that sleep."
awake, indeed...
well said...
I will add: and fight...
Does that mean you have changed your voting patterns? Who did you vote for last time around? And who will you vote for next time?
Taking personal responsibility means being politically aware as well ....
Like participating in sham elections will actually do anything. Earth to Aquifier, you have no real choices. Corporate fascist candidate A versus corporate fascist candidate B. Then they get to crow about their great democracy with the 60% turnout.
Don't participate in these sham elections. Let the turnout go to 20% and let's put a shiver down the spines of these corporate fascists. Claims of a legitimate democracy will no longer be viable.
"If voting changed anything, it would be illegal."
I have tried to divorce myself from oil. I could use my bike for 90% of what I use my car for. But I have been forced into the curb too many times by distracted Moms in their Mini-vans. "I'm sorry but I just didn't see you." With my bright clothes and blinking lights, "I think that you were just not paying attention." "Why are you shaking?" "The last person who did this put me in the hospital for two years." Then there is the angry pickup truck driver who honks, swears at you, threatens, and tells you to get off his road.
Now I just drive my bike to a bike path so I can get myself in shape for bicycling in Dresden, Germany where the government and people are supportive of bicyclers. I cannot afford to be hit by the kind of American driver one encounters on most bike outings, I cannot afford health insurance.
Why do we need cars? Because we need to drive thirty miles to get basic supplies. Change a few laws and tax codes and bring back local stores.
Who really is to blame for the oil spill? Not really BP because they use the $500,000 acoustic shut-off valve when they deep drill in other locations besides the United States. The first person that I would hold accountable would be the person who granted BP permission to operate without the acoustic shut-off valve.
Obama vowed to start "An era of responsibility". Yes? Yes?
Mixed use communities (stores, schools, a few highrises and workplaces within residential areas) would do a lot for saving gas and promoting walking and bicycling. Right now many suburban families absolutely need a car for each adult in the household.
Joe
Gas eight bucks to the gallon might make a dent in car travel.
Good comments GLR88,
With one exception. The oil is never going to "run out". I've been told that lie since the 1970's, that we only had a few years left.
The truth is that bigger deposits than all of Saudi Arabia are known under the South China Sea, indonesia, Africa, Siberia, smaller ones in Brazil.....
We have enough deep water oil to turn this place into Venus with 400 degrees Kelvin temps at the surface. Please stop talking about running out of oil because it's just a scam like diamonds. Diamonds are just compressed carbon, of no value except in cheap drill bits. The trade is tightly regulated to keep an artificial shortage apparent. Peak Oil is man-made, it's an Oil Cartel method of emptying out your wallet, nothing more.
Cheers,
TJ
Since shrimping is probably gone for a while, I can think of a good job for Blanchard. He should run for Congress. We need people like him who are connected to the real world of work and nature to spark a fight for themselves and for all of us. Just say the word, Mr. Blanchard and they will come.
Joe
Joe: Good idea -- about Blanchard running for office! He was very straight forward when I watched the interview on Democracy Now! this morning.
Our chickens have finally come home to roost. The oil that fuels our wars against the rest of the world and the environment is now blighting our own coastline. Our nest now is soiled and it gives me a sense that there is some divine justice in the world in spite of the despair i feel. The arrogance of our oil addicted world is finally having a consequence for the biggest addict of all, the US.
This article really is a peek into the mind of a sociopath.
“There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back.”
Let's forget about the devastation and loss of life. Let's forget about all the people who are damaged. This is all about Tony Hayward by golly! He wants his life back.
“I’m sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill. ..."
He can't be serious with comments like these. I am opposed to capital punishment but when you have people like Hayward who represent a clear threat to the world itself and all the people who live on it, I think execution is a suitable response. I submit the Nuremberg Trials as cases in point. This man should be hung from his neck. The government needs to seize BP yesterday.
Sociopath is right. The man has no conscience.
I second the sentence Lefty and appeal to the court to carry it out immediately by general proclamation as follows:
"BP CEO Tony Hayward is to be hung from the neck until he is dead, dead dead."
These proceedings are closed.
Well, I think Hayward should be handcuffed to Massey Energy's Don Blankenship, and then they should both be gently lowered to the uttermost bottom of the deepest mineshaft Blankenship owns, and then...
Actually, I see no need to proceed further. That ought to do it!
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is another empty suit.
Some civil penalties will be brought, but nothing to the level of recovering the true costs of the economic loss in the Gulf.
Criminal penalties will never be brought or if they are, no one will go to jail that is in the ruling elite.
Different players, same song.
We are all at fault. Did you start your automobile this morning?
Nope, rode a bike to work, as I do every day.
Not yet. Have you raised the 1 trillion in capital to effectively build and mass market an electric automobile yet? Or perhaps you've started buying up parcels of land for our new interstate mass transit system?
I take the subway or walk. But that is because I can. Many people live in places built specifically to require individual automobiles. A self-righteous tone does nothing to correct that for those people. We need to re-design our communities and transportation systems, if we live long enough.
But for all the self-satisfied people who gridlock the streets with bloat cars and Hummers in New York City where there are other options, your tone is absolutely appropriate.
Joe
Joe: I agree. I live in Manhattan, and the entire Isle of Manhattan is walkable, if I budget my time. If it rains, I travel by subway. Most cities in the country, though, do not have efficient public transportation systems. Decades ago, the oil companies made sure of that! For quite a number of years, I lived in Lincoln, NE, and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere. New subdivisions don't even have sidewalks, and therefore, children can't even walk to school, unless they walk on people's lawns or walk in the streets. Everyone drives. Any woman walking on the sidewalks is treated as if she is a prostitute, with men howling out of car windows. It's very disconcerting. I actually feel safer in NYC. I have always loved walking.
However, all of that said about Manhattan, there seem to be more and more cars and Hummers on the streets of this city. In fact, there are times of the day when I can't even safely cross 1st Avenue -- cars are bumper-to-bumper. I have no idea why so many people feel like they need to drive in the city, nor do I know how they can afford to drive in this city, but they do drive.
Nonsense -- We've known for 60 year or more that we had to STOP burning
fossil fuels --
Yet the wealthy who control our natural resources have conducted expensive
campaigns to keep mass transportation, trolleys and local transportation
from going forward -- in fact, they've destroyed the systems we've had.
They've destroyed any effort to create alternative fuels --
We could have had a return to electric cars decades ago --
solar batteries by now!
Every effort to move forward and to move from fossil fuels has been taken
over, co-opted, or otherwise destroyed by elites.
And, they now own our govenrment and government agencies which is why we are
unable to respond properly to this catastrophe.
BP should have been taken over after their first week long lie that there was
"no leak" -- !!!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"