Oil Spill Sorrow, Anger and Despair

Well, I have decided that sending the corporate offices of BP, Halliburton and TransOcean all the dead fish and wildlife they are creating is a satisfying fantasy. In my mind, I will also send a few thousand tons of dead oily baby animals to the U.S. energy regulatory commission that thought getting excessive gifts from the oil company employees was part of their job description, and actually doing any regulation oversight of those companies was optional.

I will not advocate actually doing that though, because it wouldn't be the executives and middle management that would have to clean that up, either.

They would probably get some of the long-term unemployed or poor illegals to do it for $10/hr, and those folks would suffer from all the ill health effects that the fishermen in the Gulf are being asked to take on without safety equipment.

So, being practical, I switch my karmic fantasy payback position to be that all decision makers from all the guilty parties--oil companies, contractors and regulators--be mandated to spend one week a month for as long as clean up lasts in the thick of the clean up, with no better safety equipment than the least of the clean up workers presently. I would still like them to do their jobs for the rest of the time (when they aren't hospitalized with burned out lungs and skin rashes) and maybe they will actually do them better.

I despair that BP will actually get the hole plugged--ever. I despair that Halliburton will keep getting government contracts and working with oil companies, never getting the consequences they deserve for shoddy, second rate work that has killed our troops and caused one of the links in this catastrophe. I despair that the broken congress will dither away, stuck in their puerile mindset that petty politics and snarkiness is the reason their constituents put them in office.

But mostly, I despair for the ocean and its creatures big and small. The Gulf is ruined. The kill off will likely nearly be complete. As it stands now, the currents are taking the oil out to open ocean, and may contaminate the Atlantic all the way up to Northern Europe. Then, there is hurricane season. Oy vey.

I also despair, because when it comes right down to it, we are all guilty of killing the Gulf (and potentially, a good part of the Atlantic). Stupid gas guzzling consumers that we are, we also should be getting our karmic come-uppance as well. We will. And that is no fantasy.

Put some compassionate motivation into BP, Halliburton and Ilk

The news from the Gulf just gets worse and worse. For some reason, BP is in charge of who gets to look at just how bad it is. They shouldn't have any rights in this way, but I guess that is how it goes when big corporations practically own part of the government. BP, Haliburton,TransOcean et al don't even have the grace to look like they really even care in their press conferences, as they lie blithely about what kind of environmental degradation they have imposed upon the Gulf, and now it looks like Florida, and likely all the way out to the Atlantic.

If they get to keep their cap of $75 million in damages, I think there will be one hell of a citizen backlash. If the government allows that to be the case, it will be a definite that our government no longer for the people, but for the corporations and for corporations only.

Or maybe if we can't get around the cap, we should make it legal to go karmic!

Since none of these corporate entities are really interested in accepting responsibility for the mess (see all the ridiculous fingerpointing for which Obama rightly called them out), I think that we should actually give them a little more immediacy to their predicament. I mean, if we can't make them pay the money to really fix things, let's give them some extremely bad karma.

As people clean up from this major catastrophe, collect all the dead, oil-covered animals that they find, and ship them unrefrigerated to the corporate offices and employees' homes of each of the companies responsible. Don't stop until the leak is stopped and they not only admit, but are properly horrified how much harm they have done with their negligence. Don't stop until they seriously make an effort to clean up their mess using their formidable reserves of corporate cash.

They may not give a rat's ass about the suffering of animals and people who are far away, but I imagine even the most narcissistic bastard may start to feel some "compassionate motivation" beyond corporate bottom line if they have a few thousand oily dead fish and birds in every corner of their buildings and homes.

I would also like to make it a rule that until the end of time, any press conference,interview or public appearance of any of the above's corporate leaders should end with all of them getting slapped across the face with an oily dead fish and dropped in a vat of sludge.

The Dangers of Gardening

This is a very treacherous time of year for me.

I have finally started being able to run about 10-15 miles a week without noticing it on my repairing back, and do some weight lifting regularly. I can touch my toes, and bicycle without fear. I am normal sized again, and feel okay in shorts.

But it's gardening time--what racked me up in the first place for all of last summer.

So far, I have been able to slowly get my flowers and veggies in the ground in small increments. Weeds are being removed by either my sons' strong young hands and backs or myself on hands and knees and not bent over. Still--the garden was a jungle from my not being able to weed last year. My sons cannot always differentiate from plant friend or foe, so the delicate stuff is up to me.

My back is pinging, and so it is all going very slowly.

The garden is ambitious. So far I have mustard, romaine and mesclun lettuces, spinach, mache, onions, breadseed poppies, 6 varieties of peppers, beat-spinach greens, kohlrabi and 4 tomato plants planted. I have 12 tomato plants to go, and will also fit in basil, amaranth, cucamelons, lemon cucumbers and about 12 marigold plants to guard the tomato plants from tomato horn worm. Perennials to maintain are grapes, asparagus, chives, and gold raspberries. Sprouting and growing indiscriminately is salsify, also known as oyster plant.

The problem with coming back and almost being healed from a debilitating back injury is how easy it can be to re-injure yourself with a bad lift or bend.

The garden is shaping up. It is beautiful. It is dangerous. It is calling to me.