[jackr]

I know this is a GD music forum but I have to say, even though I don't know you guys personally, I feel close and have respect for you. I live in South Florida and I am an avid scuba diver and sort of a tree hugger. I am so bummed at what we have done to ourselves.

When I say "ourselves" I mean humanity in general. Although I don't have or feel direct blame for the spill obviously, I do play an indirect part as part of the system in general.

The thought that the gulf was just totally trashed keeps me up at night. My 10 year old daughter became the youngest certified diver in the state and one of the youngest in the nation. At age 7 she built her own turtle rescue website and actively rescues turtle. She is now on a kick to save the sharks. Look what we are leaving her generation.

I really thought when I was young that my generation was really cool and we would change the world. Well we did. We really fucked it up even more.

This sucks.

That being said, if we have the right leadership in this country (which is highly questionable at this point) we now have the opportunity to take our worst environmental disaster and turn it in to our most shinning moment by quickly moving to get off our oil dependency.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[strumminsix]

Jack - I share your sadness. I'm a big fan of SCUBA, advanced open water, love biking, etc, etc. Time and time again I see us hurt our planet.

Both my mind and heart say the answer is not for gov't or presidential leadership but personal action and accountability. Seems the bigger the gov't gets the less folks do for themselves and community.

A couple years, I was in my early 30s and a group of us (30-44) helped the local boyscout troops to improve a drainage area in a local forest preserve so mountain bikers, horseback riders and hikers could use the trails, avoid washouts, and water still to drain. They worked on this project for 2+ years and most of the time it was fighting "the man" who didn't want them to do it?!

I love our land and our beautiful landscapes and wish everyone looked inward on how they can improve it on a good day while leaving it no worse every day.

[tcsned]

This thing really breaks my heart. My wife and I spent a lot of time on the Gulf at Sanibel Island - we'd go down every year for MLB Spring Training (before we had kids) and spend a week or two watching baseball and hunting for seashells on Sanibel or Captiva Islands. I also spent some time on the Redneck Riviera many years ago. I agree that we all share in the blame for this. We all drive cars, use A/C in our homes, etc and that never ending addiction to fossil fuels will guarantee that this will not be the last accident like this. We keep looking for politicians to fix these things when they are all funded by the fucktards who are recklessly sucking that stuff out of the earth. Even if the politicians are from a party you support. Also, as I heard recently, if you think that this one oil rig was the only one being sloppily managed you're dreaming. It's like telling yourself that the cockroach you see in your house came in on a pizza box or something - you're being delusional. On top of the environmental devastation there are 10 families who lost a loved one - that should also not be forgotten in all of this too.

It's not just the deep water drilling that's wreaking destruction. I live about 35 miles from West Virginia and the mountain top removal is turning one of the most beautiful regions in the world into a giant slag pit. Not to mention the 29 lives lost recently because another industrialist scumbag decided that profit was more important than safety (I have a good friend from that community and used to babysit one of the victims). I got my MA in history writing about the coal rebellions in the 1920s in WV. Little has changed in the attitudes of those who run those companies since the 20s - it's make $$$ now and damn the consequences.

To some extent, all human cultures have been destructive to their environment throughout human history. We generally accept the myth that there have been cultures that lived in harmony with nature but that is not true. All living things if left unchecked with eat itself out of resources and eventually starve to extinction. Luckily, up til now there have always been checks and balances for this either predators or barriers that prevented it. Humans have no barriers or real predators other than each other. We do have something that no other life form has - the ability to be aware of it and to check ourselves. It ain't easy because it goes against our genetic coding and desire to survive but it is possible . . . maybe.