It is a metaphor for so much of what is wrong with our society: a deeply embedded structural flaw is hemorrhaging national treasure, but, instead of providing any benefit, it is fouling the landscape. The ongoing calamity, the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico resulting from the explosion and sinking of the rig Deepwater Horizon, demonstrates every day that the Obama administration is not in control of events and that the American people are not in control of their government. As of this writing, British Petroleum has “slowed the leak” but work continues. Up to this point, the term “leak” does not do justice to the colossal scale of the environmental catastrophe that already has taken place and which may be further exacerbated. Estimates run as high as 70,000 barrels of oil a day gushing out of that mechanical wound. At the higher end of the estimate, it would be an Exxon Valdez sized oil spill every four days. Even moderate figures mean millions of barrels of oil fouling the Gulf.
The response of the government provides an opportunity to evaluate its priorities and the credulity of the American people. We live with a legitimating legal dispensation that finds it entirely proper to invade foreign nations, bomb villages with mechanical drones sometimes killing dozens of innocent civilians, waterboard foreign nationals without any legal process, incarcerate its own citizens to the point where even a small quantity of illegal drugs can result in twenty year sentences creating the largest prison system in the world, foreclose on hundreds of thousands of homeowners pushing them into the street, deny veterans the medical care they have earned and so desperately need – all this and yet –
Our government is incapable of reflecting the outrage of the populace when a foreign oil company plays fast and loose with American lives and America’s landscape. Now we know what it feels like to live in a banana republic, helpless before the dictates of foreign corporations. Where is a Congress that sweeps into action denouncing these smug, self-satisfied CEOS who care nothing about life, limb or property? Here is a little action plan for Congress. Pass legislation sequestering every bit of profit made by British Petroleum as a fund against which to pay for any clean-up and continue withholding that profit until every penny in damages is recovered. If that had been done in the first week, the hole in that dyke would have been plugged then and there even if the fat-faced Board of Directors had to go deep sea diving to do it themselves. Instead of outrage we get tears. Congressman Melancon of Louisiana got emotional when thinking about the catastrophic damage done to the natural beauty of his home state. Our sympathy is with him but it is not tears of sympathy that are needed now. Nothing will wash that black stain out of the Gulf for quite some time to come. Unfortunately, it is small compared to the stain on America’s honor and intelligence which this episode has so sadly revealed.
