Thursday, May 13, 2010

Message in The Gulf

May 13th, 2010



My Dear America:

There is an Urgent Message for President Obama, The United States Congress and the rest of America floating in the polluted water of the Gulf of Mexico. 

That message is clearly "Stop Drilling for Oil in the Offshore Seas of America".

It is a message that is clear and sensible.  It is a message that needs to be paid attention to and needs to be heeded.

Clearly America's and indeed the world's Oil companies (BP for one) have been turned loose on the American coastline especially in the Gulf of Mexico.  In the Bush years and, quite Frankly, even before the Bush years, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was not only tolerated, it was encouraged. 

Now, in the past few weeks we have begun to see the Ominous Results of our incredibly stupid policy.  As the future devastation becomes more clear in scope and we see dead dolphins washing up on the shore, the end of low cost seafood on our tables and the probable end of Swimming, Boating and Beauty on the Gulf of Mexico Shorelines, it is going to become increasingly clear that what we have done in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is shameful and unforgivable.  It is also stupid beyond belief.

Weeks before the incredible BP Oil Spill and weeks after the historic Congressional passage of the Health Care Bill in Congress the President, in a move that I can only describe as pandering to the Republican Right, announced a new policy that in addition to drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico his administration was opening up drilling on the East and West coasts of our country, as well as off Alaska.  

What was wrong with President Obama.  Was he now taking advice from Sarah Palin.  It certainly sounded that way.

"Drill Baby Drill" was now the cry of the Obama Administration.

Obama's reaction to the BP Oil Spill was to reevaluate the procedures involved in granting licenses for companies to drill off the Coastline of America.  He did not say he was stopping the drilling he was just slowing down a process that had not even begun.  

He has still not backtracked on his prospective policy of drilling off the east coast shoreline although I hope that this misguided policy has been a casualty of the Golf Oil spill.

Meanwhile the spill continues and the oil flows out into the Gulf of Mexico and ever closer to the shores of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Florida and the residents and the politicians realize that they are up the creek without a way to hold back the flow that grows more worrisome and more toxic to our wildlife and our environment every day.

I hope the voters in the November, 2010 Election remember those Republican Candidates who stupidly chanted "Drill, Baby, Drill" in prior elections.  We have Drilled, Baby Drilled and we are paying for it and will continue to pay for it for years to come, possibly decades to come.   

Hopefully Politicians, including our President, will learn a lesson from this incredible disaster and this failed policy of drilling in our oceans will end.

President Obama is, in most respects, a brilliant and thoughtful guy but the truth is that with regard to his Offshore Drilling Policy he was and continues to be on the wrong track.  There are very few of Barack Obama's policies with which I am clearly on the totally opposite side of his thinking.  This is one.

Another one is Nuclear Power Plants. 

Don't get me started on that one.

Barack. Three words:        Three Mile Island

Come on, Mr. President.  Lets get it together.  Stop Pandering to the Republicans.  Just remember, They are the party of "Drill, Baby Drill" and you can see just where that policy has taken us.

"Don't Drill, Mr. President, Please at least no new drilling on the East Coast.

I love the Jersey, Delaware and Maryland Shores.  We surely don't want to see them in the shape of the Gulf of Mexico Coastlines will shortly be and while you're at it please light a fire under the asses of the BP Executives so that they will get their leaking oil well to stop leaking.

God Bless you, Mr. President.  You are certainly going to need his help to get us out of this Mess.


Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

No comments: