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I've avoided talking about the oil spill in the Gulf because it quite frankly breaks my heart. But yesterday the citizens of New Orleans took their anguish and frustration to the street as the Krewe of Dead Pelicans second-lined down St. Charles Avenue to protest the oil spill and BP's sickeningly, infuriatingly lousy response.
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Not that having a parade is going to do anything to help except maybe keep the news cameras focused on the issue, but, well, this is New Orleans.
Photos by Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune
Sphinx Ink has a wonderful post on this. You can read it here.
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9 comments:
I can't watch the news about it anymore--I am overcome with such a black rage.
Of all the things to have a parade about, this is certainly one of the saddest. It helps even a little then I'm glad for it.
Thank you for posting this -I'll be sending the link on...
This tragedy is beyond my words, so I borrow some from someone else, who at least in this, seemed wise.
Laughter and Death, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
THERE is no laughter in the natural world
Of beast or fish or bird, though no sad doubt
Of their futurity to them unfurled
Has dared to check the mirth-compelling shout.
The lion roars his solemn thunder out
To the sleeping woods. The eagle screams her cry.
Even the lark must strain a serious throat
To hurl his blest defiance at the sky.
Fear, anger, jealousy, have found a voice.
Love’s pain or rapture the brute bosoms swell.
Nature has symbols for her nobler joys,
Her nobler sorrows. Who had dared foretell
That only man, by some sad mockery,
Should learn to laugh who learns that he must die?
I have no words....
Let's see... First Louisiana got the Cancer Corridor, thanks to the oil companies' callous disregard for people's health and safety.
Then there's the ULTRA-toxic Lake Ponchartrain, another Big Oil eco-catastrophe.
Something like this was always coming, and it hurts to say, it was coming for Louisiana. I'm so sad.
Protest is an excellent vehicle to keep up the media attention to focus on this tragedy. To sit and do nothing is pathetic in this day and age.
Bernita, I can't watch, either.
Charles, I know what you mean.
Molly, you should look at Sphinx Ink's blog, too.
Pax Deux, that is a haunting poem. And very fitting.
Orannia, it's one of those tragedies that are impossible to capture with words and impossible to set right.
Steve, I think the problem is the area has been poor for so long, people are so desperate they've been willing to sell themselves short, and the politicians have taken advantage of that.
Barbara, it seems like it all comes down to pictures for TV, doesn't it?
It is horrendous to watch the damage being done to your wildlife, coastlines & the people who live near by! Even living in a country that is some distance from the USA, watching the tragedy unfolding daily is heart wrenching indeed!!!
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