Nadia Larissa Trousdale

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GIGANTIC SPONGES!

I mean, why the hell not?

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Apparently bales of hay could be used to soak up the oil, from the surface and deeper, and could easily be raked/swept/plucked from the shores later.

SO WHY ISN’T IT HAPPENING?!

Here’s a picture from Orange Beach, Alabama, ninety miles from the spill site itself:

We need a solution, and fast.  I’m also pretty sure we can stop calling it a ‘spill’.  I spilled some coffee and some orange juice today at work, and got that settled pretty quickly with some paper towels.  This isn’t a spill.  This is a goddamned freakish mess of epic proportions and you know, I don’t even care who’s responsible for the mistake, or care about what we’re not being told, or all the crap that people are talking about.  What I care about, what the media should care about, what governments and everyone should care about is FIXING IT.  Stop pointing fingers and do something!

I’m in Chicago, the beaches this catastrophe is affecting are nowhere near me, volunteers and seventeen different countries who’ve offered to help are being blocked from doing so, and I have all of nine dollars in my bank account.  Therefore, I’m not in a position to see it firsthand, help out physically or even donate money to the right people.  But I’m still astoundingly pissed off, dying to help, and cannot find a good avenue for my frustration regarding this problem.

The worst part is, this is just the beginning.  Without a doable, solid and eventually successful plan, this is going to get worse.  I don’t even have it in me to bitch about how generations of human greed got us to this point – I could go on for days, but what would it matter?  George Carlin once pointed out that, yes, the planet’s been here a long time and will continue to be here long after we’re gone.  It will in its own way resolve its own problems, even if it takes more years and decades and generations than we can imagine.  But couldn’t we, just once, actually get enough people together to make a fucking difference and pay SOME amount of reverence to the Earth?  Even if it’s only to save our own asses, I think those oil-soaked birds – innocents in the way that all animals are, and so disinterested in the way we humans continue to recklessly fuck up our planet –   would appreciate it.

And as I said in my last post, I’ve been keeping abreast of the angles people have attached themselves to, in order to justify or cope with this terrible ‘spill’ – the conspiracy angles, the money angles, the religious angles…. And there are some who say it’s just smoke and mirrors, we’ll forget about it in three months, it’s not as bad as it looks, etc…..Everyone’s got a different opinion, and that’s great, but all those opinions written down and stuffed into the leak wouldn’t do much to stop it.  Whether it’s BP execs, scientists, Bible-thumpers or UFO chasers talking, it’s still all talk.  Blame BP to the high heavens (even though several other companies were involved, most of them American) and talk about the end of the world, but while you’re doing so, see what you can do about solutions.  Every channel has news shows and interviews tearing apart that Swedish guy for his small language slip-up, taking the focus away from what’s really important.  We should be interviewing scientists.  We should be opening up the air space and at least TRYING the bales of hay, trying something.  Everyone’s so afraid that their attempt will fail and they’ll be blamed, that they’re not actually attempting anything, and those in the positions to do so are blocking others from trying.  Whether the spill is or isn’t a big deal, or will or won’t grow into one, the top priority in the mind of everyone should be working towards a solution.  The energy ideas addressed in Obama’s speech last night are interesting and in the end could change how we do everything, power everything, and turn our relationship with Mother Nature into something generally kinder than it is now.  But that’s a long way off.  We need to do something now.  What could make the difference between this being the clusterfuck of our lifetime and livelihood or a mere babbling brook of oil by this time next year and all the birds are happy and all the Gulf businesses are back, is imminent action.

Where will it come from?  You’ve got cops, Wackenhut Protection and various agents keeping people at bay, or at the very least, dreadfully misinformed and given the run-around.  The most common answer to any question seems to be, “I don’t know,” whether they’re being honest or not.  How can people – even really smart people – be rallied to come up with solutions to problems if they don’t understand the full scope of said problem?  I don’t expect to be told the whole story by the government, hell, pretty much at all, ever, for any reason – I don’t have a bajillion dollars therefore I’m a regular, stupid, American peon working a silly little job and cannot possibly be trusted to keep cool in the face of tragedy.  At least, that’s the message the parties in charge are sending.  It isn’t the first time in American history, and we’ve grown complacent enough as a society to EXPECT them to hold things back, in the name of preventing mass hysteria.  I get that.  Comfortably forgetting what the truth sounds like is a negligence, on our parts, so deeply rooted in our culture that we can’t find a way out of it.

How the hell did we let ANY of this get this far?  Is there a way out of it?  By pouncing on BP for the twenty billion in accountability, the government has showed us where their interests lie, and that settling things with money is the easiest, quickest, most American way.  They have NO FUCKING CLUE how little money changes anything here.  Nobody was prepared for this, surely.  But focusing on the money first and the realities of the situation at hand second is a big mistake that makes the government look very bad, indeed, as people and as an organization.  Can we really TRUST them to find a way to stop the oil – I can’t even keep up with the projected number of barrels, it changes so often – from any of the trillion different little ways this could doom wildlife, not to mention humans?

We need to get off our high horses and accept the help from whence-ever direction it comes.  The competence of the American government is a silly little daydream at this point in time, while those on the Gulf are living the nightmare.  And don’t get me wrong, it’s self-centered to think we could destroy the world, or that this is the worst thing that’s happened in a billion years….It mightn’t even be the worst of our generation, if you count the eight hopeless years of Dubya in the office.  But the damage being done RIGHT NOW can’t be speculated upon objectively or fogged up; it’s happening right now.  NOW now.  I don’t care if we’re called Generation Y, Generation iPod or any other convenient, clumpy sobriquet.  I simply refuse to be remembered someday as part of the generation that watched something like this happen and didn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

So, please, someone give me a cargo plane chock-full of hay and tell me where to point it, airpsace blockage be damned.  Could be shot down in the process, could crash into a sea of oil because I have no idea how to fly a plane, could be that the hay doesn’t work at all.  But it would be a wholehearted, give-it-all-you-got attempt at a solution, which sadly cannot be said for those in power, the big men in suits who are sitting around bickering about accountability in the only language in which they’re fluent – that of Money.

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Upon Mark’s return home from the coffee shop, I told him various details I’ve learned from the EPA’s website, and an old favorite of mine, Above Top Secret, a great source of videos on the oil spill that I would not have found otherwise.  He summed up the frustration of much of America right now by facetiously chanting a mantra of hope and change, hope and change.  “Oh, Obama,” he said, “You were supposed to be the cool one, and maybe actually do something.  Now you’re just like the rest of them, just the lesser of two evils.  I never imagined the day we’d all end up being saved by Kevin Costner!”  I definitely understand his frustration, but without the ‘supposed to’, as I’m sadly  no longer surprised by most of the atrocities and earth-shattering cases of negligence that occur thanks to big companies and big governments.  We grew up with George W. as President.  The likelihood that my generation will blindly trust the government any time soon is low, and much to our chagrin, Obama isn’t saying much to foster a more united front.

His speech tonight contained many valid points, while completely brushing over others.  It’s nice that we’ve got about 30,000 people working to dispose of the oil when it comes on shore – but what about before that point, and why has BP not allowed any of the workers to speak to the media?  He speaks of the clear-energy industry as if it’s the only answer, and in doing so agrees with the environmentalists, who of course have probably been the most active in any protests and boycotts taking place – but his solutions include long paths and distant horizons, when what’s happening in the Gulf requires action now.  And this is of course just a personal problem, but I’m not entirely sure it’s alright for him to have God bless us and all that.  I mean, that’s nice, because it brings in a sense of unity amongst a largely Christian population, but I sure didn’t ask for it, and isn’t there some rule about that, on some important sheet of paper or another…..

I think the guy’s doing the best he can in the face of a tragedy, trying to keep everyone’s shit together as it were, but the attempt is pretty silly when you consider BP’s buying up Google search results and instituting a media blackout, and the EPA’s website tells you what kind of chemicals you’re breathing in based on ‘rotten egg’ and ‘gas station-like’ odors and that the effects of them will pass once the levels have lowered or the person leaves the area.  What about those who live there?  Not to mention that the ‘daily updated’ EPA air maps aren’t always updated daily, and on top of that, are relatively difficult to get information from.  And then you’ve got the BP call center leaker, reminding us all how very little our opinions matter.

People are boycotting BP, which is hurting small business owners who bought the franchises.  The cynics are just cynical enough to sit around and theorize instead of doing something, the end-of-the-worlders have their own ideas and reasons to piss themselves, and without any idea of how much BP isn’t telling us, it’s tough for the American people and the rest of the world to see and understand what’s really happening in the Gulf.  Everyone’s pointing fingers and spouting off but without a clearly defined and obvious way for us to be helpful, all of these half-efforts are somewhat in vain.  It’s times like these I wonder why Ready.Gov exists, and wish they’d  tell us what to actually DO, whether it’s donating time and money to clean-up efforts or what.  Their disaster assistance page has an ‘Oil Spill Guidance’ link you can click, which leads straight to a page on which you can file a claim with BP – because apparently all that matters in this is more money.   This is an environmental disaster and will likely cause harm for years to come, the true effects of which we can’t yet gauge.  The people who live in the Gulf area and make their living from it understand those shores and beautiful, bounteous expanses of water more than anyone else.  If I were in their shoes I’d consider it an insult, some paltry amount of money offered in exchange for lives, human and otherwise, and the endangerment of an ecosystem just because BP decided to cut costs a little bit.

And here I am, sitting in oil-free Chicago, bitching about it all on my blog.  I think the President and BP would find many of us willing to do more, if they could divulge a few more details; if this is serious enough for Obama to decide to use his first Oval Office address for this, it’s serious enough for Americans to take notice, get off their butts and actually DO something.  BP can take responsibility, as it should, but it should also welcome those who wish to help.  Our nation is at a loss.  It’d be nice if someone could guide us properly before the loss becomes greater, as it undoubtedly will.

There’s a lot happening right now, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  You’ve got a Louisiana rep suggesting to the head of BP that he commit suicide, any  piece of information swiftly being discredited or denied by someone from BP……I’m just as confused and upset as anyone else, and don’t mind saying so.  I also am not sure what to do about it.  If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I’ll be here.

At my desk.

Blogging.

What a fucking mess.

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I’m going to start a monthly newsletter, of sorts – for the hell of it.  Musings, reviews, a poem here or there, maybe even a short story once in awhile.  If you’d like to receive the June issue, email me your mailing address at nadia.trousdale@gmail.com.  I may run an online version, but who doesn’t miss good ol’ print once in awhile?  And who doesn’t miss getting mail?  The first issue will go in the mail on June 15th.

Speaking of June, I meant for A Damsel in This Dress to be well-sorted, thrice edited and in tangible form by now.  In May, really.  If you’ve read earlier posts, you may know that my May was a pretty tough time, but has inspired me towards additional poems to be added to the book.  So, I’ve decided to push the release date to July 15th.

And a lesson I’ve learned tonight: do not drink coffee while researching Constance Wilde the night after watching Somewhere in Time.  Lacy, puffy-sleeved things and soft gloves flew out of my closet and adorned me in antique finery, and Mark and I had a long conversation about energy/matter time travel vs. mental time travel vs. fabricated holodeck-like time travel…Oh, Carl Sagan, where ARE you when we need you?

Words are spewing forth without much filtering on my part, a surprising jolt of energy that should be saved for this newsletter/zine thingamajig.    As I said, for a monthly dose of random, sign up for the newsletter via my gmail address.  The occasional postcard or small funny gift may be sent in the future, as well. 

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