Dear Mr. President,
I started my new job today. It's much more responsibility than my last job, and requires me to make quick decisions, often based on little information, my own instincts and my own experience. If I screw up, things could get stolen, crimes could go unnoticed, or some one could get hurt. Still, I could go completely rogue, I could overlook laws and safety regulations and do everything in my power to cause as much harm as possible and, still, I could not destroy the Gulf of Mexico. While I'm sure that the people who's jobs depend up on the oil industry were relieved to hear the court's decision to overturn your moratorium on new deep-water drilling projects, I can't imagine that 63 days have been enough for the industry to have adopted practices or contingency plans to avoid, or more quickly react to, another disaster. Yes, every one deserves to make a living; but the dangers posed by this industry's reckless pursuit of efficiency at the expense of safety are too great to blindly continue to drill as we did before. Because of the industry's ties to the agencies that regulated them, they have operated on what could generously be called an honor system; BP has demonstrated that none of the deepwater drilling projects are prepared to effectively deal with the kind of disaster we're now two months into dealing with. Most likely, it won't happen again; if it does, the consequences would be unimaginably devastating. is that a risk that this judge feels willing to take? Further regulation, further oversight is needed, and until that happens, allowing new projects to go forward is irresponsible.
I can't regulate the safety practices of the oil industry. I don't have the education or the skills. I put faith in my government to do this for me, and it has failed us all. The judge overturning your moratorium is now a part of this failure. We cannot place the value of a person's livelihood above the value of the lives it may destroy. I find myself increasingly disturbed by the world we live in; a world where the President may order covert assassination of American citizens, may rendition and torture and twist a person's status to deny them legal rights, but where he may not threaten the profit margins of the oil industry. When did corporate interests become more powerful than the legal rights enshrined in our constitution? The executive may ignore Habeas Corpus, or due process or the first amendment, but to try to protect the American public and the environment from the reckless behavior of an entire industry is beyond his ability? I'm really not trying to make you feel worse about the court's decision, but it seems like the power of the executive really ought to be wielded to protect the individuals who are not powerful enough to defend themselves, not those organizations who exploit them.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Showing posts with label louisiana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label louisiana. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Day 147
Dear Mr. President,
I'm not sure what you could have done to please the people who are still complaining about your lack of involvement in the oil spill. Maybe you could have put on scuba gear and patched the leak manually? Anyway, I think that the horror of the situation is not that more could have been done, but that no one knows, exactly, what to do now.
My own world has been very small these last few days. My brother-in-law's father passed away, and so my sister has left her 2-year old son with his aunts and grandmother these last few days. Right now he's not too pleased to be with his aunty and not his mom, but we watched Star Wars together, so I think, on the whole, he's going to be OK with it. I love spending time with my nephew, but I couldn't take this on as a full-time job. This is why I'm so constantly amazed at his Dad, who is not his biological father, but who still has committed himself to raising my nephew as his own. I didn't know his father, who just passed away, but he must have been a good dad himself, to raise such a remarkable son. The kinds of patience and selflessness required to parent a young child are not often seen in my age group, (I certainly don't possess them,) and so I'm always surprised to encounter these qualities in people my own age.
Looking at the world from the perspective of my nephew, who won't even be old enough to vote until 2026, I realize how angry I'd be, if I were him. The world we're leaving his generation is in pretty bad shape, and, as appalling as our mistakes and failures may have been, sometimes its the answers we don't even know we need to look for that scare me the most. One of our uncles in Florida called last week to apologize to my aunt for not taking her diving in the Florida keys last time she visited. He knows now, because of the spill, it's unlikely that they'll be able to do so again in their lifetimes. I've never been to the Florida keys at all, nor have I been to Louisiana, but at least I got a chance to swim in the Gulf of Mexico once, several years ago. I still hold out hope that Asher will have that chance, too.
Anyway, Mr. President, I share your frustration at the lack of progress, and I believe that finding a solution is, for now, more important than finding out who is to blame. I appreciate your continued emphasis on the role BP has in this, as well as you ability to take responsibility for the mistakes of your own administration, and I hope that we take all necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again. My heart is heavy for the people who live in the region, and also for children like my nephew, who will grow up never knowing how it was before this disaster.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
I'm not sure what you could have done to please the people who are still complaining about your lack of involvement in the oil spill. Maybe you could have put on scuba gear and patched the leak manually? Anyway, I think that the horror of the situation is not that more could have been done, but that no one knows, exactly, what to do now.
My own world has been very small these last few days. My brother-in-law's father passed away, and so my sister has left her 2-year old son with his aunts and grandmother these last few days. Right now he's not too pleased to be with his aunty and not his mom, but we watched Star Wars together, so I think, on the whole, he's going to be OK with it. I love spending time with my nephew, but I couldn't take this on as a full-time job. This is why I'm so constantly amazed at his Dad, who is not his biological father, but who still has committed himself to raising my nephew as his own. I didn't know his father, who just passed away, but he must have been a good dad himself, to raise such a remarkable son. The kinds of patience and selflessness required to parent a young child are not often seen in my age group, (I certainly don't possess them,) and so I'm always surprised to encounter these qualities in people my own age.
Looking at the world from the perspective of my nephew, who won't even be old enough to vote until 2026, I realize how angry I'd be, if I were him. The world we're leaving his generation is in pretty bad shape, and, as appalling as our mistakes and failures may have been, sometimes its the answers we don't even know we need to look for that scare me the most. One of our uncles in Florida called last week to apologize to my aunt for not taking her diving in the Florida keys last time she visited. He knows now, because of the spill, it's unlikely that they'll be able to do so again in their lifetimes. I've never been to the Florida keys at all, nor have I been to Louisiana, but at least I got a chance to swim in the Gulf of Mexico once, several years ago. I still hold out hope that Asher will have that chance, too.
Anyway, Mr. President, I share your frustration at the lack of progress, and I believe that finding a solution is, for now, more important than finding out who is to blame. I appreciate your continued emphasis on the role BP has in this, as well as you ability to take responsibility for the mistakes of your own administration, and I hope that we take all necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again. My heart is heavy for the people who live in the region, and also for children like my nephew, who will grow up never knowing how it was before this disaster.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
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