The Salty Barrister

I remember nudging throttles forward with my knuckle-back, tapping each into some kind of synchronicity, and now I'm about to up the revolutions on this blog. Let me play provocateur . . . didn't this Country sell out the Gulf's beauty years ago? I mean we've got thousands of rigs shouldering up to environments described as "pristine" and "irreplaceable". Me? I call that something's gonna happen, we're just not sure when.

I'm leveling collective criticism. I'm not singling out the oil and gas industry's hardhats, it's as honest a work as anything else anyone does. Look, you don't need to be wearing thick wool socks and sandals to appreciate that the American majority hasn't done squat to conserve. And this so-called alternative energy the media and marketers tout reminds me of some high-end science fair projects. A car that'll get you to the next county on batteries? A windmill here and there? Bio-fuel? Come on, let's be honest, we haven't given a hoot about anything but cheap goods and cheaper fuel, and, in my opinion, we ante-upped the Gulf Coast for cheap fuel everything else be damned.

So now we've gone and punctured Hades. ("The devil went down to Georgia the Gulf Coast, he was looking for a soul to steal."). A nether world pierced and spewing the fermented richness of a million eons ago. If you make a pact with Devil, well maybe you shouldn't be wincing and whining come pay day. To my mind, we curse our trade-off, we try hard to collect money damages, and we get on with realizing that we should bloody well start paying attention to our future decisions. They seem to have consequences, huh?

I'm not underway and I'm not making way. I'm just angry.

--- JKF

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I scrabbled up a hundred miles of tarmac and crunched across a gravel parking lot to hear a revealing discussion about a proposed Liquid Natural Gas terminal to be located in Narragansett Bay, RI. Yup, you heard me right. Some oil folks want to drop a terminal in Mount Hope Bay and sail some massive looking LNG tankers up and down these inland waters. Watch my phrasing here, IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, this is a rotten idea. The talk was given by a fellow from Save-The-Bay and they have additional information on their website: http://www.savebay.org/Page.aspx?pid=1279.

You know, I worry some about these kinds of, IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, wacky proposals. Times are tough and the resolve of the populous is weakened by the sheer effort of living. It's like a boat owner juggling a newborn, a job, extended family commitments, a mortgage, and car payments. Yeah, the boat gets launched, but she's got that creeping unkempt look. You know what I'm talking about, dusty sheer to fiberglass, bleached-out canvas cover, frayed lines, beard of green on the lower unit, etc. There's just too much else stealing the owner's time and next year, well, the owner's heard to say: "Heck! I'll just let her sit this season." And the leaves gather, and the fiberglass splinters, and the bright-work flakes and then she's just an eyesore. A vine wraps up and around a boat stand and a year or two later, in the snap of an Autumn breeze, the stand kicks out and the boat smacks down. The hull's cracked and they cut her up, and pile her into a container.

To be blunt, things and people and relationships take effort. If you think something like this LNG proposal isn't what you want for the Bay, you gotta stand-up and do something. Call Save-The-Bay, call your local legislator, call somebody and voice your opinion. "We all think of the inconvenience of making an effort. We're all going to do the right things a little later on. Soon. But soon slides by so easily." (J.D. MacDonald, Cinnamon Skin, p. 75, John D. MacDonald Publishing, Inc., 1982)

Underway and making way.

--- JKF

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