The Gulf Oil Spill is by far the most horrible environmental disaster I could ever imagine. Having spent almost my entire life in South Florida and the Caribbean I am bonded to the oceans of our world in a way I can barely explain. Some of my earliest memories from childhood are of my days swimming the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico anywhere from the beaches of Key West to the coastline of Florida and often many miles offshore in a boat.

My years in Ocala are the furthest I have ever lived from the ocean and I am but 30 to 40 minutes from Daytona Beach if the rivers and lakes around here are not enough to satisfy my need to be around water. To be honest I can’t imagine life without the ocean and the idea we may have now lost the entire Gulf of Mexico and most likely portions of the Caribbean as well has been the most sickening news of my existence. I don’t think that all of the wars since my birth and the devastation they brought to us in a combined effect would be the same as the loss of so much in the Gulf.

For the millions of human lives lost in wars I have far less pain and anguish than I do for the countless millions of marine animals lost in the Gulf Oil Spill at the hand of British Petroleum or BP as they are known. When we humans pick up arms and kill each other it is sick but self inflicted but when we humans kill nature and destroy so much wildlife is is far sicker. There is no amount of money that can replace what has been lost to all of us already in this oil spill and the potential loss of life is absolutely staggering when you consider this hole in the ground is still spewing unknown amounts of deadly poisons into the ocean and it could continue to do so for months.

Mark my words this is not over and sadly I feel it has only just begun. Even if they plugged the hole today where do you think all of this oil will end up? Do you suppose they will be able to clean it up or is it but a matter of time before it breaks up and floats all over the world? Everyone from Florida to Texas is worried about their coastline because they can see the oil on the horizon but in my opinion countries as far as Cuba and even Jamaica should be making plans for how to deal with the oil spill clean up because it is inevitable that it will reach these poorer less developed nations that lack clean up technology and equipment.

If Jamaica thinks things are bad now wait for the day when the white sands of Negril are covered in black tar balls and you will then see what real economic destruction is. The entire Caribbean relies on the crystal clear waters and clean sandy beaches and when this pollution reaches the shores of these countries where do you think tourists will go? The Bahamas will most likely be safe for quite some time but inevitably they too will have tar balls from the Gulf Oil Spill. There is no way around it, this oil spill clean up will absolutely never clean up all of the oil and it will gunk up the beaches of the South East United States, Mexico, the entire Caribbean and part of Central and South America as well.

Dead birds, fish and marine mammals have begun to was ashore and the death toll looks to be far worse than anyone of us could imagine. When Exxon Valdez struck the one saving grace was the total volume of oil was capped at the ships capacity but the Gulf Oil Spill knows no boundaries and could potentially spew for as long as 90 days in total. The wildlife in Alaska suffered greatly but there was an end in sight and although the loss of life was incredible they were able to save a large number of animals. It seems this time around the animals are showing up dead and there have been far fewer rescues at this point. Alaska is a sensitive region and the loss of any life is sad but the fragile nature of the coastal wetlands and their vital importance to the seafood chain is what makes this such a more devastating disaster. The Wall Street Journal law blog wrote about the rights of animals affected by the Gulf Oil Spill and basically the poor lowly creatures have no rights and there is no retribution legally for humans who commit crimes against nature.

British Petroleum has been lying about the total amount of oil spilled and continues to try to protect themselves and their shareholders to the point that they have angered the White House. What exactly that means is a unknown but apparently the government is now upset over what has happened. With the cozy relationship the oil companies have with government officials we all know that no one will actually get in trouble over this and at worst it will cost a few billion in lost profits which they can easily make up next year.

The only way we can make them pay is to Boycott BP Oil and ban them from offshore drilling in America. These people are obviously not capable of managing their offshore operations and their total lack of planning and preparation has been much of the problem. I have made a personal commitment to not only Boycott BP but I will also make a concerted effort to cut back on our fuel consumption in any way possible. As American we all share some responsibility for this disaster with our insatiable appetite for oil and petroleum products. I pulled into a BP gas station a few days back and realized I don’t want to spend my money with those people and the thought actually crossed my mind to pickup a can of oil from the rack nearby and spill it out on the floor of their retail store. What could they do? Arrest me for spilling a quart of oil?

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They found water on the moon but people right here on earth can’t get clean water to drink or enough food to eat. I’m sitting here watching CNN and they jut had a story about NASA finding water on the moon. They claim it only cost 79 million dollars to slam a device into the face of the Moon which they can test all the way back here on earth that tells them there is water on the Moon and they think it was a pretty good deal for the price. The idea being that if we had to carry less stuff from Earth we can possibly travel farther into space using resources like water and other minerals found on the Moon. No, they are not planning to bottle moon water. At least not yet they aren’t.

As soon as the story was over they cut to commercial and the last spot before they cut back to news is for their new program CNN Heroes and the hero spotlighted was a woman who runs Project Clean Water in Africa which obviously deals with the lack of clean drinking water that plagues so many people in the world. I love irony and I found myself laughing out loud at how ridiculous it was they had these stories so close together. I wonder what the lady from Project Clean Water would do with $79,000,000?

In America my mother has free water service in her Florida home that allows us to use as much as we want whenever we want but in Haiti they drink water that is contaminated by garbage and pollution. In China it has gotten to be so bad that people in the most populous nation on Earth are getting cancer and disease from the contaminants dumped in their drinking water sources and once again children are suffering the most. Young Chinese children work in the electronics reclaim industry processing heavy metals and industrial waste that often ends up in the drinking water.

On one hand if you work for NASA or any of the billionaire contractors they pay with our tax dollars you might argue it was money well spent. You might even ask your friends over at CNN to do a cute news story that shines a positive light on NASA or maybe you’ll win an award from the NY Times for the Aries rocket that boosts your image and makes Americans feel better about the billions we spend on space travel each year.

On the other hand if you live in Africa, Haiti, China or any other place on Earth where you have a hard time finding clean drinking water you may think spending 79 million just to find out if there is water on the Moon is a waste. You might also disagree with spending so much in outer space when we have so many problems right here on Earth.

My questions to you is, what do you think? Should we bother with travel to the Moon when people on Earth can’t get enough food and water?

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I feel as though I was born in the perfect year and since my birth in 1970 I have been witness to some historical events but none of them are even worth mentioning when you consider what I saw happen over the past 24 hours or even the past 24 weeks for that matter.

When Barack Obama was given the Democratic nomination I was not shocked. I was upset because I honestly did not believe America was ready to elect a Black man to the White house and I did think we needed change that no Republican would provide. I have never been so happy to have been proven wrong. Maybe the day has come when fewer of us see color and more of us see through the skin to the person inside.

Barack Obama is a polarizing, transformational figure with the weight of a planet on his shoulders. He made a lot of promises and lots of people want to see him fail but the fact is we have a new leader and he’s not a rich white man. An educated black man will run America and the next four years should prove to be far more interesting than the last four have been.

Good luck to Barack Hussein Obama. Let’s hope we get at least half of what he offered.

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