Getting To The Bottom Of It

Memorial Day/again

You know, generally, I'm a well balanced individual. I have enormous joy, like receiving a phone call from my daughter in Egypt today and hearing the call to prayers in the background as she tells me of her trip down the nile. I have my share of sorrow, just this Saturday I had to put my dog Butch to sleep. He's been my loyal, loving companion for 13 years. My shepherd through arguably the most painful phases of my life. And though it was extremely painful and I wept uncontrollably as he passed, I know all dogs go to heaven and he is free as a bird and what I did was merciful and it's over now. I can see beyond the gritty, nasty surface and extract the beauty, compassion, the silver lining, but it is first with great devotion to my emotional truth. I can laugh, but only after I've paid homage to the vital presence of rage and sadness and fear. While the prospect of a permanent ban on off shore oil drilling dances in my head. I cannot deny the present grim and reprehensible circumstances. Things that blow right off the trauma scale. Ok people are you ready? because I'm about to take you down, take you to the bottom of the sea. The bottom, we are talking deep. In an effort to unleash your gushing self. You see as the days go by, things seem to be getting worse and the only way to lift up is to bottom out. Just in the last week we were informed that the leak in the gulf is probably ten or twenty or thirty times worse than we could have imagined. BP's failed attempt at a "top kill" an already terrible choice of title, leaves us breathless imagining that we won't find any relief from the much anticipated relief WELL till August. August. millions of gallons of crude continuously spews ghastly suffocating nightmares for any living creature in the vicinity. They call if the dead zone. 28 species; Orcas, Bottlenose dolphins, turtles, shrimp choking to death. Then there's the birds. I'm sure you've all seen images of these mortally wounded creatures sludging through the marshes. The severe injury and murder of these gentle, lovely, innocents is dreadful. then there are the already Katrina ravaged people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other coastal area residents who are witnessing this tragedy that unfolds further into their future, their livelihoods, their wetlands, shores, beaches, the eyes and lungs of their elders and children on their laps. Sorrow doesn't express the depth of suffering. Avoidable, unnecessary malfeasance, incompetence, and misconduct, throw in cruelty and you have todays news of the Humanitarian aid flotilla drifting defiantly toward Gaza only to be met by the violent hands and arms of Israeli gunships who without remorse massacre human beings who came with only one thing in mind to help those who are in terrible need. the white house "deeply regrets' all of this . I don't think the white house, or BP, of the mineral managements service or Halliburton, or the Israeli government deeply regrets anything. One cannot tee up on the golf course when one is in mourning. One is pulverized, and if the tragedy is still unfolding, one is obsessed with finding solutions. I don't believe these folks have the ability or capacity to deeply regret, because if they did we would see a sign of emotion. Like the Representative Charlie Melancon's tearful testimony before congress. He could not speak because he was overwhelmed with grief. Imagine a CNN or CBS anchor breaking down, like a human being.That is what is appropriate right now, an outpouring of grief and wailing that would be heard around the world and act as a catalyst for all sentient beings to release a flood of sadness and pain that has been swelling in our veins with each and every trespass and intentional violation of our precious fragile flesh. For every oil spill, home foreclosed upon, pension stolen, every medical procedure denied or botched operation, For every woman raped, or cut, for every child kidnapped and indoctrinated in an army for every bomb, bullet and blast a cry would ring out. A liberation of emotion that could not be ignored or hung up on. Let these things break your heart let yourself in on the disaster, let it move you to a place that is forbidden. That hurts too much. The results will amaze you, because the weight of things such as these are on you. And the eruption of emotional response is the truth of our dwindling existence. Once you touch this untapped well. With this force of nature uncorked pick up the phone and call, radio stations, television, the white house, call congressional offices. Let them know how you feel. Here's a cou[ple of good numbers for you it's the mineral management services 800-200-gulf and(202) 364-5500 is the Israeli embassy in Washington.