Yesterday was my first mother's day without my mother on earth. I know she is still with me, because I can hear her voice so clearly in my head. Her wisdom and humor and advice touch my life everyday.
Our mothers were famous for their sayings, like "Don't be such a big shot,take a jacket.You don't have the sense god gave green apples." "Don't talk with your mouth full." "Eat your vegetables." If you stop for a moment, and think about it, one of her admonitions will easily bubble up to the surface. She was right about so many things and it was always for "our own good". Yet in our immature adolescence, which is the stage that the human race seems to be stalled in, we talked back, ignored her, rolled our eyes and snuck out the window in the middle of the night to play chicken in the road or steal something from the neighbors. It was then, when he were up to our eyeballs in trouble, that she would unleash the ultimate in linguistic vanquishment. "I told you so."
Well, The awakened human beings of the earth for so long have been prophesying disaster on the (deep water) horizon when it comes to off-shore drilling. We've been saying lo these many years accidents will happen. and we cannot afford to pretend we have the intellegence or ability to respond to what we can barely conceive. The relentless dedication of those who love the earth beyond measure, our mother ocean, have said ad infanitum, this must stop we cannot drill into her body and expect no consequences. We raised our voices, layed down our bodies, linked our arms, wrote our letters, elected our representatives. We warned them. and We hate to say I told you so, but. The reason we hate to say I told you so is because the suffering that is upon us now could have been averted. The untenable reality that 200,000 gallons of crude oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis is not something we relish being right about, it's not satisfying to say I told you so. It is tragedy on top of tragedy. How do we atone. Our poor mother, grateful for her hallmark greeting cards and Sunday Brunch is a in unprecedented crisis. Sorry Mom. Sorry. What can we do? What can we say? Oh mother earth you are the source of all life and greatness. We Popped your cork, your holy ancient lubricant is unleashed into the wild waters. You are hemorrhaging mother and we are not doctors, like you hoped we'd become. We are Pirates. We are criminals and victims and we are all of us nursing at your many tits unconscious, never satisfied, never pacified, our voracious appetite devours all, we chew thru your nipple and expect you to comfort us and give us more succor. Rape becomes the ultimate metaphor, for we, without permission, penetrated your sea floor, your cervix, and then plunging deeper 30,000 more feet nearly piercing your heart. without council or hesitation, knowing we could, but not asking if we should. The enormity of the calamity stuns me into submission, futility is hovering dangerously close. We are the deer in the headlights about to be run over by a sweet crude petroleum 18 wheeler. We will be roadkill in the most ironic reversal of power. Power over has been our motto, and the dinosaur our mascot since the early 1900's, our razon' d etre for war and profit and the destruction of ecosystems from the Niger Delta to the Prince William sound to the Great Barrier Reef to the Gulf of Mexico. The Chief Executive Officers of these Corporations from Exxon, Shell, Chevron to BP to the dastardly Halliburton have been criminally negligent and yes, we are complicit. But, I suggest We need to make an example of the ones who engineered this unprecedented ecological disaster into action and destruction. A symbol that declares we are awake and responsible. Remember the punishment of Tar and feathering where a vigilante mob would pour boiling oil on the scoundrel and dump feathers over them as a way to inflict pain and suffering. Public humiliation. They would look like the breeding brown Pelicans who are tarred and feathered right now. I think it is the only appropriate retaliation against the greedy pirates of the sea. Tar and Feathering is not that hard because the feathers are already prepared. All we need are the criminals that frankly, prison is too comfortable for and the death penalty is too merciful. We want them to live on suffering along with all the wildlife and the human beings that have to go on and explain to their children what on earth they were thinking. Oh Mother forgive us, we should have listened.
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