Peace and Justice Reflection

"DO SOMETHING!"

By Fr. Jeremy Tobin, O.Praem.

It is June already! The year is almost half over. You know that you are growing older when the years seem to fly by. For some of our younger readers the months seem to drag on. "When will school be over?" Here it is. Summer is on, heat and all. But what a year this has been.

Horrible catastrophic tornadoes tore up over a dozen counties. The slow, painful part of rebuilding will drop off the news. Still, it goes on. Then the oil spill; it is too painful to predict the future. They say opposites attract. Growing up in a big city, the only thing like major water was Lake Michigan, I found the deep bayous, swamps, fisheries, the languages, cultures, and, of course, the cuisine of the Gulf Coast a magnet. Traveling down in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along the coast was a world all by itself. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the country. Oh, I suppose San Francisco's waterfront with memories of Jack London scribbling short stories on the backs of envelopes inside a ship a hundred years ago might be some competition. But the Cajun and Creole going back and forth, and Vietnamese fishermen shouting to one another, plying their skills like they did back home, on the other side of the world, evokes mysteries and histories begging to be explored. There was Pierre who could shuck oysters like a surgeon... I can go on.

This is why I, and countless others live with a growing helplessness as the weeks turn to months. The oil fifty miles out in the Gulf has invaded this pristine, never to be duplicated, region. The people, the culture, the cuisine are one thing, but I haven't spoken of the wildlife, the nesting grounds, the precious marsh lands that do so much. The thought of this all being destroyed forever is too painful to dwell on.

What makes it worse, this is all man made! Investigations go on and on, but 11 people lost their lives. Their tragedy is covered by the ecological disaster unfolding before our eyes in prime time! The memorial service recently held in the Jackson Convention Complex put some closure on it, at least some balance. This oil rig blowing up, with all the attendant disasters will leave scars that will last the rest of the century. This happens to the same region recovering from Katrina and Rita. Then they say this approaching hurricane season (Welcome to June!) could be very severe.

I am tempted to go into a speech on conservation, protecting the environment, alternate forms of energy. As important all that is, right now I cannot get away from the human tragedy unfolding.

I've been reading the Washington Post, the New York Times, both on line, in order to get a bigger picture about what is happening. All the media seem to say one thing, "Do Something!!" then there is the repetitive, "This has never been tried... " Or "At this depth, no one is sure... " The current "Top Kill Method" percentages of success swung from 80% to 60% depending on what you read. As the tragedy unfolds, it is becoming fodder for political distortions and mud slinging. Watching the disasters, man made and otherwise, since this century began, I am appalled at the crass selfishness that gets in the way of serious concern for what is happening. Is there anything that can bring Americans together for the betterment of the country without appealing to ideology?

The truth is, this is a first. The more we learn, the more frustration grows. As people get more frustrated, they want to blame somebody. BP Oil is a fat target. The criticism is well founded. At some point, however, we have to focus on the human and natural damage that this will leave behind. I want to go down to the bayous and marshes, and see the birds, and watch the fishing boats sail out to sea, one more time.