Can you imagine 5000 barrels a day being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico? I’m sure someone has calculated how many gallons of gas that is and I’m sure it’s an astronomical number. 5000 barrels a day into those beautiful blue waters. The outrage is warranted.

As a new Floridian (eight years now) I have come to regard the nature of this slice of paradise as a major component in determining my health and happiness.I can really understand how this drilling disaster is just killing these poor people around the Gulf. I’m not a fisherman but I eat seafood. I don’t vacation here but I do call this place home. And I know I’m not being directly affected here in my immediate location but they are talking months before any resolution can be found. I can feel the blow to the life around me. And it’s terribly upsetting. But you know what? Our insatiable need to consume oil is behind it all. Having kids dying in the desert and all the back room deals we make with the Saudis and their neighbors, we’re becoming numb to that stuff. However, this little drilling mishap,  (which now has the dubious honor of being the worst disaster of this sort in history,) albeit rare, is another ugly consequence of being addicted to oil. We want our beaches but we want to pollute them too.

I feel like a parent with twins, one an angel, the other, evil to the core. I love my sunshine. I love my beach. I like being able to get to the movies. I like being able to go to the store when we’re out of sunscreen. And I don’t think I’m able to give up any of  ’em.