Clean water

I come to Maine every year to be by the water. All summer I sit on my deck beside the clean freshwater lake, and when I need an “ocean fix,” it is a short drive to the nearby coastal village of Freeport. I don’t take for granted that I can enjoy the water, but I do take for granted that the water will always be here. Or at least I did until this summer.


I have been watching the horrific television news images of the devastation to the Gulf coast caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I watch interviews with the stunned Gulf shore residents trying to clean the brown, sticky oil from their once pristine beaches; and with the heartbroken shrimpers whose livelihood has been destroyed almost overnight. The wildlife images get to me especially—the oil soaked pelicans, the fish washed ashore, dying on the sand. Even if some of the animals can be saved, where will they live? Their habitat has been destroyed.

A few weeks ago, the head of BP in a news conference said that no one more than he wanted to get the problem solved so he could “get his life back to normal.” See how quickly he made a global disaster all about himself?

Experts predict that it will take more than 60 years to clean up the spill. I wish I could help. Meanwhile, what am I doing to help clean up the oil spill? NOTHING. See how quickly I can make a global disaster all about me?