This is a one of many comments in reaction to a discussion that New York Times columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins are having about the Gulf oil spill...
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
...Are you kidding me? An airplane crash is worse than this gulf spill? Yes, airplane crashes devastate hundreds of families. This spill will devastate tens of thousands and persist over decades. I agree that we can't fault the administration for its technical inability to stop the spill - but the problem is just beginning even after the spill is stopped. Then what do we do with all the oil - most of it below the surface and with the ability to get into the Gulf Stream and up the Atlantic Coast? The number of unknown variables is mind-boggling but a few things are certain including the short- and medium-term devastation of Gulf Coast fisheries and wetlands that provide critical habitat for commercial fish nurseries and vital (albeit already endangered) buffers for Gulf Coast residents from hurricanes.
And you think this tragedy won't affect as many people as an airplane crash? The Gulf Coast is pretty much defined by petrochemicals, fisheries, and tourism. With this one disaster, the livelihoods of many people in the latter two industries is at risk for years, if not longer. While the administration can't stop the spill overnight, they can be much more active in addressing the fears of an entire region that their way of life is vanishing and their livelihoods (as well as tax revenues and general environment) are in jeopardy.
And all this, of course, ignores entirely the issues for non-human residents of the Gulf. Do you not understand that, even if this tragedy is not of the Administration's making, the failure to empathize with, channel, and manage people's raw emotions in a national time of crisis only compound the tragedy? Especially at a time when there is so much fear and irrational anger floating in the national mood. People are angry - at whom they're not exactly sure! But they are sure that the institutions they've been told to trust aren't protecting them and that the solutions coming out of Washington, even if they are of long-term benefit like health care and financial reform (and even if economists tell us that short term economic solutions aren't really possible via the political sphere), don't seem to address the angst and fear of the struggling middle and lower classes. When institutions we rely upon are powerless to fix the actual circumstances of our lives - that's scary! When they don't even offer a narrative context that helps us pull through those bad circumstances - that's even more terrifying. It leaves people open to the soothing of anyone willing to offer a narrative that's compelling, no matter how non-sensical it may be.
The Gulf Coast tragedy is about the failure of big business and the failure of government regulation to protect us from big business or to address the aftermath of big business' failures. People's desire for action may be irrational. Their desire for compelling narratives is not (as apparently even you all are aware with your inane chatter about the storylines of "Lost"!!).
Is this really the best you can muster in your opinions about all this?! Maybe you both need to take a summer vacation from the media echo-chamber for a few weeks.
By Stufficot
Madison, WI
May 26th, 2010
2:51 pm |
