Loathsome Creature By Toni Etier Dedicated To BP

Come now, let's not be complacent. So what...they capped the leak, finally...after how long? A few months? Ruined a few beaches, killed a few animals, destroyed the livelihood of several families, paid off a few claims, cleaned up a little bit, BUT...don't forget...BP is a loathsome uncaring creature. Fixed on profit REGARDLESS the harm and disdain DONE TO others.

Although Toni did not compose this poem with BP in mind I couldn't help but picture British Petroleum as I read it. Relish the vivid description of an industry allowed to flow amok without a care for others in the world. As we all just sit back and breathe in and swallow this nauseous crap!

LOATHSOME CREATURE

So full of self, this creature flowed,

spilling nauseous crap as if it were gold,

twisted views of self worth and of measure,

droning on and on for self pleasure.

Cast your eye with distaste, loathsome creature,

placate your pride with self-righteous favor,

lose your humanity, if ever it was,

to judgement and ego and manufactured buzz.

Captured, your audience by circumstance or choice,

grace us, sweet creature, with your indulgent banter,

impress us, loathsome creature, with your witted candor.

So, loathsome creature in your view it would seem,

fortune reins down on those sat at your knee.

Cast your runes, and spin your tales,

no breath in sight for good sense to prevail.

***alternate ending

(Your ego is rooted, your mind made up,

all that is left to say, now is ...

Shut the fuck up.)

Toni E.

Oil Flood Protest New Orleans asks, "Who Dat Gonna Clean This Up?"

This is a shot of the famous Jackson Square in New Orleans. Usually it's filled with tourists, but not on this day. On May 30th, the Square was flooded with locals demanding accountability. Wondering why it is that the ones in charge have allowed the BP oil leak to continue. They're angry and they want answers now!


Louisiana felt the devastating effects of Katrina but recovered. If you remember the coverage of the hurricane you should also remember how thousands of people were left stranded without help, how the rest of us looked on in horror. I remember that time well, waiting to hear from my brother, my grandparents...I don't want them to feel alone.


Photos by Maria T. Brodine

"They Didn't Make Us So...We Didn't " Retorted BP

I know a little something about offshore drilling. My ex husband worked for Duo-Line which was owned by Rice Engineering. Except my ex husband was not an engineer, he was before coming to West Texas a bass player in a band. He landed a job working with cement for casings and within a couple of years moved up into production and then was made the top guy for flying out to Houston to fix engineering problems.

Yeah, there's gaining experience on the job, but really...someone doing an engineer's job without the degree or experience required? Happens all the time. Duo-Line lost their engineer and didn't bother to replace him. So, honestly, it doesn't surprise me that when safety measures are suggested that BP would retort...well, if they're not required...why?

Minerals Management Service questioned the effectiveness of blowout preventers used in extremely deep waters. Their concerns are now our accident in the Gulf. A backup shutoff device was also suggested, but not required by MMS. Why not required? Because the oil and gas industry boo hooed and cried about it. SO...the MMS backed down. Sounds like to me we need some new people with backbones on the MMS. Don't ya think?

Clean up efforts? Hah... all we got now going on is BP pointing fingers at TransOcean who's pointing fingers at Haliburton. Oh, do you remember me begging all of you to demand that Congress pass the Frac Act? Which would require oil and gas companies to disclose what's in Fraccing fluids? Guess what...the dispersants used to "clean up" the spill...an ancient guarded secret...who's feeling foolish now, huh?

Read more about the why, how and who here.

BP Needs A Good Ole American Revolution Butt Kicking

I am very familiar with the antics of BP Oil. There's a long list of travesties committed by this severely deficient oil company. The one closest to home for me is the Texas City Refinery explosion. Just five years ago, the BP Oil Refinery explosion claimed fifteen lives. These lives could have been saved if BP had implemented safety improvements and used proper equipment. Even after the explosion...after the investigations...after a court order to make these improvements in equipment, risk management, work culture, maintenance and inspection, and general safety...BP refused to do so. Why do you think that is?

We as a society, have created an environment, where Big Oil & Gas companies feel that they are above the law. Oh, you say..."We would never allow such a thing." Oh, but we have. By not speaking up, by not acting out, by continuing to elect the same old tired faces into congress, whose pockets are being lined by special interests groups and lobbyists...we have allowed this.

Then we have governors of certain states who also feel they are above the law. Why is it that Perry wants to sue the EPA? Have you really wondered and pondered the question? Don't you think that our leader...the one man that's supposed to be looking out for our best interests would welcome tougher regulations against an industry that's been allowed to run amuck? One would think.

What happened to BP after they decided not to implement the court ordered safety improvements? BP was fined 87 million dollars by OSHA. Have they learned their lesson? Apparently not. I briefly watched the CEO of BP spewing out all kinds of double talk. A press release had been issued that stated there was no significant difference in 1000 barrels of oil and 5000 barrels of oil spewing like toxic poo into the ocean. When he was questioned he offered this explanation: "Well, what we meant was that under the water...it physically didn't look different."

I know, incredulous.

Needing A Rescue Beacon For The BP Spill

With her velvet hair and violet eyes she scans the room like a beacon from a lighthouse piercing the blackness. Is the signal for wayward sailors meant for a lost love? She can't place her finger on exactly what she's searching for, but only acknowledges that something, someone is strangely out of place as a missing puzzle piece that would complete the so longed for image.

Do you find yourself sometimes fantasizing about being a character in a story? Where the end is destined and there is always a middle and a beginning. How simple our lives would translate and operate if we had our very own authors prethinking and penning our every word and deed.

There are times I've wished to have never began a story or subplot, choosing to skip a chapter. Of course, you never know you should of omitted that part of the story until after you've read it, well, and then...it's too late.

Because it's there...already engraved onto your memory, never to be forgotten. What then? You can't forget it so you must find a way to live with it. You also can not erase or change the past. There isn't a device which freely allows you to travel to a previous time in history.

I adore people who embrace tragedy with open arms instead of wallowing in the toxic waste of self pity. Strength and courage of mind and heart bottled into a course of action that flows freely like a river, just like the oil that flows freely beneath the life spring of waters in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm not quite sure where my course of action will take me, but be certain...my river will flow and you will soon know.

You Can't Just Hope It Away

I recently read a book where the main character said this, "hope is a cruel god." It foreshadowed unknown to me at the time that the one person in her life that offered a sense of completely satisfying her desires would soon be gone...lost to her forever. Would he magically appear in the next book? I think not...he was cremated.

What diminishes hope? A lack of action. You can not hope things into existence. Only action brings about the things we are searching for in our lives. You want a closer relationship with your children? You just can't hope for that you have to do something.

A friend recently came to that conclusion, that they can no longer just hope for good things to transpire but that they have to create an environment in which the desired result occurs. I would say that this friend is on the right path.

Recently it's been in the news, this BP oil spill. A lot of my friends on the Gulf Coast haven't had to deal with the sour effects of Big Oil and Gas. They have not felt the effects of what we here in Texas have felt for decades. As that sickening spill creeps slowly to the coastline and they begin to inhale the noxious fumes and witness the devastation the realization of what has happened begins to settle in.

Questions have surfaced asking how can we have the technology to do all these great things and yet we don't have the ability to shut this down? For so long, we've been conned into thinking that Big Oil and Gas can't be touched. That's an incorrect assumption. Seeing as how they continually touch our lives by polluting our ground water, releasing toxins into the air, instilling a cancer that will literally tear our lives apart we have finally come to the awareness that this has to cease.

We can no longer just HOPE that it gets better. We can no longer just HOPE that the industry will take responsibility. We can no longer ACCEPT because it lines our pockets with good paychecks. It's time to hold the industry accountable.