"The Crying Indian"

Do any of you remember the commercial from the 80's where the Native American man would walk around, see trash on the ground, and cry? I do. Vividly. Many jokes have been made about it in the years since but now it seems as if there were ever a time for the comeback of "the crying Indian", it would be now.

Seeing photos from this ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is heart breaking. People in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida will forever be effected by this tragedy. Now the people that have been working on the cleanup are getting severely ill and officials from BP are saying not to jump top any conclusions because it may be "food poisoning".

I remember seeing the white sand and crystal blue water of the Florida panhandle. Will my kids ever get to see it? It reminds me of the fact that I learned how to swim in Mission Bay in an area that now posts a sign with a skull and crossbones. Multiply that times a million and you have the gulf.

My friend Eric posed an interesting question to me today. He asked "what if this oil were like an insulant from the magma at the core of the Earth? Now that it's spewing uncontrollably, is it like all the insulation being sucked from your home? Leaving it defenseless against the intense heat of the Earth's core?

Can you imagine a massive void being created in that area and the earth just collapsing in on itself? I wonder if this is something that was ever brought up? I wonder if this was something that was brought up and immediately silenced due to the amount of money oil generates. What the hell do I know? I'm just a stupid singer/songwriter. College drop out. What would I know of the planets make up. The different layers of the earths crust, plate tectonics, geothermal catastrophe possibilities. How do we know it's not like a big game of Jenga- and all the middle pieces have been removed but one. One piece, with the Western Hemisphere teetering upon it above an abyss of molten rock and gas.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

I like to reference Dr. Suess' The Lorax. It is so fitting. Big business destroying the environment for big money. When all is used up, they pack up and go leaving a trail of fractured life and pollution. Getting away with it by greasing palms and high priced lawyers at fancy lunches striking deals for each other, just in time to make their tee times.

The Indian is crying. I don't have anything happy to say. This disaster sucks!