The high cost of off-shore drilling - the victims of greed

Each time I see a suffering bird or a fish gasping for air or a sea turtle whose life has ended before its time or the faces of fishermen who realize that their way of life may be gone for decades, my heart breaks. Each time I see more oil washing onto the pristine shores of the Gulf Coast, I cry. The wildlife, the inhabitants of the Gulf Coast, the creatures of the sea - all are helpless victims of big oil greed; of failed legislation; of politics and politicians gone wrong; of morality that ceased to exist long ago and far away.

I cry for our planet. I cry for what we, mankind, have done to the sea, land and air. I sob for the helpless wildlife that we have maimed as a result of our ignorant thinking and unbridled greed. We don't own this planet. We don't own one grain of sand on any beach or on any dune. Without us and without our footprint in the sand, our planet would thrive.

It would grow and 'be' just as it was meant to be - pure and with a natural plan and without the need to kill wolves or bears that encroach on 'our' space. There would be no miserable shark finning - dumping live animals back into the sea - left to drown - without their fins - bleeding and helpless - for want of an expensive bowl of soup. There would be no Chinese meat markets filled with skinned dogs and cats or ground tiger bone hawked as a sexual enhancement or endangered sun bear gonads or elephant tusks tossed into bins in Asian pharmacies - promising medicinal cures that aren't to be. Women and men wouldn't wear the fur of another living being. Eagle eggs wouldn't be so frail that they couldn't hold a chick until birth. The whales would swim free to live complete lives - not ones cut short by Japanese fishermen who say they harpoon those gentle beings for 'research'.

We are but passing through this Universe and what we leave in our wake is what will speak for us. What we leave behind is what will tell those who come after us of our humanity - or lack of it; of our compassion - or lack of it; of our consideration of others - or lack of it; of our legacy to those who inhabit the future - of lack of it.
I am ashamed to be human. I kneel before God and bow my head before all of the creatures of this earth and beg forgiveness for the transgressions of mankind for there is NOTHING KIND about being a part of man.