My American Indetity after the BP Oil Spill

Last Thursday, the sun was setting over Delacroix Island as Jerry Alfonso manned our flat boat down Bayou Gentilly. My eyes were fixed on the blood orange sky drifting over the marsh grass. Mottled ducks flew over pipeline canals and the smell of salt water and sticky marshes blew with the wind rushing past me. "This is my home" were the words that played in my head and in that moment my American identity changed forever.

I am ashamed to say that I have not heard of any other place in America where its citizens have yet to claim their right to exist. We at the Mississippi River's Delta have no voice. Every day we see more of our coastline disappear and now a massive oil spill threatens our natural resources. Some say that we are treated like a colony. By all accounts of coastal land loss and the long term sacrifices we've made, we are in a losing battle with the Gulf of Mexico. Does America realize that we are being attacked ?

For more than a thousand years the inhabitants of Coastal Louisiana found sustenance in the estuaries forged by the confluence of the river and the gulf. The sheer abundance of the region blessed the people with the necessities of survival. There was little separation between the people and the land. Agrarian life certainly had its downfalls but communities were built and often times flourished.

South Louisiana evolved through this connection and continued to do so until mankind began to severely alter the landscape in the 1930's. The consequences of these actions would deteriorate one third of the entire region by the time Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. During this disaster, the water overtook the land like never seen before and the nation turned its eyes to us. We were in the spotlight for a while but when the media left we were on our own. Volunteers poured in to support us and they helped to restore the region. Where FEMA left off, good Americans pulled together, got to work, and rebuilt their lives from the ground up...literally.

The oil spill is the new major challenge for our region. This time nature plays the passive role as a corporation and a lack of government oversight are the major threat. Leaders are emerging on a local level, but most of us feel alienated from the rest of the country. We've had hurricanes, and lots of them, but this beast has us backed into a corner.

BP is our common enemy and rightly so. The company is the face of evil and we want them punished. If laws are upheld and the American justice system prevails, we might get our wish.

As for the future, we have no idea of what this oil will do to our ecosystem. The spill combined with the rate of ongoing wetlands loss may cause damages that we can never recover from.

With this I am considering my roles in forming this disaster. Opposing political parties seem to want me to hate myself for being addicted to oil or to endlessly support a company's right to earn profit. I don't see any of these lawmakers and naysayers out on the bayou. They don't know how to make a roux, peel a crawfish, or where I'm at. Yet I have been living with much more than my great-grandparents ever did. They had less and conserved more and I can't honestly say I know how to do this.

I enjoy being comfortable, driving where I'm going, and using my laptop. The fossil fuels I burn to enjoy these things are one of the many resources this earth has to offer. I'm not going to be able to stop using fossil fuels, I know this, but I can begin to be more conservative in the way that I use them.

As for alternatives, I don't have many options. I can walk and bike more, turn off the lights when I leave, and try to avoid plastics. I could also develop a long term plan to curb my energy use. I'll have to do something, because the status quo got us into this mess and I surely won't be leaving the place I love if I don't have to.

I will never be the same after this experience and I am inviting anyone who wants to change to join me. I'm going to take a hard look at the way I use energy and consume products. I'm not going off the grid or yelling about a falling sky. I'm going to learn my lesson and not be defeated. I will do what it takes to protect my home and prepare for the future. I may have to make some lifestyle changes, so be it...my great-grandparents did it. This oil spill and the wetlands loss are attacks on American soil and if I don't look seriously at my role in this, there will be no future for South Louisiana.