Visit Restore Louisiana Now on Faceook and Like the page. Its time to put your voice in the pot for this important issue. When I first moved to Louisiana 50 years ago, among my early assignments for the now defunct New Orleans States-Item was to cover maritime, oil, and gas. Early on, I took a trip to Cocodrie, LA, a jumping off point to visit the barrier islands. Then, lands end south of Cocodrie, was across a small stream in the marshlands to the first of the islands. I was told then that 50 years earlier, you could drive a buggy from Cocodrie to the island because there was firm marshland all the way. 25 years after my first visit in 1964, when I went down, it took 45 minutes by boat from Cocodrie to the island and the island itself was riddled with wide waterways created by salt water intrusion in pipeline canals dug by big oil companies and never filled in by the oil companies because those at the helm in Baton Rouge and various coastal parish governments were out to lunch and did not take care of the peoples interests. Pretty soon, if the jackasses in Washington and elsewhere, dont put aside party politics and start doing something for those they represent, youll have to take a boat from New Orleans because there wont be any Cocodrie, and very little of West Jefferson Parish for that matter, most of St. Bernard and Plaquemines will be gone, and, East Orleans Parish, too. New Orleans will be like Venice. And seafood will be such a precious commodity everywhere that only the 1 per cent will be able to afford it. If you want to read what New Orleans will be like in the not too distant future, if things keep going the way they are going now—with the politicians doing everything for the 1 per cent and nothing for the people who elected them—read Moira Crones brilliant novel, The Not Yet. In her vision, which I share, the prospects are grim for our children and their children and their grandchildren because only the 1 per cent will have anything and the rest will be at the mercy of the 1 per cent as in the Dark Ages. I am well aware of the economics of the oil industry. There is no question that big oil provides jobs in Louisiana and elsewhere. That, however, is no reason they should not be held accountable for destroying the fishing industry, which also provides good jobs. The fact that the oil industry is important to Louisianas economy, is no reason oil companies should be able to get away with the unbridled arrogance that has left this state in harms way—vulnerable to destruction from every hurricane that enters the Gulf. Lets face it. If we hold their feet to the fire and if we make them pay a fair share of the costs of running this state and keeping Louisiana citizens safe and if we make them financially accountable for the wreckage they have left behind them, what can they do about it? The oil is here. Rosemary James
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:28:20 +0000
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