Fixing the Gulf

Actually, I'm at a loss for how to clean up the oil spill. I'm not a marine biologist or an engineer. I wish that I could stop the oil spill and clean the water. I wish that this crisis would highlight the need for clean and alternative energy. I wish that the guilty parties, BP and, more importantly, all of us who are addicted to foreign oil, would see that our lifestyle is unsustainable and that we are only hurting our economy and our environment.

I wish, but hoping and blogging are about as much as I can do. Perhaps if I were divine I could do more. Perhaps a deity could and would help. I know. Let's pray.

Now in all honesty, I don't want to make fun of this notion. If people want to pray for help, then I'm all for it. But this seems to be taking it a bit far. Nothing wrong with a day of prayer. Nothing wrong with asking for help and looking for solace. There is something wrong with the idea that the efforts of "mortals" are futile and that we must rely on divine intervention. The problem there is that divine intervention isn't coming and if we sit around and wait on it, nothing will get done. Like every problem in history, the gulf oil spill was caused by mortals, and like every problem in history, it will be fixed by mortals.

So, Louisiana, pray. And I hope others pray with you. But please, for everyone's sake, don't count on god. Count on human ingenuity and willpower because this is our problem, and we have to fix it.