When the world believed that Americans couldn’t be any more ignorant, Sarah Palin took the platform in a debate against Vice President Joe Biden and said, “The chant is ‘drill, baby, drill’ and that’s what we hear all across this country.”
Biden reminded the country that for a decade and a half, Sen. John McCain voted against funding alternative energy sources aimed at wind, solar and bio fuels.
Maybe Palin was right. According to Reuters, a poll conducted by Gallup revealed that in March 2010 that almost 60 percent of Americans believed the “United States should give more priority to developing oil, natural gas and coal than to protecting the environment.”
A few weeks passed before President Barack Obama went against his previous judgment, giving in to opinion polls. The president opened offshore oil drilling in parts of the East Coast, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
Any rebound from Hurricane Katrina was slammed by the gulf’s environmental catastrophe. About 200 million gallons of oil covered more than 5,000 sq. miles of our ocean. Eleven oil rig workers, about 1,571 birds, 449 turtles and 54 mammals died. What followed was a lack of regard.
The major concern of some American news sources was our economy being more vulnerable now that we lost a piece of the fishing industry. BBC was worried about the fate of endangered and threatened sea turtles.
With it being turtle egg hatching season, federal wildlife officials and organizations such as the World Wildlife Foundation and Defenders of Wildlife worked to recruit volunteers and raise money in order relocate turtle eggs to the Atlantic coast.
Two months have passed since the cap was closed. Since then, we’ve received little information concerning wildlife and cleanup in the gulf. I question my fellow American citizens. Followers of all faiths and contributors to the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, what kind of planet will we leave our grandchildren?
All I am a witness to is starvation, war, greed, exploitation and ungrateful complainers trapped in a bubble. Tilikum, the orca, doesn’t want to be at Sea World any more than Tyke, the elephant, in Hawaii. However, because of our lack of regard, circuses and zoos will be the only place future generations will be able to observe wild animals.
Are Americans spoiled or greedy? Everyone wants to ask President Obama, “When is the money going to start rolling in?” as if America is truly suffering. Nobody in Africa is going to clubs. The only people in Mexico buying Patrόn are tourists. Albania and Bolivia stand as a testament to what being broke really means.
Before Obama can do anything, he has to prove that he was born in America, he’s not a Muslim and his push for health care reform won’t murder our grandparents. This makes sense, right? No.
Instead of following the gluttony of Republicans like Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann and Steve Scalise, who care more for luxury than our planet’s wellbeing, let’s make decisions based on our conscience — no matter the sacrifice.
What half of us consider suffering is simply a product of a failed oil conquest in Iraq under George Bush and Dick Cheney. It was their administration that refused to mandate backup systems that required oil companies to install proper shut-off valves.
What was their excuse? It would be too costly.
Khalil Daniel Sheikh is a senior liberal studies major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
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