NOLA Notes

Affairs have reached such a crisis that men living in an organized and civilized community, finding their laws fruitless and ineffective, are forced to protect themselves; when courts fail, the people must act!

That’s from Who Killa Da Chief? in “Gumbo Ya-Ya.”  It was part of a speech given to an angry mob after a Louisiana court found a group of mafia men not guilty of murdering the New Orleans Police Chief in 1893.  The mob then went to the prison and exacted revenge Old Testament style.

I read that sentence at least five times last night with BP executives in my mind.  Granted, no one at BP has been found not guilty, or even charged with a crime.  Yet.  But we are not happy.  And it seems the “we” is growing.  Maybe I am wrong, and maybe the heavy coverage I saw of the spill on CNN today was an illusion.  But I think Americans by and large care about this story.  Not because of dying pelicans, or our fishermen’s cultural careers; not because of oily beaches or the loss of Louisiana seafood.

Americans care about this story because it is frightening how much influence Big Business has in this country and how little control our government has over Big Business.  Even all the “less government is best government” folks are calling for the feds to get more involved.  And yet it doesn’t.  Why?  For one reason, our federal government doesn’t know a thing about capping an oil well.  But the bigger reason is that Big Oil has been a HUGE financial contributor to most of the politicians in Washington, Democratic or Republican.  That’s certainly true for Mary Landreau, David Vitter and Barack Obama.  Those three have received a heck of a lot of money from Big Oil when they campaigned.  But so did their counterparts and opposers (so don’t comment about how much MORE money other politicians have received from Big Oil).  Big Oil is smart enough to grease EVERY palm, not just one or two.

And this could easily have been a problem in any American community.  Sure, it may not have be an oil spill.  Maybe the collapse of a coal mine or, I dunno, our banking system.  Or the mismanagement of privately owned sewage treatment facilities. Or poor oversight over pharmaceutical plants.  Not all may damage the environment as the oil spill is causing, all that is certainly possible.

But every American state has SOME heavily regulated industry in it.  And we all now must worry about the enforcement of those regulations or whether the industry in your backyard is too cozy with its federal regulators.  And what that could mean to your community.

We here in New Orleans already know the strength of our people; the power of community.  It was the silver lining we gained through surviving Katrina.  And now we look on at the Gulf waters completely helpless to DO ANYTHING.  The time is fast approaching where we can join forces to clean birds and the like.  But by large measure, there isn’t much we can do up against this problem.  Big Oil had us over the barrel before this even began.  And that’s partly our fault because we were lured by the money they paid.  Just like the politicians.

Unlike Katrina, this catastrophe has a real, live villain. One that is not immune from criminal or civil prosecution.  One that the people will keep a close eye on to be sure that those responsible get just what they have coming to them.  And if the courts don’t satisfy, I suspect the community will come together again in Louisiana and take the justice it will have been denied.

And like that mob scene in the prison in 1893, it won’t be pretty.