Red flags at Deepwater Horizon

The slow motion devastation in the Gulf weighs on me like a two ton backpack. Reports of the ongoing damage crush my spirit. But then I read about the negligence that caused the explosion and I'm filled with a white hot fury born of fear and frustration. The NYT reports:

In the hours before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded last month in the Gulf of Mexico, there were strong warning signs that something was terribly wrong with the well, according to a Congressional committee that was briefed on the accident by executives from BP.

It's increasingly clear that this was an avoidable accident caused by decisions made to protect a few million out of billions of dollars of profit. And my anger increases ten-fold when I see BP's CEO strutting along an oil-soaked beach, ordering Americans to be removed from public land, as if it was his own private fiefdom.

I'm riveted in horror as I grasp the long term implications of the damage and like everyone, I want to scream, "Do something. End this nightmare." And then I'm crushed with grief and fear as I realize no one knows how to make it end. Whatever their motives, surely no one wants this disaster to continue. But they really just don't know how to end it because they never believed it would happen. It seemed to them to be so far-fetched a possibility that they didn't develop a serious plan. And I'm not sure there's enough money in world to compensate the victims. Ultimately, the victims will be all of us.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]