God Bless BP

I have held my tongue a long time in reference to

how I feel about BP and the oil spill yet a simple

conversation with my dentist has made it time to

say what I am thinking.

Controversy will follow this post but I will write it anyway

because I too have an opinion even if it is completely

opposite of how most people feel.

No one loves our bayou and the way of life

that surrounds the mighty waterways more than me.

I am worried about the livelihoods of those

who are affected by the spill but I also feel a need

to defend BP and not only because HOBL works for them.

As you pass in many places you can read the signs putting

down the company that is the main cause of the spill.

"BP mother nature called she said to clean your room"

"Bp you took our legs how are we supposed to stand?"

I can deal with this but on my way to Schriever

I see a small sign in a brave homeowners yard that says,

"God Bless BP"

So simple yet so strong.

I tell my dentist this story and although he agrees with

me that BP is doing the best they can and that they

didn't wake up that morning and say

"Today I think I will blow up and oil rig and kill 11 people"

He didn't think it would be wise to put a sign like this in my yard.

HOBL feels the same way.

As much as we support BP we can't put a sign like that in our yard

out of fear of vandalism.

Well that makes me mad.

So here I will speak how I feel.

All, and I mean all, oil companies do things that may not be the safest

without breaking the law.

Do not believe that those other big companies don't breathe a sigh of

relief when knowing that it was BP and not their company

responsible for the mess in the gulf because they know

it could have been them.

Do not believe that those people at BP have not lost many nights

of sleep knowing that because of their company they

have changed the lives of so many.

I feel, however, they are doing and awesome job in

the way they are trying to make this right.

All you hear about are the people who are angry with BP

because they are not doing enough for the loss of their

businesses. You are not hearing from the ones who are pleased

with BP, why?

Because they are reputable companies, are trawlers who instead

of crying their sad stories they are out working for BP to help

fix the problem. They are earning a paycheck sometimes bigger

than the ones they brought in during trawling season.

It is a fixed income that many trawlers never had

when skimming the gulf.

Who are we hearing from?

Well those who have used our waterways for drug trafficking and hid

behind their trawl boats to do their business.

You cannot be paid by BP for the money you made illegally.

Because some of these people can't pass a drug test,

they can't work for BP in the cleaning so they whine to the media.

We hear from the ones who call themselves trawlers

but they awakened at 10:30am on a good morning to go trawling,

if the weather was good, if they felt like it,

sold their shrimp either from their boats or

to their neighbors down the street for cash and have

not paid taxes for some time.

You cannot get paid by BP if you collected cash and have no

tax reforms to prove what you made last year.

BP is paying the hard working trawlers

more than some ever made and they are paying now.

They are not giving hand-outs which is what some of

the cajuns want, hand-outs.

I have spoken to many people who are very pleased with

how BP is handling the loss of their businesses.

Why are they pleased? Because they were

honest and reputable businesses prior to the spill.

It is a mess, yes the animals, the pelicans covered in oil

are not a pretty sight.

Yes, oil and water will never mix and the oil has to go somewhere.

Many businesses have lost but also because of this

many are getting jobs and working when just before the spill

they were unemployed.

People who owned rentals that could not get renters

are now being paid by BP to house all these workers.

Golden Meadow has never been this busy in a long time.

BP is not responsible for the moratorium.

Because of this disaster stricter rules will be placed so

as not to have this happen again.

Just as the natural way of disasters,

change comes after the hit.

Before we all sit in the comfort of our air conditioned homes

and get into our gas guzzling cars to buy our groceries

at Walmart we need to realize that without companies

like BP our comfortable lives as we know it

would not exist.

BP is not perfect, none of us are.

I wish I had the courage to put a small yet big-impacted sign

in my yard that says

GOD BLESS BP

Because all of us praying US citizens would make

more of an impact if we prayed and helped

rather than sit in our homes and say

how terrible BP is.

Just my words, my thoughts and because

I live in the mighty bayous of the USA I can speak

these words:

GOD BLESS BP