The 24th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

I DON'T NORMALLY DO THIS...................BUT!

This is an open letter to whoever wants to read it, and I pray that in some way it might help the current nature of man.  Chances of that are slim and none, and Slim just left town.

I live within three miles of this spot on the Saluda River and to which I walked this morning on the RiverWalk.  Does that mean I can now have bacon and eggs for breakfast?  He asks his cardiologist.

  Probably not, but that's the least of my worries.

For those of you who attended public school, this is a river which tries to clean itself every so many feet with filtering grasses and river bed stones.  It is a pretty much losing battle as too many people live on it and around it.  But as rivers go, it is pretty clean.  Trout thrive in it's upper reaches and landlocked striped bass in most of the rest, as well as small mouth bass and brim.  Also an occasional gator.  It really is a pretty spot within the shadows and city limits of Columbia, South Carolina.  A major city in the South.

Now for my grand kids, and someday great grand kids.  I am pissed!  By the time you are old enough to read this that will probably be one of the milder terms you learn in your modern places of education.  Webster says that the term means in British parlance, sometimes drunk.  That I am not!  In other translations define the term as downright angry.  That I am!  Now, they may change Webster's dictionary by the time you are old enough to read this, but right now in late spring of 2010, that is exactly what I mean.

Before I drop the hammer (writer's parlance for get to the point), we all have seen the semi-pristine beaches and oceans we are fortunate enough to live on or near.  This one at Assateague Island in Virginia.

Or seen a storm coming into the beach and putting an end to our beach side enjoyment for a while.

Or maybe lucky enough to experience the rocky coasts of New England and Maine.

And then there is this guy who is right now under serious threat!

To say there is a grave problem in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the understatements of modern times.  And I don't want to hear all the left wing ranting about "See what happens when you drill offshore".  I don't want to hear anymore hand wringing, inept, uninformed professional politicians saying "Well we expected the other guy to take care of this......and if George Bush had just ....yada, yada, yada."  Well, news flash....George isn't president, and neither is Bill, Ronnie, or even the peanut vendor.  AND, they are all at fault!  And yeah, you can note my tone of disrespect one and all.

The current administration is hell bent to destroy the economy, our democratic way of life, and now their inexperience or unwillingness to "Stop playing politics" is going to destroy an good chunk or our environment.  So kids this is what we leave you with.

I for one have gone online to find organizations who might need help in cleaning up the mess along the gulf coast and further if it gets to that.  There are the usual whiners like the Sierra Club and others who simply have political agendas.  I am not interested in them and would prefer to spend my time, money,  and effort with the likes of Audubon, or local home grown groups, who just want to clean up the mess.  Lets face it, Washington is just being Washington.  Too late with too little and always protective of their own political butts rather than problem solving.  Not to mention that the current bunch of "Elites"  simply  don't know what to do.  The answers were not in the text books at Harvard, Yale, et al.

Here's my answer Mr. and Mrs. congressman and women (deliberately without a capital C).  Give Bobby Jindal what  he needs to do the job, because the rest of you don't have to intelligence or the guts to find the solutions that the American Public elected you to do.