Perhaps the most famous in the genre of blues songs was one composed by W.C. Handy.  That of course was “St. Louis Blues.”  Those of us who list St. Louis as our place of birth do not necessarily go around singing “St. Louis Blues” at all hours.  The composer, Handy, wrote of a man who had lost a woman and that tended to make him feel pretty sad.

In my own case, Sunday afternoons are not a joy to behold.  Even today, long into my retirement, I think about the work week or exercise schedule looming before me and I think about the doctors’ appointments that must be kept.  But today appears to be a gorgeous day with the temperatures hovering near 90 degrees and I am still afflicted by the blues.
I believe the source of my trouble has much to do with the oil slick produced by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico.  Secondly, when I think of the state budgets that are clearly out of balance, I find that the politicians are going to cut teachers short to make up the budget deficits.  It strikes me that if our public schools do not maintain their mission, millions of youngsters will not be properly educated and, if nothing else, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
On the first question, I have never been an enthusiastic supporter of off-shore drilling.  I don’t claim to know much about it, but if Sarah Palin thinks that the proper thing to do is to “drill, baby, drill,” then I am more than likely against it.  I know that we are consumers of energy far out of proportion to our population.  And I also know that we have not made every effort to control our consumption of energy.  Rather than controlling our energy needs, the course seems to be to provide all of the energy that we can consume.
Now the inevitable has happened.  The drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in a terrible rupture that is pouring millions of gallons of oil in to the waters there.  This is catastrophic for such people as myself who are great consumers of fish.  As the oil soaks the wetlands, it is inevitable that there will be shortages of fish and that the prices will probably be out of sight.  But more than that, my Sunday afternoon blues have to do with weeping for the people who tend the boats that supply us with our fish.  When this oil reaches the shore, as it will inevitably, it may poison the production of fish and crustaceans for years to come.  I hope that this is not the case.  Looking at it on this gloomy Sunday, it appears that it will be difficult to avoid such an outcome.
We are now several days into the spill by the British Petroleum drilling and I must say at this point, that judging from the news reports, we still have no fix for this terrible problem.  We are talking in theoretics such as capturing the oil in a dome that can be emptied but nobody has such a dome and the talk of emptying such a dome is just that: all talk.  So my gloom on this Sunday afternoon is, in my opinion, well warranted.  When I used to go to Louisiana, I remember that my wife and I were great consumers of po’boy sandwiches.  They are simply fried oysters between two layers of crusty bread.  There is a little remoulade sauce that goes with the po’boys but I am afraid that po’boys may be a thing of the past.  I know that this is a gloomy projection and I hope that things turn out differently.  But for them to turn out differently we need a miracle of the first order and it ain’t coming from British Petroleum (BP).
 
And now to move on to the second point in this inquiry.  The states running short of money to balance their budgets is another problem that causes me gloom on this Sunday afternoon.  For the states to balance their budgets on the backs of school children is, in my opinion, immoral.  In the state of New Jersey, there are more than 500 municipalities.  A good many of them have their employees on pension plans and must also maintain fire departments and police departments.
Now, on the pension plan, there is a good example in the case of Sharpe James who was formerly the mayor of Newark, New Jersey.  Sharpe was also a state senator and he intended to collect pensions from both Newark and the state of New Jersey.  Mr. James has just completed a term in the state penitentiary because he and his girl friend conspired on a property deal.  Curiously, in that case, his girl friend got a longer sentence than Mr. James.  As far as I know, Mr. James is still collecting his state and city pensions.  For this small state to maintain as many as 400 or 500 generous pension plans just puts our accounting out of balance.  It can’t be done.
In the case of the tax assessor in our town, he has that responsibility for at least four other municipalities in which he sets the rates for taxation.  I presume that they may all tend to pay into a pension plan for him.  But paying double or triple pensions to the tax assessors and double dippers like Sharpe James, it is no wonder why the cities and the state have budget problems.
And so it is that I worry about the leakage of the oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the tendency to balance the state budgets on the backs of school children.
W.C. Handy wrote his song “St. Louis Blues” as a love song.  At one point, he opines that “that woman has a heart like a rock down in the sea.”  Well, here we are with two rocks to deal with.  It will take a miracle for these rocks to disappear, and I am afraid that miracles these days are in short supply.  But let us hope for the best, that a miracle is in our future.  If it happens, we are ahead of the game and if it doesn’t happen we haven’t lost much.  But a miracle is what we need now to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf and to deal with the state budgets.
I wish I could be more exuberant but reality is reality.  I suppose the people at Goldman Sachs look for a miracle to help them with their problems.  But Goldman Sachs is not my problem and judging by their arrogance in testifying before Congress last week, they may deserve whatever happens to them.  On the contrary, I would argue that the fishermen who depend on the Gulf of Mexico and the children of New Jersey and other states deserve a much better fate.
 
E. E. CARR
May 2, 2010
Essay 452
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Kevin’s commentary:  I remember this event having far-reaching repercussions for a lot of industries. Even the vacation rental industry, in which my father is employed, suffered as a result of reduced tourism to the gulf for quite a while due to the pollution. I am not sure what effect it had on the various fisheries and it seems that despite some long-term damage, things have at least resumed some degree of normalcy.
Nevertheless this spill was handled poorly by all counts. Check out some of the other BP essays around this site for more. Google search actually works better than the site search does, unfortunately.