Two days ago I sat on the beach and watched a ghost crab at the water’s edge digging a burrow. I warned him that oil would be on the beach soon, to run up into the dunes and live there. But he would have none of it. I took video of him and photographed him, all the while trying to persuade him to move.

As I sat there I realized there is a need for all of us to bear witness to the death that results from the oil spill/flow. One of the most difficult things we can do is force ourselves to view footage of birds covered in oil, dead animals on the beach. Who wants to see such heart-wrenching images? But if these animals die in vain, if there is nobody to witness their suffering and pain, their death will be meaningless.

Let us honor these beautiful, innocent creatures by bearing witness to their plight. And then, may we join together and create the change that must be made if we are to leave a world of beauty and wonder for our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

I have been walking the beach at Fort Morgan every day this week and this afternoon, as I watched a BP four-wheeler straddle and then drive over tar balls, I knew the beginning of the end of our beautiful, sugar-white beaches had come.

What made it almost unbearable for me was the fact that the workers sped down the beach on their usual patrol. I stopped a National Guard humvee and asked them if anyone had reported the oil…No, we didn’t know it was here, they said. They also reminded me they cannot clean it up. The very nice guy told me that each agency has a ‘lane’ to drive in and nobody can cross into another agency’s lane.

Whatever….Please get somebody here to clean the beach. Never mind about stepping into someone else’s lane.

Over an hour later I see the green shirts of BP workers in the distance. A lone four wheeler comes to where I had been. The same two guys I photographed earlier actually got out of their vehicle and when they saw me, started picking up tar balls. I think they got two. I turned away and began to walk…just to see what they would do. They got back in their vehicle and left. So much for BP being there to make right their mess.

I’ve never been so angry in my life. BP–if you are going to hire people, please make sure they are INVESTED in actually doing the work! Enough of this story….it is repeated over and over again here on the Alabama coast. You don’t want people to volunteer…probably because they’d make your employees look pretty bad. Get your act together!

My brother and I went to a public forum in Mobile last night. It was hosted by SeaGrant and consisted of various representatives from agencies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill/flow/catastrophe. I came away with two major realizations.

One–The Coast Guard appears to be clueless. They sent a representative that didn’t even know Rear Admiral Mary Landry had been relieved of oil spill duty. It’s not Commander Brady’s fault. He is a reservist that has been recently activated to be a liason between the Coast Guard and the public. He could answer NOTHING that was asked of him. It was a slap in the face of those attending the forum, a big ‘we don’t have time for you’ from the agency that is supposed to be in charge.

Two–The EPA and FDA are also clueless. Stan Meiburg from the EPA touted dispersants as the answer to the oil flow. Has he been around Tony Hayward too much? Seems huffing the stuff can alter good judgment. On one hand he said, “Dispersants are the least bad trade-off,” and then said, “There is a lot we do not know about long-term use of dispersants.” The FDA representative, Robert Dickey was an even bigger joke. He said that dispersants are harmless to the public and they are safe and then says there is environmental concern. Which is it Bob?

The stand-out star, in my opinion, was Buck Sutter of NOAA. He actually made sense and did a much better job of directly answering questions. At least he didn’t dance around questions about PLUMES. BP is denying they exist. Buck said there are plumes and NOAA has two ships studying them now. He stated that the water in the plumes is clear but it is full of dispersed oil. He said because the oil is so dispersed it is very difficult to detect.

Finally….we see the value of dispersants. They make it very difficult to detect oil. Ah, so that’s why BP is adamant about using them. We wouldn’t want Tony Hayward to lose another night’s sleep would we? His company’s grand plan is unfolding–use unprecedented amounts of toxic dispersants so Tony can get his life back. At least we’re getting closer to the truth.

P.S. BP was supposed to be at the forum but didn’t show….are you surprised?

The guns and red brick walls of Ft Morgan once fortified the east side of the mouth of Mobile Bay during the Civil War. During subsequent wars and conflicts it was occupied by troops as coastline defense.

Today the fort is once again occupied with a force but this time they dress in white safety suits, wear rubber boots and are armed with tools used to clean up the invasion of sweet crude oil imminent in its arrival.

With each war humans invent new and more deadly ways to kill ourselves and each other. Now we can blame no other country, no other nation. We have inflicted this plague on ourselves by allowing corporate giants to exploit our home waters without requiring pre-tested measures in the event their fail-proof oil and gas rigs fail…by allowing them to rape and pillage our lands and waters unchecked.

Crime scene tape ropes off a historic bunker that National Guard troops were using as a path for their humvee’s to enter the beach. Workers at the fort put in a double row of yellow tape to stop their destruction of the bunker. I thought it was highly appropriate to line the entire coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico with crime scene tape. Make arrests, take the scoundrels to prison and then empower ourselves by taking responsibility for what happens in our backyards–by being aware and awake.

If only Fort Morgan could protect us from the oil….better yet, if it could protect us from ourselves.

I’ve been on the Gulf Coast for over two weeks now. I wanted to come home to document, through photography, this beautiful area before the inundation of oil begins to move from the holding pattern, just south of Mobile Bay, inland. I realized when the oil flow started that I didn’t have many high quality images of this magnificent place I call home.

Even with all the white-sand beauty surrounding me, I have been frustrated and unable to make progress toward my goal. I have felt tormented trying to get unstuck.

Yesterday I finally understood my lack of success as I drove along the main beach highway in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I was asking myself questions trying to unravel my two-week inertia when the answer came to me.

I have been looking for the Gulf Coast of my childhood–the gentle, moss-draped, wild place softened by warm, salty breezes. As I tried to connect with that place I was only able to see walls of concrete and glass, monuments to the gradual destruction of the raw, wild beauty that once infused this place. As well, gas and oil rigs now dot the horizon, a constant reminder of the life force being sucked from the region.

The place where I grew up no longer exists in the physical realm, it dwells only in my heart and mind. I catch glimpses of it in the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge or Gulf State Park, two rare and fragile jewels surrounded by the push of development. I cannot create photographs of a place that is no longer here.

Yes, it is beautiful here, but if only you’d seen it fifty years ago. The local news reported yesterday the oil is just offshore of the Alabama coastline. Within a few weeks I could be saying…if only you’d seen it three weeks ago.

So I begin at a new baseline and work to capture the essence of this place now. I celebrate the wildness still here, in small, sacred realms too precious to imagine losing. And I grieve for what has been lost and the losses yet to come.