There's A Hole in the World/Gulf of Mexico

This morning we sang the Eagles song "There's a Hole in the World" (LYRICS at www.AZLyrics.com). The song seems an adequate description of the hole in the Gulf floor resulting from BP's drilling off the coast of Louisiana.

There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

Naomi Klein (The Guardian, Saturday 19 June 2010) has called the deep water horizon disaster a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself. "It is a violent wound in a living organism; that it is part of us. And thanks to BP's live camera feed, we can all watch the Earth's guts gush forth, in real time, 24 hours a day."

The disaster demonstrates how little control humans have over the intricately interconnected natural forces of life. BP is having difficulty plugging the hole in the Earth. The ecology of the gulf will not recover soon after the eruption is plugged. No amount of money can replace what is lost in the Gulf. And while politicians and corporate leaders have yet to come to terms with these humbling truths, the people whose air, water and livelihoods have been contaminated know that something profound has, and is happening.