Drink Up!

I don’t smell smoke. Or do I? The window is open and I’m prepared to shut it quickly if I’m wrong. Or, perhaps I’ve grown accustomed to the smell after a few months of it.

I’ve been awake for an hour and haven’t even looked at the news. What am I thinking? That the news is old and tiresome; much like me. But…I better take a look and get my mind engaged in the affairs of the world.

And the first thing I spot is the news of a leaking barge on the Mississippi River. Leaking heavy fuel oil. ‘Officials’ are making all of the usual foolish noises about the spill as they try to minimize the public’s perception of the problem.

“I’m very concerned, but I don’t think it’s a calamity of the proportions of Exxon Valdez,” said Robert A. Thomas, director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Loyola University. “Here, you’re talking about an enormous amount of oil, but it’s in a river that averages about 450,000 thousand cubic feet per second of flow,” he said. “It’s going to flush this stuff out,” Mr. Thomas said.”

But…flush it out? Flush it where? He doesn’t mention that.

And then I learned something that really disturbed me about New Orleans; they drink the water from the river. Why? The Mississippi is the nation's drain. What drains off of a farmer’s field in Minnesota will end up coming out of the tap in New Orleans. I know; it’s been tested, inspected, disinfected and etc. But would you want to drink it?