A Brief Lesson on ANWR for Gordon Smith

T.A. Barnhart

Kari Chisholm below points out one of the many attempts of Sen Gordon Smith to con the voters of Oregon.  We've seen him do it in two elections, spend a short year pretending he's a moderate only to turn into one of the obedient little toadies in DC for Gingrich, Delay, Cheney, Rove, Frist and the other GOP ringmeisters.  Over and over, we see him saying all the right things -- when it's easy.  When the local tv news is on hand or the O wants to run a story or he's on CSPAN.  Then, when it's time to actually vote, he bends his knee to his masters and does their dark bidding, and apparently without a lot of difficulty.

ANWR is, I hope, one of the votes that gets remembered in 2008, one of the votes that kicks his lying, sneaking butt out of office.  He makes all the right noises about the environment, but then he votes to pillage the planet.  Clearly Smith is ignorant about what he's doing.  He must have no understanding of the issues, no knowledge of the bare facts, because he's not stupid.  He's more than smart enough to learn a lesson based on the reality of the world.  So far, unfortunately, that reality to him is power politics, his junior standing in the Senate, and possibly a dream that he could be a player one day for the White House.  Greed and lust make many people stupid, but so does a basic lack of simple, clear facts.

So here you go, Sen Smith, here's as simple picture of what your vote on ANWR means.  The picture is of snow geese getting ready for winter by feeding on the coastal plain of ANWR.  This area is not part of the wilderness area, and it's where the drilling will occur.  The oilheads try to paint pictures of sweet, harmless little oil rigs (I actually heard one bragging about the oil derrick in a McDonald's parking lot in L.A.; I've seen those, and they ain't even close to what ANWR is going to get), but the infrastructure needed to explore and drill will decimate the coastal plain.  The geese will be forced to migrate without having first fed, and the result will be mass destruction of the flocks.

And this is one species.  The animals that we see near the top of the food chain are, to use our favorite spotted owl term, indicator species.  If the snow goose can't survive in the oil industry's Happy  Critters Paradise of Oil, you know that many other species, less visible but maybe even more vulnerable, will also be harmed.  Most of the effects will be catastrophic.  We know this from what we've seen of human activity on the planet for centuries:  We obliterate everything in our path.  Only a liar or a fool could deny the harm we've caused, and to ourselves as much as any other creature.

So take a good look, Sen Smith.  That's the price we'll pay for the piss-bucket's worth of oil ANWR will give us -- in 10 years.  Look at all the photos taken by Subhankar Banerjee; let the beauty and irreplacible fragility speak to your heart, if you are capable.  Is the oil that precious?  Do we literally have no other options?  Or, to paraphrase the Lord speaking to Job, can you, Gordon Smith, create a snow goose or coastal lagoon?  Once this area has been crushed for a few drops of unneeded oil, Senator, can bring it back to life?  You know that answer is No, and that should have been your vote on ANWR.  I also think you knew that all along and still voted for the destruction.  You should be ashamed.

By T.A. Barnhart Nov. 08, 2005