BP Oil Spill- Not at all as catastrophic as the extinction of what was the most populace bird in North America.

The headlines like the deadlines are never good, approaching every minute in our media saturated world. We feel stressed slightly by them but let them pass after we have met them, like a anxious wave to a neighbor, whose dog you wish could learn a little obedience. Pass on by, environmentalism should reach a peak with something like this BP Oil Spill but maybe it won't. Maybe we will pass on by with no Silent Spring, no shot in the dark to awaken our sleeping sense. We, the people who buy oil and its products, so solemnify to swear to blame Companies that produce a good that is linked to destruction, rather then ourselves who use and consume the good they provide.

Hmm seems like a stretch, I think maybe it would be too much guilt, growing up catholic was hard enough. But if I lived in the 1800's I wouldn't feel connected to the deaths of coal miners either when I stepped on a train to travel. I would expect that luxury, and I'm not going to purchase and then ride a horse more a week just to travel. Nope not when there is a steam engine train to take me there in less then half the time. But my purchase of the ticket is not linked to the inevitable deaths that happened in the 1800's that happened to men who willingly go down into the earth to dig out material to power my trip.

No lets blame them the companies whose workers die on the job, the companies who spill the oil. It's not my fault if I drive and want energy to fuel my air conditioner. This is America and I do what I want.

Unfortunately people who think of these freedoms to indulge in opulence as an American right, are getting a slimy coastline, their America is stained black with sludge. No matter how Red White and Blue you think our country is, it is not without blame. Our country developed with the destruction of the environment, wildlife dwindled, trees were needed for buildings and fuel and ties of railroads that had to be replaced frequently. The headlines talk about the worst environmental disaster, but they must mean the most rapid, because how does the killing off of the passenger pigeon even compare. Yet that was a slow less media heavy covered topic, the oil spill is not a century in the making unless you see the invention of the combustible engine as the impetus of this disaster.

Sorry lets not blame the people running the engines, just those who provide the fuel to run them.

Speaking of fuel, passenger pigeons helped fuel another atrocity that our country put up with for a long time just like we do our oil consumption, except is seen as a much greater impact of our nation's humanity. Slavery was hard work and protein was important to fuel for it. There was one sure easy source of protein to help fuel your slaves and the developing agrarian economy, the humongous flocks of birds that some written accounts would describe as blocking out the Sun.

Passenger Pigeons. RIP

Good thing your friends the Bison made it through that rough patch of time.

Don't let the headlines fool you, your much bigger of an environmental disaster then the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Oil goes away like the sweat on my brow when I blast my AC. Genetic specialization it almost impossible to get back.

I guess we'll settle for your cousin the city pigeon, he eats the trash on the street so rats can't get to big.

Minneapolis

I have returned from the most populace city in america, and have thought about how cities are stories. There is evolution to them. Where people are, their space upon the grid of gravity that encompasses us, at those specific places, goods and services are sure to follow. Like the ancient crossing paths of camel routes, places where phrases like "he ain't work worth his salt" and "These people are the salt of the earth" originated, cities have becomes homes to people and the spaces between them have been filled by others doing work. From the smallest hydrant to the most giant stadium all space gets filled for a use. We use our own population and the populations outside the city who want to interact with what we do or make.

Space is an interesting concept, Gene Roddenberry called it the final frontier but it is really just more of whats between us rather then a outward space. Cities fill it with materials and along come it's history. The city is made up of the people in it, the Dwellers who live down the block are a good example. When people live they have to eat and sleep to remain living, yes I am including drinking perhaps I should say obtain sustenance rather then eat. I work at a Restaurant, one that provides mighty fine sustenance, I do so because people visiting or living in the city chose not to cook for themselves. Therefore the space of that building is a restaurant, it was once a automobile service station. This is an example of how space evolves and takes different uses, like the old buildings downtown.

The people is where I would like to look today. Most people think of this town and state as Scandinavian 'don't cha know' , it is actually more German then anything according to historical data. But the names of the past, of the forefathers are not the most German or Scandinavian sounding, Pillsbury, Washburn, Loring. That is because the new immigrants filled the spaces of the owners. Workers worked in the mills but along with that had to come auxiliary goods and services. The people creating the things and stuff used in between the mills and their houses. The Swedish Institute is a good example of someone prospering from auxiliary services. As the entrepreneur Swan Turnblad created a Swedish language publishing dynasty and set up house in the mansion on Park Ave. Turns out people wanted to know more about the world, and in days before television it was the newspapers informing the masses. These auxiliary services, are made for the people who make the things that are shipped out of town, the Millers, and nowadays the corporate machines of Target, 3M, General Mills, and Best Buy. The spaces are filled the more people there are, the less gaps in space, for our space becomes prized. I realized in New York our abundance of space here in Minneapolis, and what gorgeous space it is.