I’ll admit right away that I’m a mother to a toddler of nearly 2 years old, I am pretty doggone busy every day as I try to keep up with my son’s physical pace and intellectual thirst for knowledge (yes, pointing at things and grunting in a questionable way as to what that object is called).

Yet, I still try my best as do most parents to stay somewhat connected to the current events, especially locally…so when I see the headlines in the The Palm Beach Post read: “State to act against BP, Crist says”, I get pretty worked up since I can’t help but be insulted by our Governor’s assumption that we just want to sue BP because of the oil disaster brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. You can read more for yourself at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/florida-may-file-lawsuits-as-early-as-monday-679030.html

Yes, because even though I’ve been unable to keep up with all the specifics of this tragedy I still find it ridiculous that our Florida governor, you know- the Senate now Independent candidate has decided that BP must be have “action taken” against them.  That’s right, because I’m sure that BP thought it was a brilliant idea to have their oil rig have an accidental and fatal (to at least 11 persons) explosion take place to grant them fabulous and infamous media scrutiny as the coastal economies brace themselves for what may be the oil spill fallout.

Here’s the long and short, humble opinion of mine as to why Gov. Charlie Crist is no better than former Vice Presidential candidate and former Alaskan:  He is an opportunistic politician that just keeps grabbing at straws even though his chance to drink victory is long gone.

I can’t help but shake my head and just be plain disgusted that he would tout taking any type of action against BP, especially since it’s vague and just is a lame attempt at tugging at Floridian’s heart-strings.

What upsets me most as a native Floridian about this BP oil spill situation is that the nation as whole assumes that all Florida residents are against oil drilling in general, especially off our shores.  However, the reality is there are a good number of us that were open to the idea since we don’t all wish to be hypocrites.

At the same time, I’m willing to concede that oil drilling off our shores is a bit risky since our main industries are tourism and agriculture in Florida.  But here’s the issue that I struggle with: how is it okay that we drill elsewhere on Earth, but not in our own country because of the ENVIRONMENT?

Don’t get me wrong, I love our environment, I don’t rejoice in the fact that we have to over-harvest some of our resources as our appetite seems insatiable.  Still, I have a huge issue that we find it okay to rip out oil from Africa and Arab countries, but we’re above that in the United States of America. Really? The ANWR  (Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge) is too risky? For what, the animals that live there? How about the clam and oyster beds, the fishermen, the hotels and resorts along the Gulf and perhaps even Atlantic coasts (thank you Gulf Stream current capabilities)?

The hypocrisy of our nation gets me even while I am in the throes of raising a family…we guzzle oil, we must accept that fact and be adult about our responsibility in that and stop just assuming that our sources should be elsewhere, not our backyards.

Overall, my biggest complaint is with the attitude of our current governor, he’s much more concerned about his political welfare.  There’s no denying that oil drilling ideas for Florida were pretty  much killed after what happened with BP in the past few weeks, but Crist’s is taking it to a personal crusader level just to help win him some opportunistic votes for his struggling U.S. Senatorial race…

RVSB