Because I will be birding pristine Island Beach this Sunday, –with five other intense bird-lovers, two of whom are the well known fine art nature photographers, Ray Yeager (of Ray Yeager Photography.com) and Angela Previte, (of Simple Life at the Shore Nature Blog), I am expecting to be in the company of gannets. There is no more elegant, no more spectaculara shore bird in my world, especially when gannets are feeding. We may also be gifted with long-tailed ducks, out beyond the third waves. Island Beach remains as impeccable as gannets, –still serene, shrubby, wind-blown and un-BUILT since creation, thanks to PRESERVATIONISTS. We six have the sense that we must relish this magnitude, this nature at her peak, while we still can…

Northern Gannet Plunging, From Internet
Most of the time, dear NJWILDBEAUTY readers, I have managed to keep politics out of NJWILDBEAUTY. Even though, as we all know, politicians threaten most if not all of the wild beauty of our (most populous, never forget it!) state; and, increasingly, of the Planet itself.

Gannet on Rocks in Healthy Habitat
Even though I dared once refer to this state’s so-called governor as ‘our Caligula’, in these ‘pages’; and termed then-newly-nominated presidential candidate ‘the new Hitler.’
I have not revised my opinion, by the way.
Although I try to concentrate on nature instead of politics in these ‘pages.’

Oiled Gannet on Beach from Internet
Now enormous confrontation looms, in which politics will do all in its power to to destroy nature. One of their cohorts, now, –Sarah Palin–, is mentioned as Cabinet material.

Oiled Gannet Face, From Internet
Long ago, my poem, (in the form of a letter to Ms. Palin) –before appearing in NJWILD, which Ilene Dube asked me to launch for Princeton Packet Publications–, had won internet publication by a clean water group asking for poems about the seemingly insuperable, and now mostly overlooked, Gulf Oil disaster. You may recall whom Sarah Palin blamed…

BP OIL DISASTER, from Internet, which everyone continues to refer to as a “SPILL”, including internet title to this image
No one who cares about birds has forgotten the BP explosion, which was originally reported as emitting 200 barrels of oil per day. Do note that, –even in the caption for this photo on the Internet–, the ceaseless explosions and outpourings are simply termed ‘a spill.’
I did write, in NJWILD, “If you believe that gallon estimate, you’ll believe anything.”
We all know that far more than birds was ruined in those terrible months — especially the way of life of people of Louisiana who had fished and shrimped and boated for generations.

Oiled Human Protestor in Gulf during BP Disaster
You may have forgotten that Sarah and her ilk blamed the disaster (which means “torn from the stars!”), on “extreme environmentalists.” I proudly accepted then, –and even more insistently now–, rejoice in that title. The result was the poem below.

The Livelihood of Gulf Fishermen because of BP Disaster

ICON of BP DISASTER – Oiled Pelicans
Today, I mailed the poem to my my professor daughter to read it to her Literature class at a California college. I dared challenge this formidable young woman and ardent feminist to suggest that her students have their pictures taken HUGGING A TREE, to promulgate on Facebook. To show the shuddering world that not everyone in America agrees with its most outrageous current spokesman. To demonstrate that the guardians of the future know what really matters.
Everyone reading this can do so, letting our allies know that some of us do have planetary consciousness.

We Need to Become a Nation, a World, of TREE-HUGGERS
WHAT REALLY MATTERS:
Liberty
Nature
The Planet
PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW —
Remember, Margaret Mead insists, “A small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
And Edwin Burke: “All that it takes for evil to happen is for good men (PEOPLE) to do nothing.”
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
the poem of June 2010:
DEAR SARAH PALIN,
I understand it’s all my fault
–this Gulf oil disaster, I mean–
not only all that fire
bodies catapulted into air
then drowned
soon likely shark bait
but also this volcano of oil
spewing interminably
into our blue mantle
Sarah, you say
I did this
all of this and more
now some six weeks ago
with no end in sight
and no businessman
politician not even a general
let alone you, Sarah Palin,
knows how to stop
this tornado of oil
it’s also my fault, the oiled birds
— Northern gannets —
pristine as Josephine
in her Empire gown
frail white silk
adorned with gold
though not quite bees
dark eyes snapping
as each becomes increasingly encased
in ‘my’ oil
more abruptly than all those mastodons
in La Brea’s tar pits
now slender cormorants
who, everyone is sure, are drowning
as they swim along
neck barely afloat
no one realizing
the genius of cormorants
who can fly/swim 30 miles an hour
underwater
when they are not oiled
about the mpg of my car
my old car
for the ownership of which
I am quite guilty
for the replacement of which
I have no means
cormorants
must wave both wings
after every dive
to dry them
so that they may
dive and dive again
–no wave strong enough
to shake off ceaseless poison weight
of oil
it’s my fault, the reddish egrets
you know his own epitaph
–written by photographer Ted Cross
for his own recent death–
describing his multi-faceted self
on the Other Side
“still searching for the perfect photograph
of the reddish egret”
Ted did not have in mind
this soiled oiled specimen
trying, unsuccessfully
to lift newly leaden
legs wings and feet
out of Gulf mud muck and oil
it’s all my fault
and not because I use the wrong lightbulbs
in a couple of fixtures
nor because I do turn on the heat.
inside, in winter, sometimes
although I’ve been doing without air
conditioning so far this troubled year
it’s my fault
because I am an “extreme environmentalist”
because I think there should never be any more
drilling for oil in our country
because I deplore petrotyrrany
the privatization of profits
socialization of poverty
because I think we should start with the auto companies
well, what do you expect, Sarah?
I grew up in Detroit
I’ve never seen a wolf in the wild
as you do and deplore.
These beings you condemn to bloody deaths
I would embrace
nor have I encountered
a single polar bear
let alone a starving female trying to find food
for her new brood
attempting to swim with them
toward vanishing ice floes
but that’s o.k. with you
Sarah
it makes the hunting
easier
it’s my fault, Sarah
for I am quite literally
a tree-hugger
I believe that greed should end
America return to her original nobility
where people pledged lives
fortunes
sacred honor
remember sacred honor?
— ah, well, probably not, Sarah
I believe we are our Planet’s
keepers
Sarah – who are you?
Carolyn Foote Edelmann
June 2010
“This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again.”
– Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.