And let’s not forget that 11 workers died in the April 20 explosion. Among the casualties was Aaron Dale Burkeen, whose body was never found and whose parents Mary and Robert Burkeen gathered with other grieving family members at a memorial ceremony for the victims on May 25 in Jackson, Mississippi. Mary Burkeen worries her son’s life and death are getting lost in the shuffle: “Our son, we’ll never get him back,” she lamented. “When they get all this cleaned up, they can have their shrimps and their turtles and everything back. But we’re never going to have our son back.”
Quite right. Would that the workers who lost their lives receive as much attention as the large-scale — but temporary — environmental damage caused by oil washing over the Gulf Coast. We would do well to remember that oil is a natural as water, and regularly seeps into the oceans naturally in quantities many times the size of the Deepwater Horizon spill. The ocean can handle the oil, but Aaron Dale Burkeen will still be gone when years from now when beachgoers are once again swimming in the pristine waters of the Gulf.
Burkeen and the others died ensuring that the rest of us have the energy we need to go about our business and pleasure, and risked their lives to bring forth the lubricant that greases the gears of our civilization. They should not be forgotten.
via pajamasmedia.com
