The Coast is Clear

Several weeks ago Jimmy Buffet traveled to the Gulf Coast to give a free concert. It helped raised the morale of those living there and to help out just a little bit with the damage to the tourist industry. During the show he performed a rewrite of the one of his older songs, ‘The Coast is Clear.” Here are the lyrics to the revised version along with my thoughts about it and the related disaster.

Out on our Gulf waters
A different kind of storm
People run for cover
As opinions like clouds form

It really is a different kind of storm. The Gulf Coast has been ravaged by hurricanes over the years and yet this is different. There is no particular threat from Mother Nature or at least not primarily from her. So many people are pointing fingers at each other and trying to put the blame on someone. Is somebody to blame for it? Yes. Does it matter who it is? No. What matters is that it gets fixed and we understand how we can prevent it from happening again.

The trawler nets are empty
Vacancy abounds
Nothin' like it used to be
Before the circus came to town

That is why it does not matter who started it. The people who make a living on the tourism and fishing industries are being devastated. They cannot fish in the waters and that means they cannot make a living or an income. It harms the tourist economy too because smaller numbers of tourists mean less income for that industry. Anyone who has ever been to a tourist town in the winter knows that without tourists it turns into a ghost town. The restaurants and stores all shut their door and the population drops by the thousands. The summer is where they make their real income and now that has been preempted too.

It was bound to happen
It happened to be here
We're gonna have to work to see
That the coast is clear

We are going to have to work that the coast is clear. Right now there is a huge mess of oil off the coast. It is not going away on its own, but if people overcome their differences and just work together we can do something about it. And even those people who are thinking that it is all the way in the Gulf coast and cannot affect me…well it is not going to stay put. Until that oil is cleaned up it is going to continue to move up the coast and out into the ocean. This will in the end affect everyone and if you think it will not, it is a sad day when the only reason for helping someone is to save yourself.

The Gulf is in my body
The Gulf is in my soul
I wish like you that I could stick
A wine cork in that hole

To be perfectly honest, I have never been to the gulf coast. I have no personal emotional attachment to the location in particular, but I love the ocean. I spend every summer on the shores of the East Coast. I cannot imagine what I would feel if this would happen there. It is so much a part of my life and I love it. I know that there are people who feel that way about the Gulf. So yes, even though I have never been to the Gulf, I would love to stick a wine cork in that hole.

Anger makes us doubtful
While fear can cloud the view
I for one don't think we've done
The best that we can do

I do not think we have done the best that we can do either. There is still oil in our ocean. Anger and fear are both emotions closely related to the situation, but neither one will help. Anger at the people responsible will not help. What is done is done and now all we can do is fix it. Likewise fear is useless. Fearing what to come is not going to stop it. Going out and trying to help repair the damage, now that will help to stop it from going any further. Never doubt what a determined group of people can do. If we all work together we can keep this from going any farther.

It was bound to happen
Where greed and crude appear
I hope that I'm around to see
When the coast is clear

Was it destined to happen? I do not know. I think that it probably was going to happen sooner or later. In a day and age when we depend so much on oil, I find it hard to believe that at some point something would go wrong. It was going to happen someday that something when wrong and the oil spilled. Being burned is a hazard of playing with fire. Still there will be people who struggle though it and make it to the other side of this disaster. There are also people who will work hard to make sure that it will not happen again. People are resilient.

It's the place that we all love

Wish it hadn't happened
But we'll still all be here
Livin' 'til that day appears
And our coast is clear

Of course we all wish that it had not happened. I doubt that there is anyone in the world who is happy about it. However there are those who not give up and will not leave the Gulf because of this. They will all still be there waiting and struggling on. It has hit them hardest and yet they will be the strongest and the most persistent. Then when the storm clears and the sun comes out it will be worth it.

So clear...
So clear...
So clear...

I have always found it amazing when people come together with those around them to fight back against a disaster. Some people ignore it but so many others work hard and try to make things right or at least chip in any way that they can. If you want to know the measure of a human being, you just need to wait for a disaster to strike. There will always be those who spend more time pointing fingers that helping, but there will always be the people who do not care who’s to blame as long as it gets fixed.

What I am really saying will all of this is that it does not matter who made this mess. You can point fingers until the end of time and still not have anyone to blame or the problem solved, but if we all work together then we can fix it. We have one ocean. We need to remember that and we need to clean this up.

(The song lyrics do not belong to me. I was merely using them to make a point. They belong to Jimmy Buffet and anyone else who collaborated on them. I claim no ownership over that part of this piece.)

(If you are interested in listening to the song go to: http://www.iviewtube.com/videos/160616/jimmy-buffett-when-the-coast-is-clear-(gulf-concert-music-video) )

~WriterFreak~

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.”

J. Michael Straczynski