Oil
Editor's note: "Voices From the Gulf" is a series of posts from people experiencing first-hand the devastating effects of the worst oil spill in American history. Check back often for more stories each week.
Watch the video below of CNN's coverage of Jim Wallis and other faith leaders as they tour the Gulf Coast on a trip sponsored by the Sierra Club. (For live updates, follow @jimwallis on Twitter.)
The captain was the first to smell it. He told us that the ocean didn't used to smell this way. Then, we all smelled it.
Those of us living along the Gulf Coast are the sacrificial people and region for you and the rest of the Western world. We have been for many many generations. Sociologists would call us the subaltern; politicians would call us the 'don't counts'; economists call us disposable; geographers call us 'ineducable'; religious people call us hedonists or sinners; educators call us backwards.
This oil is destroying the livelihoods of so many people, not just fishermen; our economy is all connected. If our wetlands are destroyed, we will lose even more of our protection from hurricane storm surge. America needs to care because this is their coastline too! Part of what destroyed the coastline was the country's lust for oil. The oil companies cut navigational canals through the marshes to make access easier. This allowed salt water to move further inland, kill the grasses, and now the land dissolves by a football field a day and melts into the gulf. The oil will only kill the marshes faster.