As I sit here, soaking in the beauty of Louisiana, a question occurs to me, why do we Louisianans treat her the way we do? At times we show such reverence and love, and other times utter disdain. You can find pure, unadulterated beauty and, next to it, someone’s trash, thrown with disregard or care. To quote James Lee Burke, “Louisiana is the United States’s answer to Guatemala.” From the Kingfish to the Crook, our elected officials have always done the bare minimum or allowed greed to persuade their actions and choices. They use Louisiana as a place to build their political powers or turn our state's highest office into a reality tv show. We, as a state, are plagued by poor political decisions.
We care for our waterways and implement protections, and at the same time, we allow out-of-state companies to use Lake Maurepas as their dumping ground. We let big oil ravage our coastlines without, at the bare minimum, benefiting from the astronomical amount of money it produces. We all remember BP, and its pure greed. We should be the golden example in the United States of how to prevent global warming or climate change. You pick which phrase makes you feel better at night. It’s the same fucking thing. We are seeing our coasts recede day after day.
A study done in 2020 showed that 90% of our waterways are polluted to the point where water quality isn’t suitable for either wildlife habitat or recreation. This piece of Louisiana was supposed to be protected by the Clean Water Act of 1972. That’s downright atrocious. We all can see the algae blooms that kill off hoards of fish. Yet, our Laissez Faire attitude leads us down this road.
We can become significant despite all of the nonsense caused by our general attitude. Is it this attitude that always puts Louisiana behind the curve? In every aspect ever, Louisiana is behind the curve. At the same time as these failures, we brag about our perspective and even laugh in acknowledgment. We are the Big Easy personified, and it is killing our state. The dichotomy of our love for our home and our lack of care for what is best for our home encapsulates Louisiana's problem. If you search for the term recidivist in the dictionary, it would be easy to believe a photo of Louisiana is next to the definition.
So many people genuinely love and care for Louisiana. We need to do better, Louisiana. When does the morality and love of our state take precedence over the dollar?
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