How Could This Happen?

I’m at the DFW airport right now after getting up way too early this morning in Portland. Kris and Danielle are departing Vancouver, Darron is on his way from DC, and Pinar is departing San Francisco. We’re converging on New Orleans, our home base for at least the first part of our TEDxOilSpill Expedition.

Already, talking to people about what we’re up to is tapping passions. I spent some time talking with the guy next to me on my flight to Dallas. He’s a retiree that used to travel all over the country doing union negotiations. He carries a concealed weapons permit. He’s an interesting mix of left and right—as I suspect most of us really are. He wasn’t on the Tea Party line, but he was frustrated with the government and impatient with the current administration. And we even talked about his sudden recent lactose intolerance. But when he asked me why I was traveling to New Orleans and I told him, all the small talk went away and was replaced by a non-stop thirty minute gush of frustration, anger, and even sadness.

 ”Why did they ignore how this could happen? Why weren’t they prepared? And what is taking so long to solve it? We’re a country of smart people! We know how to do complicated things. What is going on? Why is BP still in charge? What good is cleaning up the beaches when the thing is still leaking? When they take a patient into the ER, they don’t take out his tonsils first if he’s bleeding out!!!”

And then he stopped, thought for a moment, jabbed me in the arm forcefully, and said, “You know, it really comes down to on thing: greed.”

The amount of passion that came out was amazing. A few minutes later, he apologized for ranting. I replied that no apology was necessary.