I am in mourning for the people of my home state of Louisiana. Although I grew up in the northern part of the state, populated mostly by folks who moved west from Georgia and Louisiana, I have some roots in the south.
And I have developed a love for the generous, warm spirited people who make up the broad swathe of South Louisiana that is called Cajun Country. I like the strong sense of family. I like to sit in a café and watch people enjoying themselves and each other. Grandfather and grandmother, mother and father, and the kids, treating their meal as a celebration and not a refueling stop, getting up to dance to music that makes it hard to keep your feet still.
I like the fact that people are not too busy to stop and visit. The clock is not their master.
I like the slow movement of the bayou and the sunlight filtered through Spanish moss. And I like the marshes, where a single tree stands out like a beacon. And I don’t even have to talk about the food.
The Cajun culture has had an endangered existence. Years ago there were efforts to stamp out the French spoken in so many homes, much as there was an attempt to do away with the native languages of American Indians.  Fortunately, reason finally prevailed.
Then came the oil industry.
It brought jobs and some prosperity to what had been to largely subsistence economy. At the same time, it began slowly killing the place that is home to that unique culture. Oil exploitation required the cutting of canals, and swamps that had seen only trappers and fishermen became hosts for barges and drilling platforms.
The canals changed water flows and accelerated the loss of coastline.
Now the BP disaster.
It is like going from slowly poisoning a victim to garroting him.
I am not sure that most people understand the magnitude of the disaster that is unfolding.
It is one that will affect all of us for years to come.
But in South Louisiana, a unique way of life is dying.
If there is any justice – and I have very little confidence that there is – criminal charges will come out of this disaster.
I would like to add one: Murder of a culture.
Contact the writer at
billatthelake@gmail.com
