Seriously, why?

I’ve made a lot of excuses for the Democratic Congress I helped to vote in, two autumns ago. They’ve been hampered by an antagonistic President, of course. They’ve been criticized from the beginning, even by their constituents. Still, they were better than the alternative.

Now, they can kiss my ass.

This is my hometown: Pensacola Beach, Florida.

It looks this beautiful quite often.

I’ve traveled fairly widely, from Hawaii to Rome, and I still think this is my favorite place on earth. I was first dipped into seawater here, as a baby in the late ’70′s, when the beach was nothing more than low concrete block houses and tiki bars.

Now, I try to keep the condos and hotels to my back, and just wander out of the bar with a cool drink in my hand, letting the horizon pull me slowly towards the water. The sand on Pensacola beach, like many places along the Gulf of Mexico, is fine and white like sugar. I have never, in all my life, stepped in tar here.

Thanks to the new pro-drilling bill the House of Representatives signed, that may change.

Bush I, of all people, passed a moratorium on coastal drilling in 1990, protecting the east and west coasts of the U.S., as well as the central and east coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. Bill Clinton continued that moratorium in his early days in office. I was living on this beach at the time, and I could see out of my bedroom window what was at risk. It was the very first political issue I truly cared about and became active in…and it would have made or broken my future support for the President.

And I’m afraid it’s broken my support for our current Congress.

I’ve never considered myself a single-issue voter. I generally hate such narrow-sightedness. But then, I never thought our government would be stupid enough to take this risk.

Alaskans might chant, “Drill, baby, drill!” Let the idiots do it there, then, if they like it so much. I was against ANWR drilling. Then they gave us Palin. To hell with Alaska seceding—I’m beginning to wonder if Florida should.

And before anyone lectures me on how much we need this oil: I’d happily give up my car and never drive again, to protect this beach. Are you that committed to anything?

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