Protestors Gather in Mobile to Demand Openness from BP

About 40 people carrying signs of protest gathered in Bienville Square in downtown Mobile today to express their anger regarding the spill in the gulf. Though the turnout was light passing vehicles honked in support as they drove by giving energy to the gathering.

I spoke with Leslie Mc Donald, who was there representing the Sierra Club. Leslie, a native Mobilian, expressed her concern that BP is going to try to minimize the extent of the spill and the damage and she wants "local government to step up and monitor BP".

I live in Mobile and have been concerned, as have others, with the fact that our Mayor, Sam Jones, has been almost invisible during this entire episode though the Port of Mobile is in significant jeopardy. The Port of Mobile is the 9^th largest port in the country and its closing would be disastrous not only to the gulf coast but to the entire nation.

The protest today was organized by Lisa Ingram, a local artist who currently is attending school to become a real estate agent. Lisa said she is born and raised in Mobile, and was proud of the fact the she was conceived at sea in the Gulf of Mexico. When she told me she was in real estate school she chuckled. I have to assume she was feeling that real estate around here is going to take another hit. I was surprised that she didn't speak about the local problem of getting insurance on homes in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Since Katrina rates have been skyrocketing, both on coastal and inland homes. One has to wonder how this spill is going to affect those rates now that this oil spill has the potential to cover every coastal home in oil and tar if a hurricane hits. Ms. Ingram also expressed her concern that BP is not telling the truth to the public about the extent of the spill.

For weeks the people in this part of the Gulf watch the oil and prayed for a solution. But mother nature kept the spill offshore and out of sight. Now it is here and all too real and anger and fear for the future has risen significantly. The editorial page of the Press Register was twice the size it usually is with articles relating to the spill. The attempt to reduce the press access to the spill has stunned everyone who is used to open access and investigative reporting. Doesn't BP realize that the more they restrict access the more they look like they have something to hide?

I am sure protests like the one in Bienville Square today are only beginning.