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Why aren't we being allowed to help? America watches helplessly from outside and wants to lend a hand, yet here we sit, doing nothing but reading about the horrors.

A group of people who know my background took up a collection and came up with enough for my air trip and accommodations. I have background in both beach clean-up and oiled bird clean-up. I have registered with numerous organizations, yet heard back from none of them.

There are I have no doubt millions of other who desperately want to lend a hand. Many of us can pay our own way and would be no burden on anyone, just an extra pair of hands to do whatever job needs doing. I don't care if I'm doing laundry or cleaning cages--they need help!

The time to look to our government or BP to deal with this has passed. Most likely it won't be until the relief wells are drilled that the oil will stop flowing--if then. In the meantime, oil is drifting into our country, destroying everything in its wake, and the American people who want to help aren't being called upon.

BP lies through its teeth about everything...they have been since day one and they continue to be to this day. We can't look to them, it's obvious. They have no personal stake in this, all they want is to look good on camera and wait it out, knowing in a few years they'll be off the hook, just as Exxon is: a company now making more money than most of us can conceive, while 20 years afterward, Prince William Sound still suffers.

The government is not much better. We hear Obama talking about how many booms have been sent down to the Gulf--but the booms aren't being maintained, and are doing more harm than good in many places. How many hands are out here, willing to get in and re-anchor all those booms floating free, surrounding places like Queen Bess Island and trapping the oil inside the boom of an island which harbors the endangered Pelicans, their nests and offspring? How much training would it take to let people get out there and re-anchor those booms? They're not perfect, but they're not nothing.

The berm project has been approved. We could be out there with shovels, helping to build it, but we're not being called up. We could be cleaning beaches alongside those who live in the Gulf. We could be doing so much that the government and BP are not.

I read an iReport today from a person who had walked the beaches, saw nobody at work cleaning up, who had been taken around by boat and seen the horror, been told by a boat captain that 'I won't cry with you"--because many of them are cried out at this point. They've lost their livelihood, they've lost their land and vital wetlands, and they wait as helplessly as we do for some kind of action.

I've been saving my dogs' and rabbits' hair to send after reading how they can make booms out of both. Now I read that the Coast Guard won't use them, yet people are still sending fur and hair in the hopes they can do something to help.

They're trying to keep the media away, they're putting a good face on what's happening, but we know better--the news gets through; we see it every day, we read it all the time, in newspapers, on the internet. And it's going to get far worse, it's going to continue for a long, long time. Whatever they're doing down there, it's not working, simple things are going wrong or not being done which extra hands could do.

Why not utilize the American people who recognize that BP and the government either don't care enough or aren't organized enough to get out there and do the job? There are many of us...just waiting.

Why aren't all these organizations--and I know there are many, I've registered with them--calling up volunteers?. Why isn't the government recruiting citizens who can get their on their own, take care of themselves, and lend a hand?

The American people can help. We want to help. These are our fellow citizens suffering, and wildlife and environment we treasure too. Why aren't we being allowed to help?

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Hippie Operative Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off


To our President: “Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar. Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.... oh, go fuck yourself, Mr. President” ...Raptor

To Anthony, unquestionably the most civil person on this forum: “Go fuck yourself. On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. ...Raptor

To Frem: “You miserable piece of shit.” ...Raptor

To Niki: “My guess is it won't just be your ugly face you dislike.....Well, it's true......if you had a soul.” ...Raptor

...Remember, remember, the ugliest member...