There are many thoughts that I have on this spill, not the least of which is BP's CYA attitude at the beginning and as I suspect, their greed to enhance the bottom line by taking shortcuts at the well. But, those thoughts are highlighted by the abundance of commitment, passion, professionalism, and "make it right" attitude by the grunts on the ground.  These people work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for the last 65-plus days now and they are still smiling.

A corporation made this mess....people are cleaning it up.

There is no doubt grieving on the ground from people impacted by the fallout from the oil spill.  From charter boat captains who are seeing their business go to Texas and the Atlantic side of Florida, to Diane in the House Clerk's Office who is seeing an abundance of cancellations on her condominium investment property in Florida, to children (now perhaps teenagers) whose lives have been disrupted by a one major hurricane, a minor one, an economic downturn, an oil spill all in a span of five years to Moms and Dads who are faced with paying bills while being laid off by a lack of work caused by this spill, to a non-stop circus of finger pointing, deciding whether the government or private business can best handle the fallout, to President Obama's popularity rating.

There's a lot of belly-aching, some well-deserved and some not, some caused by misunderstanding, some caused by the steep learning curve, some caused by not being able to use the Internet to apply for claims, work, information, some caused by other people taking advantage of a disaster.

I have a very, very deep appreciation of the people who work for us.  I have learned what they do.  I now know just what we are voting for when we vote on the Department of Marine Resource's, the capabilities of the Department of Environmental Quality, the capabilities of the Mississippi National Guard resources, and the planning, execution, and follow up by military, civilian, government and business, and the thousands of volunteers who find solutions in a disaster situation.

There are clearly people who are screaming that the problem is consuming us who ask other people why they are not screaming, "Because, I am trying to solve the problem," they answer.

There are major kinks in this process, but there are some very well informed people working them out and the next time we face a major disaster, the learning curve will be short and quickly handled.

To those people who are taking me to task for laying the blame at BP's corporate lap, I would only ask, "Do you really believe this was an act of God, an accident of nature, an unintended incident?"  And if it is, what do you think God is trying to tell us, do you think we are ready to fool with Mother Earth when we know more about outer space and less about the inner core, is anything unintended, because for every action there is an equal and sometimes devastating reaction?

This is either an example of corporate greed or allowing the technology of drilling quicker and deeper outpace the technology for drilling wiser and safer.

In three weeks, I plan to go back and include on this trip as many North Mississippi members of the House of Representatives as I can.  For us, this is something that cannot be explained. 

Addressing this issue is something that has to be experienced first-hand by lawmakers to gain an appreciation for our state agencies and their employees.  I hope we see all the kinks worked out and the well close to closing.

Everyone from the BP grunts to federal, state and local officials, to the volunteers and to the people who clean the command center, are a part of the solution.  I am grateful.