we need to see the mess

(all photos are from the Christian Science Monitor)

They're painful to look at, but it's necessary. BP commercials now promise healing, making things right. But how is preventing us from seeing the damage making things right? A new law now allows the Coast Gaurd to actively prevent journalists from getting close enough to take photos. Those violating the 65ft rule will be fined $40,000 and receive a class D felony.

Anderson Cooper has reported:

By now you're probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they're working for because they're afraid of losing their jobs... I have not heard about any journalist who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen as having slowed down the cleanup or made things worse. If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I would move.

This new law just makes it easier for us to ignore the issue, to turn our backs on the millions of struggling, dying animals. Pelicans' feathers glued together, herons stuck in sludge, already endangered sea turtles struggling to breathe.

Let's pass these pictures on.
Take moment to sign this petition on change.org to tell Congress that we have a right to see the faces of the spill.