Should this be a MrFiveStar article? You bet! Who will challenge me that the Gulf of Mexico isn't one of the great FiveStar venues of the world? I hope all of you who are reading this understand the disaster in the Gulf is the worst catastrophe that has ever attacked the ecology of the United States. Just because you live in Colorado don't think you won't be affected by this. As of this date almost 40% of the Gulf is affected and continuing to grow. This oil crisis is killing the marine life, wetlands, and the fishing industry, seriously adversely affecting tourism and associated industries in 5 states and causing the loss of jobs for many hundreds of thousands. This is an event of long lasting, epic proportions. We still have no idea what the totality of this disaster will ultimately be. Come on people get a grip. Let your voices be heard and contact your congressman. If you live near the Gulf coast volunteer your time. Take your family to the Gulf Coast for your summer vacations, spend money and HELP. This is a real WAR. The Gulf Coast and our country need YOU. You can make a difference. Remember those famous words from President John F Kennedy’s Inauguration speech January 20, 1961, “and so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”. These words were never more true, even today.

By the way don't stop buying BP gas and shopping in the BP stores. BP Stores  are locally owned. You are only hurting the local economy. As far as buying gas from BP, consider it a donation to the cleanup.

There simply is not enough being done quickly to bring this monster down. The President says he is moving at warp speed, then what is he doing playing golf and operating in normal business as usual mode up there in DC. There is nothing more important in the world at this time than the Gulf coast. If I were President I would by now have set up a temporary White House on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and be operating from there expecting several daily updates and broadcast nightly updates to the Nation until this leak is contained. Now that would demonstrate real interest and leadership this crisis really needs.

Here are some facts that we must face. BP does not have a fraction of the amount of money necessary to financially make this right to all the affected people, not to mention attempting to repair the ecology as President Obama has promised. Does the President think we are stupid? Did he just say that because it is a big number? 20 billion is not even a drop in the bucket for a disaster like this. Let's face it, there is NO amount of money that will put things back to the way they were prior to the explosion.

This entire process has been handled all wrong. First, the President put the fox in charge of the hen house. Yes, BP must be involved, but not in charge. Second the government should not be in charge of fixing the leak. The Government should oversee the process and back it, but not be in charge. We should set up a worldwide team of top oil engineers, scientists and oil company executives to form a Gulf Coast Crisis Task Force. That Task Force should be headed by someone like T. Boone Pickens, or someone similar with extensive oil background and a strong business background. “A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.” (Always have a plan.) It seems like we have a goal but no real plan! We have been offered assistance from many areas of the world including Holland, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Venezuela and many other nations, some friends and some we don't care for. Right now we need to put differences aside and accept help from anyone who has an idea.

OK you say, it's easy for me to criticize. So what would you do? Until someone comes up with a better idea I suggest we should be drilling the relief wells 24/7. We should also be drilling 4 additional relief wells at the same time. We need to make positively sure at least a few of these relief wells actually do reach their minute target and do the job. What would happen if something went wrong with the relief wells we are drilling now? We need to throw all the money in the world at this leak as quickly as possible. The future of the Gulf Coast requires speed. At the moment speed is everything. We need all hands on deck. All hands on lots of decks including many stand by decks.

We must have a flotilla of ships standing by to collect the oil that is being captured, not just one or two like last week when we had to burn the oil because there was no ship available to collect it. What was that all about? Where was the management to make sure they had everything they needed? Who is really in charge and why are these things happening?

The President needs to ask Congress to declare war on the Gulf Disaster. By doing so Congress can authorize the use of the armed forces including all branches of the services to be deployed to the Gulf Coast to assist in the Coastal cleanup and management.

Since BP is not going to be able to fund the cleanup of 5 states and possibly 2,000 miles of coast line and tributaries, we need to put those hundreds of thousands of people who are going to be unemployed to work cleaning up as well. Many of these people will be filing for unemployment and we will have to pay them anyway, so let's put them to work and earn their compensation.

I was embarrassed the other day when Congress had to have their day with the BP Executives. What was that all about? We criticized Tony Haywood for boating with his son one day but we didn't mind eating up one of his days drilling him. Personally I think the congressmen displayed the typical ugly Americans and very little class. The crisis at hand is either stopping the leak or capturing it. Wouldn't that time have been better spent putting all their collective heads together to explore solutions and options? There will be plenty of time for finger pointing and blame once this disaster is under control. Don't get me wrong I am not sticking up for BP or defending them but I am saying “discretion is definitely the better part of valor”. Unfortunately Congresses Get Tough Day was only a grandstand play to try to show the people at home they were “mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore”, when in fact they just made fools of themselves and wasted one more precious day, and accomplished nothing. Now my final suggestion; since this well is such a great producer of oil, why kill it? Why not capture it and put it to good use. Would someone please tell me what is the problem with this idea? I would think all those great minds out there could collectively come up with something positive to do with this disaster.

Click here to see map of Crisis area.

For more information you can go to BP's website by clicking here.  What You Can Do to Request volunteer information and register to volunteer: (866)-448-5816 Submit your vessel as a vessel of opportunity skimming system or submit alternative response technology, services or products: (281) 366-5511 Report oiled or injured wildlife: 1-866-557-1401 Report oil on land: 1-866-448-5816 Click here to go the the White House web site.