The cost

When I was in the 7th grade, I cheated on a quiz for the first and last time.
The test was simple enough. There was one question. We were to have memorized our social security number in order to appropriately fill in our information for the upcoming End of Course testing. One quiz, one question, and three dozen different, but correct, answers. What is your social security number?

The only problem was I had completely forgotten about this silly quiz. As class began, and Ms Shuford instructed us to pull out paper for the quiz, my heart sank. I'm a straight A student. There's no way I can afford a zero on a quiz. It was then I had the idea to write my number on my desk. It was easily justified. After all, this wasn't really a quiz. It was a silly social security number. It had nothing to do with Algebra. I wasn't really cheating. SO, I found my number in my desk and quickly transferred it in pencil onto the top of my desk.

In a matter of minutes it was over. I wrote the number on my notebook paper, Ms Shuford collected all the papers, and I had saved my perfect grade. The only problem was that I had forgotten to erase the number on my desk. When Ms Shuford made her way around again with our next assignment, she noticed a string of numbers across the top of my desk. My afternoon went downhill from there.

It wasn't long before the word had spread to the rest of the teachers on my hall and I was demoted for the week from level 7 to level 4 status on the conduct system. I was humiliated and embarrassed. The golden child had fallen from grace. And for what? My own social security number. All those years of hard work, determination, trustworthy behavior, and everything vanished in a few minutes on a Tuesday afternoon. It was the first and last time I ever cheated on a quiz.

By the semester's end, I was back in the good graces of all and the top of my class, but it wasn't the same. Everyone had moved on, but the staff and teachers never looked at me quite the same. I could tell. They knew what I was capable of. I was human.

I write all of this to pose the question "What are we willing to pay and to risk to satisfy our desire?" "Is it really worth the cost?"

Over 4 million gallons and counting are wreaking havoc on fragile ecosystems along the Gulf Coast and irreversible damage to our oceans. Our oceans are the only water source we have and our only source of life. Once they are gone and contaminated, so are we. This was a massive accident on one rig out in the Gulf of Mexico. There are over 3,500 more rigs in that Gulf alone. Heartbreaking cries of "drill baby, drill" are determined to see another entire city of rigs created off the coast of Virginia and NC. Odds are, 90% of the time, an accident like this won't ever happen. Yet, as the dolphins wash ashore, rare bird species are lost, turtles are tarred, and an entire seafood industry destroyed, surely someone is wondering if it was really worth it all.

Are a few million gallons of oil really worth the cost of life? If it were a war, the casualties would be immeasurable. A single reef supports untold billions. A brilliance that will never look quite the same. Now we know what we are capable of.