It’s 9:00 am, Friday, May 29, 2010 in the St. Bernard Project clinic and it is bustling with patients ranging from displaced Katrina families to fisherman needing to see a psychiatrist. Volunteers are flowing in the small office situated amongst warehouse buildings for the all women’s rebuild weekend. 250 women are planning to attend. Then in pops Anna Lynne McCord of 90120 to help build her second home. Then silence takes over when George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman Association, says, “I was on suicide watch for nine fishermen last night. It has been the worst I have ever seen. We have lost lives in Katrina and now on the wake of its fifth anniversary we are losing lives in the same area of St. Bernard Parish, once again.” This time it is not by a natural disaster, but from a man-made disaster. This is not by choice! Fishermen are taking their own life or are on the verge, because they cannot cope. More fishermen are going to end up dead like their silent ships dead on the water.
One place is turning the stigma of how to cope with HOPE! St.Bernard Project has provided the only free clinic to victims of Katrina since 2006, and now with this BP mess there is even greater demand! The Haiti crisis brought a surge of survivors back to the clinic in fear of being forgotten. Now the numbers are overflowing since the BP oil spill and the LSU medical psychologists and psychiatrists cannot keep up! Fishermen are proud, blue collar workers who live for being on the water. They are resilient like the waters after the storm. They have tirelessly fished and farmed these waters for the country’s benefit of providing glorious seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. These tough men and woman are breaking down. We owe it to them to help them. BP is poisoning their health, and poisoning their livelihood.
Listen and learn the fisherman’s cry for help!
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