Hands Across the Hermosa Sand

A typical June gloom morning on the beach at 26th Street couldn't put a damper on the determined group of 50 to 60 concerned residents who participated in a Surfrider Foundation beach cleanup Saturday. 

The trash pickup work, which I was happy to participate in, was the prelude to our part in the nationwide Hands Across the Sand action, designed to bring people from all walks of life and political persuasions together to say no to offshore drilling and yes to switching to clean energy

Despite the work already done that morning by the tractor the county uses to rake and collect trash on the beach, I had no problem finding cigarette butts, small pieces of Styrofoam, food wrappers and all matter of plastic parts and pieces everywhere I looked on the sand. 

Keeping that garbage out of the ocean, which is already choking on plastic and cigarette butts, was my great pleasure.

Reports indicate that more than 800 communities in the United States and 20 foreign countries staged local Hands Across the Sand events in response to the BP oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico and the ecological disaster it has caused. 

Here in the South Bay, I had my pick of Hands Across the Sand events in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Dockweiler Beach and Santa Monica, which saw more than 400 people hold hands in one of Southern California's biggest turnouts.

The local volunteers that gathered at 26th Street in Hermosa Beach were longtime Hermosa environmental champion Dency Nelson; Teaching Green's Kathleen Jacecko and her family; Hermosa Beach Councilman Jeff Duclos; Lillian Light, the President of the Environmental Priorities Network who bypassed Manhattan Beach's event to participate in Hermosa Beach; and the entire crew from Surfrider Foundation's South Bay chapter.

While we formed our line of Hands Across the Sand on Hermosa's beach, we talked about not only the environmental devastation happening in the Gulf, but also the bullet Hermosa Beach has dodged all these years by keeping McPherson Oil from drilling in town to reach the offshore oil they want for profit. 

Just as BP's lack of concern for what could happen is what caused the blowout that continues to spew uninterrupted in Louisiana's waters, McPherson continues to show its lack of concern for Hermosa by bullying and threatening the city with claims of $700 million owed. 

If only the city councils and citizens in the Gulf states had the courage and the backbone that Hermosa Beach has shown in standing up to dirty, greedy polluters, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess now. 

Joe Galliani is a member of the Hermosa Beach Carbon Neutral City Committee and writes a weekly column about local environmental issues for Hermosa Beach | Patch.

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