This is 55-year-old Allen Kruse. He was a fisherman from Alabama who recently transitioned into a job cleaning up oil for BP. A regular guy with a good work ethic.Kruse shot and killed himself on Wednesday.
No one knows why he did this. There was no suicide note. But his friends say the father of four was stressed by the oil disaster ruining his business and the life that he loved.
There are all types of victims as a result of the man-made disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The people on the front lines, with the most to lose, are feeling the greatest pressure. Some are getting sick from exposure to the oil. Others are breaking down mentally and emotionally.
Obviously, only a small percentage of people will commit suicide. That doesn't mean the disaster won't lead to other serious personal and societal problems. As the recession has shown us in the last two years, unemployment is a major trigger for all kinds of personal and societal problems. The oil spill on top of the recession has already put thousands of Gulf residents out of work.
But the oil spill is causing something more than just a loss of income. It's a dark cloud hanging over the entire country -- a nation that has been under the darkest of clouds with wars and economic collapses.
It appears Mr. Kruse felt there was no hope -- not in his potential lifetime. He could no longer see the blue water. Not now, not in his future.
The handling of this spill to this point sure doesn't inspire much confidence that it will stop anytime soon. It gets progressively worse by the day, as the arguing and political battles rage on. Meanwhile, as always, the regular folks are paying the most profound price.
Read more about Mr. Kruse.
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