My heart is black with a sadness I can not describe. Black from what we as consumers and humans have done to our world. Black from our most recent American tragedy, the BP oil spill in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana. This is an area very close to my now blackened heart. Black because that is the color of the oil seeping into our water, into our seafood, into our bayous and into our lives. The oil keeps coming. This happened months ago and the oil leak hasn’t even stopped, let alone been fixed. Even when we have a “fix” it’s not a fix. As I’m writing this they are saying it is “capped again” and all will be well soon.

Well, quite honestly, it won’t. It won’t for the ocean, marine life, or the people (who have already endured so much with the heartache of Katrina). Now their jobs are destroyed and their health is at risk.

Being a Vegan, (except for seafood), my favorite thing about my trips to Louisiana has been the variety and quality of their seafood. Well you couldn’t pay me to eat the fish that has been in the water now. As fish, mussels and shrimp suck in the water to breathe, they are also sucking in oil, sludge and tar. Would YOU want to eat that? I doubt it. I have a very close friend who lives on the bayou named Shannan. She told me today that most people on the bayou keep about 200 pounds of fish/crawfish in their freezers. Although that is great, what happens when that runs out? Others who have lost their fishing and shrimping business and have used up their store of food, are now trying to substitute fish protein with an inexpensive fast food diet. Even the water used for drinking, bathing and laundry is contaminated with oil. This is happening in our own country. I am close to commercial divers right off of the gulf coast and have been getting a daily play by play of the happenings and it looks bleak. We need to help in any way possible.

This country (and world) has a current obsession with Vampires (very similar to when Anne Rice, out of New Orleans took us to a darkened vampire place some years ago). Between the movies, books and extremely popular TV show ”True Blood” (based in the fictional town of Bon Tempes, LA) you can’t escape it. In the show “True Blood”  “glamouring them” is a term to describe vampires covering up someone’s memories. It seems to me that GLAMOURING is exactly what this country, BP and media are doing to say  “everything is okay now”.

My goal with this message is to unleash the campaign my girlfriends Shannan Grimm (of Lousiana), Mya Thomas (of Creole descent and a fashion designer in Los Angeles) and myself (a true lover of all things in Louisiana, and their wonderful exports) called simply – Don’t “Glamour” the Gulf. Meaning just that. Don’t do what those crazy True Blood vampire characters do and “Glamour” us into not seeing the truth. This is a movement not just a charity. We are designing a line with this in mind. I am also going to be doing some upcoming fund raising events in New Orleans with the hope of getting matching donations from my friends at major companies I have modeled, acted or hosted for.  I will also be doing a radio tour.  Please contact Victor Cipolla, my publicist at NewCom PR to help.

My Mother always told me one thing that I believe holds true. You don’t pick your charity, your charity picks you.

Don’t “Glamour” The Gulf

-Jaimarie

www.dontglamourthegulf.org