What My Time in America's New Oil Boomtown Taught Me About Our Climate Madness
http://www.alternet.org/environment/what-my-time-americas-new-oil-boomtown-taught-me-about-our-climate-madness
At 9 p.m. on that August night, when I arrived for my first shift as a cocktail waitress at Whispers, one of the two strip clubs in downtown Williston, I didnt expect a 25-year-old man to get beaten to death outside the joint. Then again, I didnt really expect most of the things I encountered reporting on the oil boom in western North Dakota this past summer.
Can you cover the floor? the other waitress yelled around 11 p.m. as she and her crop-top sweater sidled behind the bar to take over for the bouncers and bartenders. They had rushed outside to deal with a commotion. I resolved to shuttle Miller Lites and Fireball shots with extra vigor. I didnt know who was fighting, but assumed it involved my least favorite customers of the night: two young brothers who had been jumping up and down in front of the stage, their hands cupping their crotches the way white boys, whose role models are Eminem, often do when they drink too much. One sported a buzz cut, the other had hair like soft lambs wool.
The rest of the night was a blur of beer bottles and customer commands to smile more. It was only later, after the clientele was herded out to Red Peterss catchy The Closing Song -- get the fuck out of here, finish up that beer -- and the dancers had emerged from the dressing room in sweatshirts, that I realized everyone was on edge.
Whats wrong? I asked the scraggly bearded bouncer walking me to my dusty sedan, whose backseat would soon double as my motel room.