My last posts have kept things light and snappy. I always intended to also discuss current events and touched on things with Congressman “Tickle-fights” but again, nothing too controversial there. I think we can all agree he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. However, I think it’s time I get a little loud and feisty over an issue that will no doubt change things permanently for my parents’ generation, and perhaps mine as well; the BP Gulf oil disaster.
First of all to BP on behalf of the American people: How dare you? Allow me to repeat: How dare you. Your relentless pursuit of obtaining oil reserves without any regard to the possibilities of what could go wrong does not just wreak of arrogance but cost human life. Clearly, you could do no wrong, so there was no need to anticipate the worst. Is it not an outrage that we have developed the technology to reach reserves that far down and much lower, yet not the technology to stop a leak? Not only do you repeatedly fail in stopping the flow of oil, you point fingers and lie about how bad the situation truly is…all yet another slap in the face of this country.
Countless people will lose their livelihoods. Countless miles of coastal wetland and beaches will be destroyed, along with the wildlife. The very marshlands that are being strangled by toxic muck are the ones that buffer the gulf coast from storm surge in tropical weather. Speaking of tropical weather, one good hurricane and it’s toxic muck being flung inland. Way to kick the people of the gulf when they’re just getting back on their feet.
Forget the economic devastation, there is a moral imperative at stake here. The lies, the deceit, the cover-ups, all will get you nowhere now, BP, so you might as well give up. You’ll never recover from the PR nightmare, so you might as well fess up to the extent of what you’ve done in the name of a buck. It’s clear to see that saving your bottom line took precedent over saving the 11 lives of those who died in the explosion. May no one with a clear conscience ever again get their gas from a BP station.
If what BP did wasn’t enough of an insult, I saw an ad just this evening in which the CEO made a public apology and I don’t know about you, but I found it as offensive as anything. With his voice dripping with disingenuous contrition, Tony Hayward seemed almost to be patting himself on his back for the efforts BP has made to right this wrong. Hey! Mr Hayward! Newsflash: you haven’t stopped the hole! The time for “I’m sorry” is long gone and if you think you’ll still be a company when this is all over you have another thing coming. May you never recover from your liabilities claims just as the gulf may never recover from the repercussions of your greed. You say you want you’re life back, Mr Hayward. I’m sure those 11 people do too.
BP should and hopefully will go down in history as the hallmark case of the dangers of corporate greed and be a horrible lesson as to why proper regulation is so absolutely vital. Certainly this will change the debate of the role of government vs. the endeavors of private industry. In the end I have one final request: may the phrase “Drill baby, drill” fade into obscurity as a misguided mantra where it belongs.
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