I’ve often been accused of being an old fuddy-duddy, a
curmudgeon, hard-hearted, unbending – the list goes on. Most of it’s untrue. I love new stuff and think I’m open to new ideas. I cry at the movies and change my opinions all the time depending on input from others. I think my problem is that I don’t express myself well enough, although people have said, “You tell it how it is…” That’s OK if you share my view. Not so much if you don’t.
That’s why I love this country and think the right to be able to prattle on in this column is an enormous privilege given to few. Try some of my more outrageous comments in North Korea – I don’t think so!
Someone said to me that I came across as unfeeling in my last column. I didn’t mean to offend anyone in our broad audience. I was talking about the oil leak in the Gulf, and that’s what it is – it’s not a spill, and some thought I made light of the size of this monster. I am well aware of the fact that this is the greatest environmental disaster to hit America and we will be suffering its consequences for years to come but that shouldn’t alter our quest to become independent for energy sources. We have to do it better and this should provide a tremendous learning curve for all involved.
To infer that only BP is to blame and they should be boycotted will only shoot the consumer in the foot. Oil companies are famous to look for even the slightest reason to raise prices and this would be manna from heaven for them. This could have happened to any one of the other companies operating down there with equally disastrous effects. The government safety oversight was as equally lax no matter what platform they were auditing. So culpability is to be shared, accepted and learned from if we are to move on from this with the American consumer as the payor.
BP will be made to pay, along with other suppliers, probably after lengthy and expensive court battles. And who do you think will finally foot that bill? Add that to the congressional “who-shot-John” tally. Don’t worry, we’ll add that to the Federal deficit and pay later.
This column is typically written a week or so ahead of publication so there’s sometimes a time lapse for comments on current events.
This thing has grown to
proportions never-before considered and I hope it’s capped soon. I do feel sorry for the wild life at every level of the food chain and we can only see a minor fraction of what’s affected. The real shame is that the Gulf is part of America’s food bowl so we won’t get to have any or, if we do, the prices will be through the roof. I have no idea what happens to these species if they skip a generation.
Of course, the livelihoods of fishermen and tourist-dependent businesses should become the ward of BP and it would probably behoove the other companies to make a contribution as they are associated within the public relations orbit, anyway.
Finally Mother Nature might lend a benevolent hand and find a way to ease the burden, going forward. Perhaps she could burn a little midnight oil contemplating that one. I dread to think of an earthquake under there.