April 20th, 2011, marks the one year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
I mark the BP Spill as a point in time which it became even more clear to me that the United States government is invested in protecting corporations and industry over protecting its citizens from harm.
The reckless disregard for both human life and the environment of BP and Transocean has not met with any criminal prosecution. Serving as an example that a company is free to cause death and mayhem without any consequences but an individual who caused the death of eleven workers and poisoned the Gulf for decades to come would receive no such special treatment.
America continues to be a cowardly nation when it comes to holding the people responsible for the industrial homicide that took place one year ago.
Add atop all this that the government lied to the public regarding the location and magnitude of the spill on multiple occasions and approved a toxic dispersant that has been banned in the U.K. to be sprayed into the environment in quantities previously unheard of for use in an oil spill clean up.
Considering all this I don't trust the EPA or the federal government when they proclaim the seafood as safe as the Gulf as non-toxic. The health and safety of the public is secondary to promoting the needs of the private sector industry forces, so if the feds and the EPA have to lie and cause a few people to get sick as a direct result then that is exactly what they will do.
As a single solitary citizen there is not much I can do to bring the inhuman monsters responsible for this to justice nor can I hope to see those in the EPA and the federal government who would lie to public be fired and replaced with people who would actually do their jobs rather than bend knee to the oil industry. Beyond voicing myself on a blog the only avenue I have to act upon is this: boycott BP forever.
A corrupt government we can change, though I don't see it as an easy road it is entirely possible if people only stand together in a common cause. But changing a multinational corporation is much more difficult than changing a government and in all reality corporations are beyond all laws and beyond taking responsibility for the death and destruction they bring about in their narrow, greedy quest for ever-increasing profits. When faced with such a power the only recourse of a ordinary person is to not contribute to the empire of death with everyday purchases like gas or food.
When every former BP station has rebranded itself and the company is treated like the pariah they are in the United States then I might consider reviewing their corporate policies and considering put an end to the calls for boycott, not a moment before.
If consumers continue to reward corporations guilty of industrial homicide with business then there shall never be any hope of a private sector that doesn't cause these horrific disasters in the first place.
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Lunchlady 2
Maynard G Krebs
Ed Stein
Peggy Kolm
Alysa Salzberg
Mark Wilson
Salon.com
Comments
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/14/110314fa_fact_khatchadourian
I was pleased with the photo's that I took of the beautiful Pelican's. Then to see them as they looked in the attached photo's was heartbreaking.
Both parties continue to coddle corporate America. I didn't even vote in the last election due to hideous regard given to financial corporations and their interest. I did not agree with TARP I or TARP II. I would have preferred a depression and 25% unemployment for one year rather than 10% for the past two years and how many more to come?
The taxes due on my husband's pension increased as of 01/01/11. Yet corporations such as BP, Exxon-Mobil, GE and at least 7 others, that I am aware of paid $0.
The present administration would like to increase the taxes of people who make over $250 thousand per year?? $250 thousand is not "wealthy" by todays standard. My son and his wife are in that category. They are saddled with quite a bit of debt in student loans and are by no means "wealthy." They are both are liberal people who support this administration.
I don't understand. I love them dearly and think they are tremendous people but I don't understand why it doesn't bother them to have their taxes raised and let wealthy politicians and corporations renege.
Al is not worth addressing except to say he is not worth addressing.
Ms.Makin'waves is speaking about something I have felt to be true for longer than I can remember: neither party has the best interest of Americans in mind. They are both either held captive or servant to big business, it truly matters not which.
I've been slacking about writing on the Arab Spring but that is the true core of the issue. Until people will stand up as one to say they will not recognize the government as it stands as legitimate until it changes the hands of power from the corporate overlords to We The People there will be no altering the course of America. Through a unified non-violent resistance we really could change this country to one that holds the murderers of BP & Transocean accountable for what they did and a country that would not allow such an easily avoidable environmental disaster to happen in the first place. The problem here being we have to get the oridinary people who spend their days locked in intense hatred for their fellow Americans to come together, and at least in this country I see that as a lost cause until people are so battered and beaten into dust that it is too late to recover from the damage. Not a cheery assessment, I know. But I don't do the fluff too well.
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An EP!?! I thought I was marked "pariah" around here... Always good to see an editor at Open Salon notices when I put something on here that is not totally crazy-cakes. Boo-ga-boo-ga! :P