Again, an almost completely unrelated photo.
I don't get it.
Where has personal responsibility gone?
This oil crisis is driving me crazy. Okay, the way the media is handling it is driving me crazy.
BP is an enormous company. I think that generally their business plan is to make money and keep to themselves. I don't think their business outline for 2010 included rupture an oil line one mile deep in the ocean, see if we get caught, oh, and how much of the Gulf's ecosystem can we destroy in the meantime?
It used to be said that "People make mistakes." Is this not allowable any more? I'm trying to teach my children accountability but also bravery in the face of challenge. Society is taking away the reward for courage to take chances. Money-hungry lawyers glut themselves on mistakes. Not on purposeful wrong choices--on human error. That's why we have to sign so many papers at the doctor's office before a child can be seen. This is why coffee cups describe themselves as "Careful. HOT!" Really? That's why we have labels that read "processed in a plant that uses peanuts, wheat, soy, milk products or eggs." Rumor has it that all food that may promote choking will now have to have a label. I know this is a real concern, but come on, America! Stand up and be brave. Eat that Whopper. But use common sense. Don't feed them to sixteen-month-old babies. Sheesh. And technically, can't all food be choked on?
I'm all for personal accountability. If BP was negligent, then they should be held financially responsible. I'm so sad for those areas of the Gulf that will be changed from this mistake. But the media, especially conservative media, is somehow blaming the President that it's not being rectified fast enough. What? Since when is he qualified to clean up oil spills? That's why he has staff and experts and state officials to help him. IT'S NOT HIS FAULT, EITHER! Let the states work on it, and let the federal government act as it's supposed to--in an advisory and assistant position.
Can't we all just get along? Can't we all work together to try to fix problems instead of pointing fingers, extending blame, then refusing to get involved?
When Lily, bless her heart, got bored doing a writing assignment and then drew all over the library desk, did I call in all the kids and punish all of them? No. Did I make her tell her dad, all by herself, who the culprit was? Yes. Did the punishment fit the crime? Yes. Did we enlist the President to figure out the solution? No.
Grow up, folks. If I'm teaching my kids about responsibility and accountability, I would greatly appreciate it if they weren't the only responsible adults in society twenty years from now.
Thank you.
Linking up to Mama Kat (prompt--political opinion)
Alphabe-Thursday
AMEN! Well said, well put, well done.
ReplyDeleteAnd may i just thank you once again for amazingly delicious tomatos. So lucious and delicious!
i absolutely understand where you're coming from and agree with your stand on this. my hubby worked years out on the oilfields of wyoming. some sites were shell, some were bp. in comparison, the bp sites, saftey, & regs were so much more strict that shell's. their accountability was outstanding! it makes me mad to see what the media is doing in this situation. bp is a company that likes to keep it's nose clean and prides itself on that. why does no one care about their track record BEFORE this accident? aggravating. it's almost as if the media's trying to find the next "toyota"...that's not what this is people! the oil and/or natural gas industry has some MAJOR risks involved in them. without bp and what they do, this world would not be where it's at. seriously.
ReplyDeleteso, that's that for wednesday's soap-box. hope you have a great rest of your week. =)
great picture of your girl, btw.
amen. and i swear, i'm not saying that because allyson said it but because the most of time i was reading this post, i was thinking it.
ReplyDeletethe rest of the time, i was thinking, imagine how much it would suck for us when a hurricane comes into the gulf. when, not if, because i doubt there's been a summer that the gulf's not known one of those.
and it's not just the livelihoods of the creatures in the sea that's at stake here. quite a bit comes into this country from our ports.
I agree. I think it's tragic, but I drive a car, so I can't complain that the gas is coming from the ocean floor.
ReplyDeleteExcept... I don't understand why you've included the "processed in a plant that uses peanuts, wheat, soy, milk products or eggs." As someone who is figuring out major food allergies and knowing people that can actually die from cross-contamination, I don't see how this is purely litigious. I don't know what every ingredient actually is, so it's nice to know when they spell it out more clearly so I can steer clear (or not).
Choking on a Whopper, yeah. I'm good. And I wait until my child is at LEAST their first birthday before giving them a super-sized meal. ;)
Amen! from the mom of a responsible, respectable, caring, involved & do-gooding 20 year old.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you are the voice of good sense and reason.
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting it down so well.
=)
I agree that all the screeching on TV is not helping to clean up the oil.
ReplyDeleteI'm a firm believer that the workers in the oil rig explosion and the Massey mine explosion knew there was something wrong. If they were unionized they could have spoken up without fear of corporate retaliation. My opinion, and I'm sticking with it.
Lots of interesting stuff here!
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you on raising responsible adults. Sadly, though, I am sure there is a lot at stake for some of the people involved in the problems/clean-up....being responible and upright and honest may be dangerous. Like I said ...Sad!
Good for you for putting it out there....opinions have real value!!
Have a great day!
I haven't heard 100% of what's going on in the conservative media so hopefully I'm not speaking out of turn, but I some of what I did hear is that when Katrina happened, Bush got holy grief from the liberal media that he did not get down to the disaster site until 3 days later. Obama was one of the congressmen at the time to lead the campaign against Bush and his lack of "quick response" time. Now, with one of the biggest ever man-made disasters we have or ever will see, it took Obama weeks to get down to the Gulf and view it for himself. I know this is just part of what the media is griping about, but basically I agree, we should all live by the standards we set so high for everyone else. I personally don't care if Obama even goes down there and of course don't think he is responsible for cleaning it up, but someone sure the heck is!
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing just sickens me :(
THANK you for TELLING it the way it is!!! I so appreciate this post!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and I were just talking about this this morning on our way to her school. She said she is so tired of the finger pointing and blaming as it appears to have gotten in the way of finding solutions. And why oh why does everything have to be political anyway?
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, we think exactly alike! We ALL use oil.....yes, even those environmentalists freaking out...they use oil everyday! Where the heck did they think it came from? Of course it's a complicated process, and guess what? Something always goes wrong once in awhile when things get complicated!!! No one wanted this to happen..it's a nightmare for BP too, and obviously they weren't out to create it on purpose...or even through negligence. No company wants to spend all this time and money on PR nightmares.
ReplyDeleteI saw the whole choking labeling thing too in the paper. It reminds me of the new rules when I go school supply shopping...we are only allowed to buy the SPECIFIC brand because once some kid ate a bottle of glue and had an allergic reaction to it, and now we have some law that says Elmer's and Crayola and on and on ONLY. For God's sake...teach your kid's to not eat a bottle of glue!!!
Sometimes I think that simpler times back so many years ago were better times.
ReplyDeletePreach it sister! AMEN!
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! Very well done!
ReplyDeletepersonal responsibility is defintely lost!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I'm so tired of everyone pointing fingers and forming congressional investigative committees inorder to place blame, instead of actually DOING something. Right now, what does it matter whose fault it is? We just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work!
ReplyDeleteSo well said! I sometimes even feel sorry for BP (gasp!) because they aren't being given a chance to make it right. They are just being flushed down the drain by popular opinion--fueled by the media. They deserve the same chance to make things right we want when we make mistakes. That said, I hope they get it fixed soon, it is truly awful to see the mess being made on the Gulf. And all those lives changed. That part of the country has certainly suffered over the last decade.
ReplyDeleteBless your heart with such a big family to have the time to write such a sensitive post on the oil crisis. I agree with you 100%. I'm happy in knowing that your instilling some great values in your kids as well. I'm holding a Tea Party on my blog. Hope you can take a minute to come for a cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteAnne-Marie
agreed on the bp getting skewered part. hopped on FB to respond to a message, and low & behold when i saw the newsfeed i just about choked! even people whom i thought we saw things on the same level have chimed in on the barrage of bp-hating. stinks big time. and they all think it's a conspiracy as well.
ReplyDeleteoy vey.
i may have to go back to bed & call it a day. =(
Hi Jen...
ReplyDeleteLoved this little Tirade on my journey through Alphabe-Thursday's Letter "T"!
I share your disbelief that somehow no-one is ever responsible for something that happens to them!
In a country that seems lawsuit happy from everything to getting burned on hot coffee (d'oh) to getting fat from eating fast food it tends to follow that every disaster, natural and otherwise, needs to have a whole bunch of fingers pointed at it so the blame can be passed around like a hot potato at a kids party.
I appreciate this post today.
It made me think.
And it was terrific.
A+
I wrote about personal responsibility about a year ago concerning the whole housing crisis issue. Here I am trying to teach a child not to point fingers or pass the blame, but the adults and government are doing exactly that.
ReplyDeleteGood rant. Great post. And I added you too!
I am so infuriated right now with BP, I can hardly contain myself. After seeing a poor pelican in the oil soaked ground dead today on TV, I'm about to spit nails here LOL. Frankly, I'm over BP apologizing. JUST STOP THE OIL.
ReplyDeleteAmen, sister! And I LOVED your last line!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that the media is usually out of line. But I can see why they would blame Obama this time. It might be because he is insisting on taking the responsibility himself:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/obama-oil-spill-press-con_n_592149.html
Hey, if he wants to take responsibility then he can have it. If it were me, I'd let BP take care of it, they are ready and willing to do so.
Agreed on all points. Well said.
ReplyDeletewell put,
ReplyDeleteshe looks like a famous movie star!
You obviously do not live on the coast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou obviously do not live on the coast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that taking accountability for your own actions has become very rare in this world. It's something that I try hard to teach my kids also.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the tirade. If you think about it, society's greatest tragedies stem from a lack of personal responsibility. Abortion, for example.
ReplyDeleteOh Lily, Lily... Love the pic. Glad she's learned not to draw on furniture. :)
Thank you so much for coming by my blog. Oh, I go all sorts of places and you're more than welcome to come along for the ride!
ReplyDeleteFollowing you now and really looking forward to diving into your blog!
Amen - you're not alone on this!
ReplyDelete"Triade" is a good T-word. Judging from the comments that you have received on this post, you seem to have struck a chord with many others that are unhappy with this situation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. It is always good to stop and think.
Best wishes,
Anna
Anna's Ts
here, here!
ReplyDeleteAmen, you are so right! Terrific "T" post!
ReplyDeleteBrave post! So many differing opinions...in reality, none of us can know enough about all the details of this incident or of the general operating conditions of any of these oil companies. I worked in the oil business for 10 years and would not trust any of the companies. I am with Julie on the issue of employees being able to speak out. We all are involved in this...at a minimum every safety protocol should be in use. We should have the most stringent protocols available...no cut corners. Oil companies have come a long way in the technology to find and extract fossils fuels, but have lagged in the ability to deal with spills and safety. I have said enough...Thanks for this post...
ReplyDeleteyou get a big thumbs up from me....if we get it, why doesnt everybody? that I dont get....
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog. Love it by the way. I agree with most of what you said. However, I am grateful for the labels that read "made in a facility that processes, eggs, wheat, dairy and nuts". As a person with celiac disease it makes life so much more helpful for me to know if something has wheat or gluten in it. Not so I don't have to take responsibility, but so I don't have to get sick every time I eat something. Just saying.
ReplyDelete