America's Shame

I just wanted to go record with this: I am so ashamed of my country. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is such a worldwide catastrophic event that it puts Japanese whaling, poaching Africans, rainforest destruction, European wolf depopulation, yada yada, etc. etc. to shame. Its hard to imagine a more offensive affront to man, god or nature.

Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Republicans, Democrats, Government Regulators, I blame you.

Oddly, I don't blame the oil companies. They're businesses, they're supposed to enlarge profits, and drop costs. They were doing what they were supposed to doing. It was government that dropped the ball. And the people, for letting themselves get hoodwinked into thinking that industry could or would self-regulate. Why do I blame the regulators? Well, that should be pretty obvious, but just to enlarge. Political purges of beaurocracy are pretty common, and the Bushies were particularly efficient at this, but the hypocrisy and degredation of those who call themselves regulators and allow these things to happen ought to be punishable by life in prison. I'm sure there are many principled regulators out there, and I don't blame them, exactly. But at a certain level, willful ignorance is acceptable only in certain areas. I don't blame financial regulators for looking the other way--not as much--because a failed financial system really only hurts humanity, and really only hurts humanity temporarily. But environmental and industrial regulators are really stewards of the entire earth, in perpetuity. When they fail, it not only hurts humanity, but it hurts humanity for the rest of its existence. When they fail, they not only hurt the environment, but the alter it indelibly for generations.

I'm so disgusted I can barely breathe.

as a caveat, I would like to add that I would never will any violence or physical unpleasantness for these people. But I absolutely hold that they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if the law isn't severe enough, it ought to be rewritten.

as a further caveat, I admit my own guilt. I've protested politics before, but I've never personally done anything, except for occasional donations to the WWF, to help the environment.