THE PROBLEM WITH PROTESTING

My son was home this weekend. Done with finals, a break before his summer job starts. He needs a haircut and apparently he plans to keep the beard...sigh. I grilled his favorite lamb chops and forgot to leave the nuts out of the broccoli salad (he doesn't like nuts.) While I did the dishes he was checking out the website he likes called Digg.

He found an article with lots of "Diggs" - approvals- about boycotting BP and it's companies. I was surprised to hear that the gas station I use is one of them: ARCO. My immediate reaction was, well, I'll have to get gas somewhere else. BP also supplies gas to Safeway.

I already don't buy gas from Shell due to their ongoing human rights issues beginning with their local ( I lived near Martinez CA) workers on the 1970's and moving on into Nigeria where they continued by supporting the military rulers who tortured and executed citizens who protested against the taking of tribal lands for oil production; and then added environmental crimes to their record by killing 100 people and despoiling the Niger Delta, wells and farm lands with a ruptured pipeline.

Or how about buying gas from Exxon? We all know they never fully cleaned up the mess they made in Alaska, much less compensated all those who lost their livelihoods form that disaster. They are one of the biggest financial supporters of the "there is no scientific evidence of global warming" camp. (Funny how these corporations have all kinds of money for political lobbying, but can't afford to clean -up the environmental problems they cause.)

Texaco owns Chevron - and is being sued by Ecuador for 20 years of dumping of oil production waste into open, unlined pits which caused ground water contamination and the subsequent fatal cancers and environmental issues.

Bottom line? We are all complicit in the abuses of these companies. We are all dependent on the products they are drilling for and we want them for as little money as we can spend. We are not changing our lifestyles and reducing our use sufficiently to reduce the demand. Until that happens, these companies feel they have a green light to do what it takes to go get the oil where ever it is how ever they have to get it at what ever cost there is to those they have to step on to get it and keep the profits high and the stock holders happy.

We can be mad at BP. We can be feel sorry for the oil soaked pelicans and the ruined beaches. We can blame "the government" for not doing enough. Our President said he takes responsibility, some people think it may be a defining issue for his presidency. What a crock.

This is a defining issue for this country. When are we going to wake up and see that we can no longer consume as we do and expect no consequences? It is time for us to grow up. Reduce our consumption or pay the price. The rest of the world has already been paying it for years.