A Prolonged Period of Cluelessness

I was once slapped in the face by a Nun.

Well, to be truthful, the Nun didn’t actually use her own hand – she had a stand-in.

When I was in grade school, the idea of instilling discipline with a golden ruler had not yet been squeezed out of existence. It wasn’t like we had all day beat downs in the classrooms, or anything close to that, but a rap across the knuckles was still considered an effective way of getting a daydreaming student’s attention.

One afternoon, my Mom received a complaint from the school. Apparently, I had done something wrong. The complaint prompted my Mom to mete out some home schooling of her own – a slap across my face. An ear pull and a half a block later, I was back at school where I faced my accuser.

“Oh, no, Mrs. Colon, it wasn’t him, it was your other son.”

Lashing out in anger is something that happens all of the time. The problem with lashing out is that we often take aim at the wrong target.

Boycotting BP gas stations is like that.

Lashing out comes in many forms: we can get physical, we can yell, or we can vent by writing an angry letter. When the object of our anger is the government, we protest; and when a corporation crosses us, we boycott.

Oil pulled from wells is sold on a global market. When buying gasoline from BP, it’s not like the oil used to make it was just pumped from one of BP’s rigs. There may be some impact to BP’s bottom line, but not enough to change any behaviors. BP gas stations are usually privately owned small businesses, and it is those small businesses who will be most impacted by a boycott.

Not exactly what angered consumers have in mind, I know. It’s frustrating.

We are all agitated by the spill and fearful of the long-term impact it will have on our environment. We want to do something to punish those who arrogantly drilled in deep water without having an effective plan for dealing with a spewing well when something goes horribly wrong. Whatever the outcome of the coming years of investigation, it is clear that we are experiencing a prolonged period of cluelessness.

No one is suggesting that what they are trying to do a mile deep in the Gulf is easy, but the ineptness of their efforts to this point demonstrate an appalling lack of forethought in dealing with a totally predictable occurrence.

A more effective means of venting may be the pressure that we put on our elected officials to reassess the rules, to step up compliance of the safety regulations that already exist, and to make corporations accountable for their actions.

The current push to increase the maximum liability amount may satisfy our need for retribution, but it does nothing to address the real problem – oil spills.

Once the leak is finally capped and the clean-up that can be done is accomplished, we should come out of this prolonged period of cluelessness with more than just lawsuits, dashed dreams, and a wounded Gulf region.

The only acceptable outcome is one that ensures that the next time something goes wrong, someone will know what to do.

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Are you boycotting BP?

Do you think that a boycott can be effective?

What else can consumers do to make a difference?

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Tagged as: a prolonged period of cluelessness, boycot bp, bp, bp oil spill, clueless, deep water horizon, environment, lashing out, raycolon, retribution, the golden ruler

Author Bio:

Ray Colon has written 136 posts on Ray's Blog.

He works with numbers for a living, but don't judge - boring accountants need love too. His blog has no niche (unless writing about things that are important to him is a niche). Some folks cringe when he gets “all political” on them, but he does it anyway when he's in that kind of mood. Sometimes, he writes something nice about someone, but you shouldn't get used to that. His first book, the one he hasn't written yet, is not available on Amazon. Subscribe to Ray's Blog via RSS  or Email.

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