The Gulf Coast Residents Are Angry, You are Angry, I am Angry, We are all Angry
I just put together this YouTube Video - my first ProgressiveE production
"Man, that ain't right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races," said Bobby Pitre, 33, who runs a tattoo shop in the crossroads town of Larose, La. "I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too."
But while these folks are losing their livelihood Tony Hayward goes to watch his yacht "Bob" sail around the Isle of Wight. Good old family bonding. Something a lot of us do on this Father's Day weekend. We all watch our $700,000 yachts sail around while we sip champagne and eat caviar.
Even some Republicans like my home state Senator Richard Shelby feel like enough is enough and Hayward should go on a permanent sailing trip to never never land.
"I thought that was the height, height of stupidity, and I believe myself that he should go," Shelby told Bob Schieffer Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I don't know how he can represent a company in crisis like BP and ignore what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico."
Yesterday Shelby was even more direct in his comments to the Mobile Press Register
"For him to be sailing his yacht while we're down here dealing with the mess caused by his company is just the height of arrogance. It shows that he is not tied to reality. BP can and must do better."
He added
"He ought to have that yacht down here skimming for oil,"
It's easy to criticize Hayward and BP execs right now , they are such easy targets. We've got thousands losing their income because tourism and fishing are dying. Public and corporate officials have a long recent history of being unsympathetic and lacking empathy. Might a suggest a great read - Kevin Dyson's Come Hell or High Water about Katrina.
Barack Obama was quoted then in the book as saying
I see no evidence of active malice, but I see a continuance of passive indifference on part of our government towards the least of these.
It's like going after AIG and their lavish boondoggles during the bailouts. It's comparable to a W month long vacation. We've got to make sure that we really hold these folks responsible. The time is now for corporate accountability. It cannot be lip service anymore.
I still think of when George W. Bush said
My attitude is this: The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast guard choppers . . were pulling people off roofs, they didnt check the color of a person's skin. They wanted to save lives.
Such a simplistic explanation typical of not only Bush but our leadership in business and politics, Corporate and public responsibility must start now. Right now. With power comes responsibility. An axiom of leadership that has been forgotten.
cross posted at The Progressive Electorate