Blame Game

abstract, originally uploaded by lucienphoto.

We are all sitting, waiting, watching to see when President Obama and/or British Petroleum are able to stop the gush (it is not a leak, people) of oil into the gulf. We are looking to blame someone, as always here. We are not solution-focused, but blame-seeking. Assigning blame makes it easier for us to litigate later.

We are all to blame. Living in excessively large homes, driving out multitude of cars. We wait for the oil companies to make us want to change. They do that by raising oil barrel prices and we whine and complain about how much of our limited and shrinking budgets go for petroleum products and the by products of said petroleum.

We choose synthetic materials over natural ones.

We choose SUVs and large horsepower autos over fuel efficient means of transportation. We choose our political leaders in such a way as to reinforce our need for speed, greed, and lucre.

We look at the devastation of small economies and we pitch in to help mega-corporations with their pittances set aside to put an end to WHAT.

We sit at home in front of our big screen and LCD or plasma entertainment centers and watch how it is THERE. W e complain that the BIG government should be doing MORE now to stop this while still fuming that BIG government is sucking the very lifeblood out of us.

It is you and me. My neighbors and yours. It is our way of life. The way we ask forgiveness rather than seek permission. It is the assumption that we (humans) are able to DO and UNDO as we choose. We laugh at the challenges but continue to build. We momentarily think about ecosystems, but prostrate ourselves for the all mighty dollar.

Think about this the next time you get ready to zip on over to Walmart for another ____________. What is the real impact of your purchase on this planet; on your neighborhood; on someone's livelihood?