27 May 2010

BP McD's & SB

I find that I'm driving a lot these days. Even to the post office. I suggested to my wife that I ride the bike in to meet my buddies for coffee this morning at Marbucks (our country Starbuckses are located in Martins Grocery Stores). That idea was short-lived. I think I realized on my way back from Aurora that I have a problem. Which admitting it is the first step.


I have to stop at Starbucks. I've pretty much memorized every Starbucks location along most major highways in Indiana. I know that when you drive through Kokomo in either direction you can stop at Starbucks without crossing over to the other side. The sad thing is that recently I've been skipping meals, if you can call anything from McDonalds a meal, and going right to the caffeine. There is something comforting about stopping at Starbucks...not sure why that is, but that's where I'm at in life so I'm going with the flow and embracing it.

After my Kokomo northbound stop last week I realized that I probably should have eaten something, my stomach was telling me loud and clear....so I pulled off at the new BP/Subway at Grissom AFB. The funny thing is that I was just thinking to myself...well, I should probably boycott BP now. So, as I left, I said goodbye to the big BP sign and figured that was my last BP stop. You know, it is remarkable to me that BP didn't have a plan in place for just such a disaster. But then I think why am I blaming them, shouldn't the feds have required some kind of disaster plan with a fool-proof fix for a gushing oil well? Seriously, what are we, some kind of third world fly by the seat of our pants country?


I don't think my little boycott/BP protest is going to do much. In fact I wonder if we should instead all start fueling up at BP just so they have the cash on hand to clean up the giant mess. We want our cheap fuel and honestly, here in the Midwest, we aren't faced with the reality of what that means. To deregulate to the extent of our own harm or excuse business blunders of catastrophic proportions (and I'm talking bailouts as much as I am oil spills) is just the way we do things now. It's kind of like the argument that we Hoosiers like to make concerning the folks we don't think are hard-working enough, you know, that they'll never help themselves because Uncle Sam will always be there to bail them out. So, do you think AIG, GM or BP for that matter have learned anything? Nope, in fact, I've heard a lot of Hoosiers making excuses for BP.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

HR I began my BP boycott when they applied for a permit to increase their dumping in Lake Michigan at the Whiting refinery...one which was approved by our little Napoleon Mitch. I cut my BP card and mailed it back to them. Today I listened to our "attorney" President while he gave the most whitewashed reasoning about how his administration is doing all it can do because it has "thought it through completely???" Well Friend I wish TR or Harry was President right now, we would be witnessing an ass kicking and name taking BP should pay dearly for their arrogance and total disregard for this earth that we have mearly borrowed from our children.....what a mess we are leaving behind Wingman

hoosier reborn said...

I remember you mentioning the prior boycott before. Unfortunately our BP is one of a handful of locally owned businesses. TR! man, that's what we need today! We are leaving quite a mess behind, but we don't care-seriously-with the exception of a handful of close friends-I have heard no outrage over this. I wonder what would happen if in republicania county all of a sudden half our farm land was polluted beyond use (even for suburbs!)and the deer population was non-existent-all because of one company. Do you suppose our farmers and hunters would be so tolerable? Heck, one farmer threw his breifcase across the room because the drainage board wasn't clear-cutting fast enough!

Ishmael said...

Good post, HR! Our collective love of cheap fuel has a cost.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/opinion/19friedman.html

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