Our Blame Society

I know that BP sucks, I really do. Just bear with me.

I'm just not yet ready to start the crucifixion. Don't worry, they'll have to pay. I know this horrific spill will lead to them paying a steep price and may render BP bankrupt. I'm fine with all that.

There's just one problem: None of that will help the legitimate disaster unfolding as oil continues to gush into the ocean. I mean, oil is gushing into the ocean like a fire hose and has been for more than a month.

I am literally only concerned/hopeful/desperately-anxious for the spout to be plugged. I don't care who fixes the problem. If BP is the best positioned entity to make that happen, so be it. I will never understand how so many can say we should keep the perpetrator from being involved with the cleanup. The message appears to be that if you screw up, your punishment is to let others clean up the mess.

So, why all the attention on vengeance? Why are we SO concerned about seizing assets NOW of all times?

Maybe I'm too jaded right now, but we seem to wash down outrage with pounds of flesh and goblets of blood. It seems to make people feel better that 50 million gallons of oil just became part of our ocean by demanding the immediate surrender of ... well... MONEY. Money and humiliation, really. Many people yelled at BP executives who probably couldn't patch a leak unless it involved accounting practices. Yeah, they took advantage of lax regulations, but do we really think this was done on purpose?

Some are blaming environmentalists for "causing" this to prove a point. That's so dumb it needs no comment. Some accuse the President of inaction (apparently they think he's Aqua Man... or that he cut the pipe with his fake birth-certificate... birthers are idiots.). Both sides blame the other and the scoreboard moves only with podium appearances on oil-soaked beaches.

As sick as I feel watching the carnage, the salve we seek is almost as putrid.

Dolphins, birds, fish, and every kind of living thing in a very large chunk of the ocean is being wiped out. A lot of that sea life helps feed us, by the way.

Like everyone, I feel helpless because there is a pipe injecting tons of oil into our oceans and I can't do one thing about it. The same dynamic happens in our everyday lives.

I'm beginning to think it's that we use blame to make ourselves feel in control. After all, we blame the media, we blame a car mechanic, a teacher, other people's parents and even bystanders for the misfortunes that are a part of life.

Maybe that's why I'm now reading almost exclusively basketball books. Of course, even a basketball coach made more sense than all the indignant talking heads lecturing those actually trying to solve a problem.

"And life," said Phil Jackson to his bench players, "just isn't meant to be fair."

We're all on the bench, and life isn't fair. So, no more talk of who or what to blame. It's time for us all to just deal with life head-on.

We can start with the little things in our own lives. I just wish that would help plug this hole in the earth.