And The Reward For Being Honorable Is?

I take them at their word. “Drill Baby Drill” advocates and their talking radio heads now clarify that what they “really” meant was just “offshore” not “deep water” drilling with Sarah Palin even "tweeting" that the current Gulf spill is the result of "extreme greenies."

Uh? UUUUUKay! We try to teach our children values and values is what many of these same folks say they are all about. But I guess they must also include values like waffling, obfuscation, blaming the victim, etc?

But a tragedy like the Gulf seems to bring out a little hypocrite in all of us.

We say we try to teach our children values like admitting their mistakes, apologizing, taking responsibility, making things right…forgiving…

Right?

But then, when a corporation and its officials do just that…we just keep “stoning” them in the Biblical sense or watch while they get “stoned”…is that the reward we want our children to see is the result of being “stand up?”

No I’m not going soft on them or excusing the damage this spill could do. I'm not like the Republican Congressman from Texas who publically apologized to BP for the President being too hard on them and then apologized for apologizing. But I also don’t consider myself free of any responsibility.

Nor am I going to quibble about whether the BP apology as the article Unforgiveable did on Sunday in NYT Magazine citing observations an observation that more people appear forgiving when there is no apology at all than those willing if the apology is incomplete. That just reinforces my point in a way that we're inconsistent.

We're becoming jaded and very "picky" about apologies as recently noted in an article entitled Who's Sorry Now? Everyone! noting that these days the meaculpa is mega-cool and providing a series of websites that host apologies or show how to apologize. Something similar appeared in the WSJ.

But more than an apology, however imperfect, is BP's committment to making things right.

Sure, I’m a conservationist when it comes to the environment but I don’t get a pass for that or for being a progressive politically or believing as I fervently do that if we hadn’t hamstrung the officials responsible for regulation, they would have prevented the blow out.

I drive a Jeep and I’m a gadget person who consumes many of the products that probably drive the demand for petroleum. I invest and want a good return. I want my decendents to have even better opportunities than I’ve had.

Along with every American, no matter how frugal or prius, uh, I mean pious, I am a part of this tragedy. If the President can take responsibility, why can’t we?

And maybe it is time we all put down the “stones” of self-righteousness, accept BP’s commitment and roll up our sleeves and put our angst into looking for better energy alternatives….

Oh, I forgot, we’ll still need to find another obsession to feed the 24/7 news monster…

Whatever happened to that pandemic anyway?

But I’m forgetting this is “election” time and there is no time like election time for bumper stickers like “drill baby drill,” more self-righteousness and more “stoning.”

Just what we teach our children, right?