Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Oil spill a chance to put differences aside

It seems we have yet one more issue that divides Americans — the BP oil spill.

America has not agreed on the financial bailout, but somewhat agrees on what caused it. Now we have the worst ecological disaster in American history. I am somewhat surprised that there is not more agreement on what caused it — greed and overlooking precautions quite similar to the banking collapse.

I am actually blown away when I hear support for BP, as if it is the victim. I have a choice of telling myself that it doesn’t affect me, so why care? But in reality there are millions of Americans — good people, honest people, hard-working people — whose lives have been turned upside down by the effects of BP’s errors and oversights.

When the White House attempted to address the situation, again the American people were divided. Too late, not enough, too much, even declaring that BP is being cheated out of its profits. One politician even went as far as calling it a “redistribution of wealth.” Hey, nobody is suggesting that the money be given to slackers but to those whose income and ability to pay their bills have been destroyed by the BP debacle.

On this issue, I feel that Americans have the opportunity to cast aside their differences and agree that this disaster hurts American lives, not some foreign government or people. It seems that we have been too eager to take every big news story and find blame and argue with one another. If we believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel where Americans can proudly feel that we are one nation again, perhaps the problems in the Gulf of Mexico can be the catalyst.

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