Criminal.

Editor,

It was obvious to me, a nobody who reads the newspaper, that this was going to be a disaster of catastrophic proportions when that burning oil platform sank. The Coast Guard and the Navy should have sent every resource they have for handling this sort of thing into the Gulf of Mexico as soon as that rig went under the water.

Waiting through days of idiotic spin while the federal government decided to get off its butt and act reminded me of watching satellite photos of Katrina bearing down on New Orleans while no one did anything to evacuate residents without cars.

And BP blithely drilling away with no tested, proven plan in place to handle a catastrophic failure as has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico epitomizes the blind insanity of laissez-faire capitalism run amuck.

Criminal banks destroy the economy, criminal mining companies kill their workers, criminal coal and oil companies destroy the environment. And let me be clear what I mean by criminal. Criminal is not violating the letter of laws the lackeys you buy put on the books.

Criminal is destructive towards your planet, your fellow human beings, and your fellow living creatures. The corporate capitalist way of life has got to be shut down before it kills everything and everyone living on the planet Earth.

re: "White House Takes a Bigger Role in the Oil Spill Cleanup" (4/30/2010)