Sorry, but as a Brit national just back from extensive talks to and with Lady Thatcher and fellow opposition Socialists and Co-operator activists there, I do have to puzzle as to what has got into J. Hitzel in his inaugural piece in the Aug. 21 edition of the Index, "Boycotting BP might not be the right solution."
Sure, it's not a permanent solution to this errant multi-national polluter, because too many small family stations would go under if the healthy boycott endured too long. Nor, too, does the nationalism of the U.S. GOP lunatic right help. Given that Oceana, the people who actually let BP get that well in basic drill flaws, is a multi-million dollar U.S. private "misenterprise" outfit in the first real pollutant culprit place in real blame. Blame they lately have been trying to evade by arguing the "Cunard Titanic defense" against Obama's wholly just Attorney-General pursuit of damages — compensation in the federal courts from them for the desecration which Hitzel himself identifies.
Desecration, recall, at least one federal Republican Congressman from Texas has had to be that party leadership self-repudiated upon, as he, too, argued for BP in "apology" of the Cunard defense. Namely "business" cannot be costed for its social profits rights, ever.
Hitzel, instead of exaggerating the economic prerogatives of such companies of gross size and filthy gas-guzzler wealth, should be contending.
For more, we acting consumers boycott and better both public ownership and regulation. To make bonused management accountable for such eco-spolation because of private auto sheer greed on our roads. For remedies that work like, in now major home Euro cities such as Paris and London, we need to privilege "public" transit and congest "tax" the private car, all of which feed BP and so on disastrous ravages of our precious historic sea heritage. Ironically, America's competitor countries in my native European multiparty and multi-choice community have been far less hesitant about such vital public accountability. BP is thus partly U.K. taxpayer owned, even Lady Thatcher and the present Lib-Con coalition of May 2010 not daring to reduce the taxpayer stake and their offshore Scottish oil wells, in result, do not pollute and kill workers and creatures as badly as their U.S. outfit and sub-contractor has done in bad result. Hitzel must not palliate.
Larry Iles
Kirksville resident
is a member of the 
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