The Cookie Jar

When my children were little they played the blame game. They would blame each other for whatever happened. One day one of them broke my cookie jar. It really didn’t matter who broke the cookie jar, the results were the same. All of the cookies, along with the shards and slivers of glass that had been the cookie jar, went into the trash can.

Living on a tight budget, I could not afford to buy more cookies until payday. I loved cookies as much as the children did. All of us suffered the consequences for one person’s actions. It did not matter if they intended to break the cookie jar or not. It was broken and the cookies were gone.

Listening to Transocean, BP, and Halliburton blame each other during the recent public hearings didn’t make me feel warm and cozy. They sounded like older versions of my children shifting the blame and saying “not me.”

Halliburton with its history of cheating the citizens of the United States with cost-plus contracts and with its corruption charges in the Nigerian oil industry is one of the usual suspects in contract corruption. It reminds me of my sneakiest child; the one who was usually at the bottom of the trouble. Add to this the information that government inspectors and employees of the agency charged with protecting environmental interest were dipping their hands into the pockets of the oil industry in exchange for not doing their jobs. My youngest son would charge the other two to keep his mouth shut.

Halliburton might be completely innocent of any wrongdoing. BP might be innocent. Transocean might be innocent. Wrongdoing should be determined by an investigative panel with knowledge of best practices in the oil field and not by speculation of the media and the public.

At this point, it doesn’t matter which of the children was responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf, we all have to pay; however, we should ultimately hold those responsible for the accident accountable. The time for childish blame games is over. This isn’t a cookie jar.