“Don’t blame me, I didn’t do it! Well, I didn’t, so quit lookin at me.”
We were five kids in the family, three boys and two girls. When something was broken or lost and no one knew “who did it,” all five of us claiming absolute innocence, my stepdad would say, “There’s our ghost again. That ghost causes more mischief in this house than the five of you put together and then some.” I’d shrug my shoulders and think, “Must be, cause I know it wasn’t me.” Though I had a good idea as to who it was, and he was no ghost. But my brother would as quickly beat me as blame me if I said a word, so my lips were sealed. Ghost or not, I hated the idea of being blamed for someone else’s misdeeds. My four siblings were quite capable of causing as much trouble as I, if not more so, especially my two older brothers. And when my cousins came over, adding three more boys to the mix. Wow, talk about a tornado in a hurricane. It’s a wonder our house was still standing when they left. Can’t say we didn’t have fun though. The nice thing was that it was easy to blame THEM for the mess they left behind, as if we were just innocent bystanders as we watched them tear up the place.
Apparently growing up makes no bit of difference, we still love to blame our brothers, sisters, cousins, or neighbors. Anyone, just about anyone will do as long as it’s not us, me, to blame. If you don’t think so, look at our national politics, especially when anything, anything at all goes wrong or doesn’t work or isn’t fixed right. If we’re Democrats, it’s a certainty that the Republican’s are at fault. If we’re Republican, we can be darn sure that the Democrats are to blame. And if we’re the Independent Party, well, by golly isn’t it as obvious as a wart on the nose that both the Democrats AND Republicans are responsible for the mess we’re in! It’s never us and always them that are at fault; it’s never me and always you who are to blame. Me, mine, and ours are always innocent; they, them, and those are always guilty.
It’s no wonder that grade school kids are awestruck by George Washington and the Cherry Tree account[1]:
"George,'' said his father, "do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!''
This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried:
"I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! [Strange kid he must have been.] I did cut it with my little hatchet.''
The anger died out of his father's face, and taking the boy tenderly in his arms, he said: "My son, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees! Yes - though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!'' [What kid wouldn’t want this man for a father?]
Little six year old George Washington actually admitted it: “I did cut it.” “Unbelievable!” That’s what most of us think when we first hear the story in what, first or second grade? That kid wasn’t normal. But of course he wasn’t. After all, look at what he grew up to become, the very first President of these here United State of America. Yep, he was destined to do great things and become a great man. All because he owned up to cutting down that cherry tree. What a guy!
So where’s this famous American character[istic] now? Take the oil spill. We’re mad. Everybody’s mad. We hate what’s happened. The president is furious with BP: they’re not doing enough. Gulf residents are furious with the president: he’s not responding forcefully enough. We’re all furious with BP AND the government: neither BP nor the Government is addressing the crisis well enough. We’re all hopping mad and getting angrier and angrier as the spill spreads and spreads. And of course the minority party will politicize this to the max in order to regain control. What an irony. Instead of uniting and saying, “Hey, S**# happens. Let’s get together and fix this thing!” We’re posturing, accusing, and demanding. We’re expecting “others,” the “they, them, those and theirs,” to fix things for us.
Folks, its’ us! I looked in the mirror, and therein is my enemy. None of us are doing enough. Are we not ALL to blame? We wanted it, accepted it, and gladly received the oil that required the drilling in the first place. We, us, the American people, you, me, my neighbor, your neighbor, we all wanted it and were willing to pay for it. We asked for it, even demanded it. But we seem to have gotten ourselves in a mess over our heads, because of it. Yes, “we,” not them, they, or those people over there, but WE!
I suspect that what the gulf region needs is a great influx of manpower (women too!), the kind that comes from a mass of volunteers as we saw after hurricane Katrina or 9/11/01. Hired mercenaries just won’t cut it. But instead we’re playing the blame game and moan and groan: the President is not on top of things as he should be; BP is avoiding responsibility; the government is dragging its heels. But what about the American people themselves? Can we, the American people, really distance ourselves from this calamity and pretend we are not to blame? Think about it. Every time you fill up your tank with gas, think about where that gasoline/oil is coming from. Then ask yourself, how might I help make things right for the Gulf region?
Yes, I cannot tell a lie. It was I…and YOU. You and I are to blame for the big mess in the Gulf. BP was only an agent, doing our bidding. But it is we who ordered it. No, this statement is not to let BP off the hook (or the government). It IS, however, to hold US accountable as well, as we should be. Hopefully we will hear less and less blaming and more and more calls for uniting in our effort to keep our land safe, clean, and livable! As the song says, “This land is your land, this land is my land, this land is our land …from the mountains to the oceans.”
[1]
Excerpt from The Cherry Tree by M. L. Weems, see http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/presidents-day/george-washington/short-stories/the-cherry-tree.html
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