Whose fault is it?

I looked at pictures of oil soaked sea birds today. I’m not good at watching animals suffer. In some ways it’s easier for me to deal with human suffering than to see the suffering of animals. Don’t judge my lack of empathy. I think it has something to do with innocence. They are just being where they are. Doing what they do and they have no hope of competing with our capabilities. Our capabilities to destroy, pollute, damage, and make a profit in the process far exceed their ability to survive. So, the pictures bothered me.
The metaphorical dichotomies that resonate through the scenes are hard to handle. Flight and freedom traded for limitation and death, a deal based on the appetite of our machines. But this isn’t about all of that. This is about the responses written by other people who looked at the pictures.
There were a few who empathized. Almost all of them were looking for someone to blame. There were a few common targets. The president of our country dominated the list. Then there were the people running BP. Blame’s a great thing. It points a finger, corners another between vengeance and self righteousness. The blamed have no way out because the only reason anyone has to blame is to convince themselves that they are powerful. Vengeance always demonstrates a good reason to walk away from the avenger. Their motives have nothing to do with solving anything near the problem. And there they all were, spouting good reasons to walk away from them and refusing to address anything near the pain occurring on the beaches or the marshes.
We are all connected, whether we acknowledge it or not. We are bound to each other whatever our opinion of each other. But more, when we try to use each other for our own emotional gratification we reduce our ability to cooperate, to share responsibility. It occurs to me we don’t want to take responsibility, we don’t want to share in creating a solution or a better world. We want to beat our chests and act powerful. We want to rant and rave and sit in judgment. It is so much more comfortable than actually trying to help. It is so much more convenient than to reduce our dependence on the wells and the refineries. It is so much neater than putting on gloves and washing off the birds.
When are we going to stop throwing stones? When are we going to stop wasting opportunities to actually start being a people who are willing to be responsible? The birds are waiting. So are our children. Will we teach them to be responsible or will they be just like us.