Video: Anyone Still Buying BP’s Spin?

This short film–shot by Robert M. Young and Edward James Olmos on a trip through the heart of the Gulf of Mexico –captures the disastrous BP oil spill’s effects on the environment and the lives of the people in that battered region. Quite a departure from BP’s expensive PR ad campaign launched days after BP CEO Tony Hayward whined, “I want my life back.”

It’s too late for swift government action, but a steadfast commitment, as President Obama has promised, to restore some of the losses is a humane imperative. It is a debt owed to the families of the eleven who perished and the countless lives impacted by this man-made tragedy, a catastrophe caused, in great part, by the blinding corporate greed that first sunk the nation into an economic quagmire from which we have yet to emerge. Now we are faced with decades worth of environmental, financial and human damage.

And it’s become quite clear that without the U.S. government holding BP’s feet to the fire, the oil giant will try to wiggle out of its financial responsibilities to those facing financial ruin. There is already talk about “legitimate” claims and many people who have received remuneration have only gotten a fraction of their due.

When you watch this poignant short film, you can’t help but ask: When will we recover from this culture of greed in which the relentless, callous pursuit of profit trumps respect for our fellow citizens and the environment? When will we ever learn?

Let this be the hard lesson. Let us all hold BP and the government accountable to those struggling in the aftermath.

We’re all responsible now.

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