TC, TP and ME

Editor’s Note:
I subscribe to a number of newsletters and blogs. Rarely do I re-print one in its entirety. Bail out and blame wastes a lot of energy, time and money while often not getting the job done. ME and WE get the best results directly!

The gulf oil spill is a real mess. It is still causing a lot of damage, and the estimates are now even higher on how much oil is spewing forth.

Each disaster scenario has these three elements: TC, TP and ME.

TC is the entity that caused the disaster. TC is The Company. In this case it’s the formerly named British Petroleum now known popularly or unpopularly as BP. Some disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes are acts of God harping from above. TC is the big company or entity that caused the thing whether you know all of the true details of the cause or not.

There is a lot of justifiable focus on TC. This time TC appears to have been neglectful in their duties to responsibly do things and thus caused the disaster simply by sloppiness.

Those affected by the disaster have a right to be angry at TC.

Then there’s TP. TP is The President. He is the second target of the mess caused by TC. People get mad at TP because he (or someday she) didn’t act fast enough, decisively enough, intelligently enough or compassionately enough. TP didn’t do what we thought he should do and he didn’t do it when we thought he should do it.

When stuff really goes wrong, people blame TP.

Maybe if TC had done everything right the well could have still blown up. Stuff does happen. Maybe if TP acted with the speed of a Blackbird jet, stuff still would have flowed as fast and gummed and slicked up the environment just as much. Maybe.

The point is, no matter how much we fuss and blame the TCs and TPs during the current and future disasters (for they will come), the only entity whom we really have control over is ME.

What am I (ME, not TC or TP) going to do about it?

In the gulf crisis, people’s incomes have been surely hurt. Fishermen are suffering. The tourist industry is down tremendously because most Americans have cancelled their vacation plans to go to the stricken areas and have decided to go elsewhere.

This is what ME is going to do.

I’m going to the gulf within the next 30 days. I’m going to find one of the worst hit areas. I’m going to book a hotel on the beach. I’m going to look for one with oil on it. I’m going to go to the local restaurants and leave extra big tips because the waiters and waitresses will probably be some of the hardest hit during the crisis. I will leave a large tip in the room for the maid.

I will go along the beach and try to patronize some businesses that have been hard hit by the disaster. My feet may get oily but my soul will feel cleaner. Perhaps, I will put a little watery crude in a jar and bring it back. Like it or not, this is history and I have a chance to be a part of history instead of just watching it on TV.

That’s what ME can do. Not TC or TP – ME!

We can shake our heads and say what a terrible job TC and TP are doing or we can look in the mirror and realize that we can’t change the entire situation but if 5% of Americans took the ME responsibility, together we could ease the plight of many on the coast.

TP asked Americans to vacation in the affected areas. People complained and asked if TP was going to take his family there. It doesn’t matter whether TP takes his family there or not, that’s on TP not ME.

What matters far more is will ME (and you) take the family there.

When The Times invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme “What’s Wrong with the World?” The great writer G. K. Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter. It was the shortest response of any of the great writers.

His full letter is below:

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton

President Kennedy said it best, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Ask not what TC and TP are going to do for our stricken countrymen and women. Ask what will ME do.

TC, TP and ME.

Fuss, fuss or act (donate, volunteer, vacation).

Choose

~A MountainWings Original~

>From The Mountain: If you are in an affected area, contact MountainWings on why a MountainWings reader should come to your town. We may publish your story.

I don’t ever recall specifically asking you to forward a MountainWings issue to your friends, but the people in the gulf could use all of the help and encouragement they can get.

Your face (and money) showing up would be a great boost to them. If you can’t go and directly help the people, at least send this issue to people who can and might go. So forward this email or copy and paste the link below to your friends and it may increase the number who go and get oily feet and cleaner hearts.

TC and TP may not be moving as fast as you think they should. You cannot control their speed, but you can sure control the speed of ME.

Thank you for inviting MountainWings into your mailbox. Change a life, give a friend MountainWings. See you tomorrow.

www.MountainWings.com “Wings Over The Mountains of Life” To: Subscribe, Un-Subscribe, Get a Book, T-Shirt, Rate Issues, Tell Friends about MountainWings, Read Past Issues, Donations, Submit a MountainWings Moment or Prayer Request, Set homepage to Daily issue in larger type Go To: http://www.mountainwings.com Click to unsubscribe: http://www.mountainwings.com/remove.html

MountainWings, POBox 43725, 120 Selig Dr., Atlanta, GA 30336 USA

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sara R. Nichols: The Triumph of the Clueless (huffingtonpost.com)
• Is BP About To Pay Shareholders $2.6 Billion? Maybe Not. (npr.org)
• BP plans to suspend dividend – report (money.cnn.com)
• Documents show BP had concerns about oil rig: report (windsorstar.com)
• Red Tape Vexes Gulf Residents Seeking BP Payments (abcnews.go.com)

Image via Wikipedia

The 2010 Summer Sun itineraries and vacation packages are available from our recommended supplier Transat Holidays which includes the Nolitours brand).
For this coming summer, Transat Holidays will offer flights from Toronto to:

• Cancun/Riviera Maya and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico
• Punta Cana and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic
• Varadero, Holguin, Cayo Coco, and Cayo Santa Maria in Cuba
• Montego Bay in Jamaica.
• Panama
• Aruba
• St. Maarten
• Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida

The summer online brochures are available at these links:

• from Toronto, Ottawa and London
• All Canadian Departures

You can peruse your dreams and narrow down your choices without killing a single tree.

• It may take a few seconds to load because it is the whole brochure.
• Click the corners to turn pages
• Use mouse button to view larger or smaller
• Hold down mouse tomove around enlarged view

Please Contact: Doug, Terry or Jennifer (see contact Information Top Right if this page )
for consultation and to book your dream vacation.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ten (cheap!) warm weather getaways to cure the winter blues (oyster.com)

Image via Wikipedia

When a small improvement is made by a big contributor to the greenhouse climate change problem the results can be astounding. Every little bit helps

Air New Zealand yesterday revealed the results of its Dec. 29 747-400 biofuel test flight at the Eco-Aviation conference presented by ATW and Leeham Co. in Washington, saying that data gathered from the 2-hr. flight show that a 50/50 blend of jatropha-based fuel and standard jet fuel could reduce fuel burn by 1.2% and carbon dioxide emissions by 60%-75% on an average 12-hr. 747 flight.

A full report can be read here.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Women barred from wearing stilettos at Ancient Greek sites? Just on general health principles, high heels should be barred everywhere in the “modern” world, not just Ancient Greece.

Authorities in Greece have launched a campaign to stop female tourists from wearing stiletto heels at some of the country’s key archaeological sites for fear they are damaging monuments.

Women banned from wearing stilettos from Ancient Greek sites in new plan | Mail Online (30 May 2009)

Read more in the original article here.

The changes to statutes in House Bill 134 allowing Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation to measure a ships’ pollution within an area of dilution, called a mixing zone, corrects an error made in the ballot initiative in 2006. The changes can be viewed as more of a technical amendment and does not change the standards for water water disposal.

Discharges from shore-based treatment facilities in Alaska must meet the standards only after the discharge has become diluted. The changes to the method of measuring the pollutants allows for similar dilution rather than measurements taken at the end of the discharge pipe.

The majority of large cruise ships are using advanced waste water treatment systems and producing high quality discharge – much higher than municipal sewage plants, according to the state. Alaska requires the ships’ use the best available technologies. Using the mixing zones measurements may not be appropriate for moored vessels.

Many people want the cruise ships, and the resulting tourism dollars, to stay in Alaska waters and use Alaska ports. In the two years since the law was passed, cruise visitations rose, and the cruise industry generated more than $100 million in state tax revenue. The changes would help level the playing field for all polluters, not penalize one partular industry.

Cruise passengers, employees and owners want clean, green ships that maintain the waters in which they sail. They are no different than the general population when it comes to the urgent need for viable solutions to polluted waters.

More information:

• http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/02/18/ap6065618.html
• http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/feb/14/alaska-legislators-prepare-roll-back-limits-cruise/
• http://www.professionaltravelguide.com/Travel-News/Article/?id=TW189602
• http://www.eturbonews.com/7867/cruise-ships-sailing-alaska-have-meet-worlds-strictest-wastewater