PRIORITIES

Today, CNN reported that Marc Emery, a marijuana activist from Canada’s British Columbia pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, and after nearly two years of investigation by US authorities (the Canadian authorities didn’t care) now faces the possibility of five years in prison. At the same time, 11 people died, hundreds or thousands of people who were just picking themselves up in the Gulf after Katrina are going to be ruined, an entire ecosystem is approaching destruction, and the long term effects of the oil spill in the Gulf on human life has yet to be assessed. The people responsible for one of the worst disasters to hit the US in its history need no investigation to find. They are resting comfortably in their multi-million dollar homes, being brought their food and drink by servants, and consider themselves further from the reach of the US than Osama Bin Laden.

The time has come for the US to shift its priorities. Emery sold plant seeds that hurt no one and Al-Qaeda, in its misplaced hatred and wrath, may have killed more people in the short run, but has not done nearly as much damage to our people and our nation as BP, yet President Obama seems to have been pleading with BP executives, like the orphan, “Oliver” to “please clean up and let me know what you’re doing . . .” BP executives are at least guilty of Criminal Negligence, and perhaps should be treated as the enemies of the state that they are, or the terrorists some people consider them to be. Let’s stop wasting our efforts on people like Marc Emory and go after the people who either mean us harm or don’t care if we die, as long as they make more money.