The EPA turned 40 years old yesterday. Tavis Smiley interviewed Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, on KUOW today, asking her about highlights and lowlights of the EPA over the last 40 years. Jackson listed lots of accomplishments of the EPA: banning DDT, stopping acid rain, etc.; finally Smiley asked her about the BP Gulf oil spill: was that one of the "lowlights"? Jackson's response disturbed me. She said that the Gulf spill was not the company's fault, they're "in the business of making money", so you can't expect them to think about protecting the environment.
Lisa Jackson's answer hit the nail on the head of what is wrong with America; she has bought into the notion that business is value-free. We have elevated profit-making above all else. Making money has its own intrinsic value, it is above reproach and we cannot judge it with moral standards. While businesses are making money the rest of us play catch-up trying to figure out how they have cheated or diverted rules and regulations, or gotten away with murder. Businesses are not responsible because they are "in the business of making money".
This kind of thinking is rotting the core of the nation. We worship money, and whoever makes lots of it must be right. Even those who seem to have other values bow down at the altar of money. How can we begin the change if we don't see the need to? Obama, who spoke eloquently about "hope and change" is giving us more of the same: banks and rich people first, they are, after all, what counts.
What did Jesus say about the rich man?
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