Why Boycotting Your Local B.p. Will Only Hurt The Community

Like everyone who watches the news I have heard the jokes about B.P. (British Petroleum). I have felt my skin crawl as I listen to the owners of the name talk about it all. The misspoken words and the tone that goes with them. I have been scared to even tell people where I work right now. You never know when some crazy person will get it in their head that by doing something to me or other cashiers they are helping the cause. 

The truth is that all these B.P.s you see up and down the highways are not own by the men who are on the television everyday. The people who own and work at these B.P.s probably have never laid eyes on these men except on television or when they are sent fliers. For the most part B.P.s are locally owned just like everything else these days. 

The people who own these B.P.s have nothing to do with the oil spill in the gulf. Most are as angry as everyone else. They feel as if they have been brought into something that was totally out of their control. The same goes for those who tend to the stores every day. They are just trying to make a living just like everyone else. 

Everyone can agree that what has happened is awful. I think we all wish we could make time go back in order to prevent what happened. Between the lost of lives and the destruction of beaches we have lost as much as everyone else but by boycotting the stores you risk closing down the very places that everyday people work at in order to make a living. By causing, them to close down you are risking making even more people unemployed. 

I am not being paid by B.P. to say these things. Up until today I have pretty much have kept my views to myself but like everyone else I do believe that maybe it would be wiser to push congress for tougher laws environment wise. That maybe the inspectors should be trained better. At the very least if, something looks dangerous then maybe they should shut it down for a short period in order to fix the problem instead of waiting for there to be a disaster as the one we now have to deal with. 

This could have happened to any other oil company. It just so happened that it happened with this one. Maybe we can learn from the mistakes that were made instead of finger pointing and making jokes. That is the true way to fix this mess. Not punishing those who had nothing to do with it in the first place.