Leroy Stick – Looking Forward

Dear America,

I want to start by saying, I very much would like to believe that BP has their well under control.  If this cap ends up working, I will breathe a giant sigh of relief with the rest of you.  However, it seems that plugging the top of the well may have increased the pressure on the bottom, which could lead to a more dangerous, methane infused 2nd leak.  The Associated Press reported on this Sunday, and if it’s true we are in way more trouble than we first imagined.

All that aside, let’s say that BP does get the leak under control.  A lot of people have speculated that I will shut down BPGlobalPR when that happens.  I’m here to tell you that those people are incorrect.  I didn’t start BPGlobalPR to mock BP’s efforts to plug the leak, I started it because BP is more concerned about saving face than they are about saving the coast.  I’ll stop tweeting about the terrible things BP does when BP stops doing terrible things.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that will be happening anytime soon.

My challenge to you, the average citizen, is simply to care.  Believe me, I’d love to hang up my tweetin’ trousers sometimes.  I’ve already posted 440 tweets about bp and I’m ready to write about other things, but we can’t let BP slide.  We have to keep shining a light on them.  Look at the way they’ve acted thus far!  Do you think they’re going to  change now that the well is capped?   They are going to keep trying to play it down, shirk their responsibilities and in the meantime, they’re going to pursue bigger and potentially more dangerous drilling operations.  We have to pay attention, we have to care or this could happen again.

It’s time we, as Americans, take a hard look at ourselves.  Forget that you’re a Republican, forget that you’re a Democrat.  We are Americans.  What is our honest relationship with oil?  Where has it gotten us?  We’ve gone to war over it, we’ve overthrown governments for it, we’ve ruined ecosystems all over the world for it, we’ve angered the rest of the world by consuming a ton of it, and now we’ve got it all over our backyard.  Not to mention, we pay a lot of money to put it in our cars.  So if there are other cheaper, cleaner forms of energy, why would we keep using oil?  What more is it going to take?  When will we have had enough?  When will we move on?

We can’t sit back and depend on our government to regulate for us, we need to make this a priority in our own lives.  Sacrifice a little bit, use less oil.  In the meantime, speak up about it.  This needs to be in the front of everyone’s mind.  How can you reach people?  How can you start something?  How can you stir things up?

I know that at the end of the day BPGlobalPR is just a twitter account.  I know I’m not changing the world, but I’m doing SOMETHING.  If you take anything away from BPGlobalPR, let it be that your little idea could work.  The Internet offers a pretty accessible audience, so why not try and start something?  We can use new media to affect the old.  We can change the conversation.  We can set a new standard for corporate responsibility if we just make the choice to attack corporate irresponsibility. Let’s show these people that they can’t get away with business as usual anymore.  All I’m asking of you, the reader, is to TRY.  Just TRY.  You’ll be surprised what can happen.

<3

Leroy

p.s. Leroy Stick is in the process of starting up the Leroy Stick Foundation, a non-profit organization that will focus on funding publicity stunts and projects to direct attention towards corporate irresponsibility.  “Forget Your Brand” t-shirts are on sale on Street Giant to get this off the ground.  If you’d like, please buy one and help out.  Shirts are available here.

@bpglobalpr Leroy Stick