What Are You Doing, Arkansas?

I have a personal interest in Exxon's recent oil spill. I learned to fish in Lake Conway as a child, and later I lived in Mayflower. My fond memories have been overshadowed by the depressing news. Things aren't going to be the same for the affected Arkansans for a long time.

What's more depressing is the surrender of Arkansan leadership to Exxon. I'm talking about the media restrictions on the cleanup site.

Now I know that on a project like this, the performing company needs to have at least some access control in order to do their job effectively. You see a simple example of this in road construction sites where a flagman is directing traffic. I go along with the flagman in such cases.

And if I drove up to a disaster cleanup site and was told I couldn't drive through the neighborhood, I'd probably comply too, at least if it wasn't my neighborhood. Even though I'd be mightily interested in how a multinational corporation is handling operations on American soil, I'd probably cooperate because I don't need to see everything myself.

We have the press for that.


The American press, shabby as it is sometimes, still manages to uncover useful information now and then, and they can do it without interfering with ongoing operations. The really good reporters can even do their job in a war zone. Restricting them from a disaster cleanup is effectively blinding the American people to what is going on.

And that's what Arkansan leadership has allowed to happen in Mayflower.

This case screams for exposure. First, you can't look at Exxon as some trusted, local business. It's a multinational corporation with no loyalty to anything but its spreadsheets. My conservative compadres say that's okay, because a corporation has a duty to make money. Fair enough, but follow it through. If you see a multinational corporation as a citizen, and you believe in corporate duty, then you have to view these corporations as untrustworthy citizens, because they have a stripped-down moral code that begins and ends with profit.

Such a corporate "person" might be useful for producing products that we want, but they can't be allowed to operate in secrecy, especially in a situation like the Mayflower spill, where this Exxon person's only moral imperative is to get through this with as little cost as possible.

Allowing Exxon to restrict the American press, as Arkansan leaders all the way from Mayflower to the governor's office have done, is a gutless betrayal of American principles. Just a suggestion, Arkansas, but maybe you should pick braver leaders.