"What Goes Around Comes Around."

Watching CNN's coverage of the oil spill, with all of its outrage and holier-than-thou pontification brings to my mind the absolute lack of interest of that network and the rest of the American media in the cases of Culebra and Vieques, both environmental disasters and human tragedies. The difference seems to be that these are two very small islands off the coast of Puerto Rico, a small and "unimportant" island in the Caribbean. But, most of all, it's because the environmental problems are the result of decades of U.S. Navy target practice and experiments with toxic substances. And they don't want to embarrass the U.S. government, by revealing its callous disregard for the health, security and well-being of the people of those islands. Especially when it's essential that the myth of American decency is maintained, lest the media appears to be "unpatriotic" in times of war.

So, the double standard prevails. You report ad nauseam what a foreign company has done to the continental U.S., while ignoring what the American government does to a small and defenseless country. Even as I write this, the American government is desperately trying to cover up or downplay the damage done to both islands, by offering "scientific proof" denying it. So, excuse me, if I have very little sympathy for the damage caused by the oil spill.

Maybe there's a God in Heaven, after all.

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