A Modest Proposal: In Regards to the BP Oil Spill

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This is an essay I wrote for my English Literature class. It's supposed to be like English author Jonathan Swift's essay, A Modest Proposal, in which he proposes an absurd solution to Ireland's issue of a population in poverty (he suggests that they eat their children), and then hints at a more realistic solution near the end of the essay. I hope this entertains you.
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A Modest Proposal: in Regards to the BP Oil Spill

Unless you’ve had your head in the ground for the past two months, or you live in an Amish community, you would know about the catastrophic oil leak that is currently polluting the Gulf of Mexico. You would also know that BP, the company whose oil rig exploded and caused this whole fiasco, has effectively demonstrated its incompetence through its attempts at stopping the underwater oil leak. Most recently, BP attempted an operation, titled “Top Kill,” to clog the pipe from which oil was spewing out into the Gulf by pumping mud into the pipe. This plan failed, not surprisingly, and now BP is saying that they’re next plan involves underwater robots repairing the pipe. Now, if BP couldn’t manage to stop this leak with tons of mud, what are the odds of them being able to repair a specific part of the pipeline with remote control robots in water, deep water, filled with oil? If this operation, titled operation “Top Ramen,” fails, then BP will resort to other backup plans such as operation “Top Gun,” operation “Top Chef,” and operation “Top, Drop and Roll.” Clearly, BP and their obsession with operations with “top” somewhere in the title cannot fix this problem in the Gulf, but there is something that can. That “something,” kind readers, is the military might of the United States of America.

The U.S. military can arguably, but rather confidently, I believe, be recognized as the most powerful military force in the world. This is partly because of their arsenal of bombs and nuclear weapons. Therefore, my simple solution that I propose to you is that the U.S. military use their bombs of all kinds to blow up the Gulf of Mexico. It’s quite simple, really; the U.S. military would expend every single one of its nuclear and non-nuclear explosives in the bombing of the Gulf of Mexico. The force of the combined explosions would propel all of the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico, and most likely onto the lands nearby. Of course, along with the oil, everything else on the Gulf would be removed. Unfortunately, this means that all of the water, marine animals, and marine vegetation would be wiped out or launched onto the land masses around the gulf. This might seem like a deal-breaker, but I believe it is the cost of having an unpolluted Gulf. After the Gulf has been emptied, the U.S. and Mexico could share the Gulf as a new Grand Canyon. Imagine the revenue from tourism! The nuclear fallout would add to the thrilling experience of hiking in the Grand Canyon 2.0.

One downside to this plan, it seems, is that the U.S. military would be drained of its supply of bombs and explosive devices. At first this seems like a major setback, since the U.S. is currently involved in conflicts in the Middle East, but it would be a tremendously greater risk to let a company, such as BP, use inferior tactics to save the Gulf of Mexico. After all, if oil kept polluting the Gulf of Mexico at the rate it is now, then American and Mexican coastlines would be dirty and unattractive, and gas prices would undoubtedly go up. This seems to be the most sensible solution, to me. By bombing the Gulf of Mexico, the oil would be removed and the Gulf would be saved from pollution.

I realize that this proposal of mine to blow up the Gulf of Mexico might seem inappropriate or absurd to some of you, but is there really any other way to solve this crisis? Unless the navies and coast guards of nations combined forces and worked together to clean up the oil and stop the leak, or something like that, I simply cannot conceive another way of saving the Gulf of Mexico. I hope that you take my proposal into consideration and realize that it is probably the only effective way to end this crisis.
"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." ~Gene Fowler




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Not bad ... some criticism:
1) Be careful with their and they're
2) Don't make up a whole bunch of plans starting with the word "Top" and then pretend BP came up with your ideas. At least the way you've written it that's fallacious.
3) This makes no sense: "The U.S. military can arguably, but rather confidently, I believe,". What you want to say is "I take the position on the heavily-mooted point that the army of the United States of America be the most powerful...".
4) You need to justify, rationally, how bombing the Gulf of Mexico will propel all the oil, water, fish etc out, and not downwards. I know it's obvious but a skeptical scientist would say that.
5) Similarly, why would the new grand canyon not simply re-fill? Also why would tourists come to see what they can already see in Colorado?

... OK, so you're probably thinking, like, I wasn't being serious. The point of Jonathan Swift's essay was that it was RATIONAL but AMORAL. Not immoral, but amoral. Swift was certainly pretentiously serious. So you need to back up and rationally justify all of your proposals. Ignore marine life, ignore human life - what's important is dealing with the issue at hand. How do we solve the issue at hand? Don't just tell me, rationally back it up.

6) You seem a bit confused about the tourism thing - would tourists really like to visit a "dirty and unattractive" shore?
7) Actually, don't tell us the downside. Don't say that you think they're downsides anyway. These are all GOOD parts of the plan. Mexico solves their hunger crisis, US becomes radioactive and all citizens gain super-powers, oil spilled onto shores gets re-used as fuel for cars, American beaches are over-rated etc.
8 ) "I hope that you take my proposal into consideration and realize that it is probably the only effective way to end this crisis" is a lame conclusion. Sorry, but it is. How about:

"The time has come for action. We must waste no time in mobilizing every strategic force at our disposal. And as the military might of our proud nation was founded not on the ideal of conquering the eastern world, but rather defending our own freedom and our own principles, how much better would it be for our mighty executive to fix our most pertinent local problem, than fix those abroad? If we do not, then I fear our domestic security will be compromised. I fear more hardworking American souls will die. I fear for the future of America. Now is the time for action. Choose a brighter future."

BTW the last line is a pun not rhetoric. Writing that was fun!

Don't get me wrong, you've got the right ideas - you just need to substantiate them properly. Good luck on future writing projects!




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Since you wrote this for English class, I'm assuming that you had some kind of outline that you had to follow and length requirements and all that. I've never read the essay you mentioned, but it seems like a fun idea all around. Anyway, I thought your writing in general was pretty good. The only thing that I would recommend for your future writing is to vary your sentence structure a little bit. There are a lot of sentences that start out with an introductory piece, then after a comma go on to explain more or add on to that. Those sentences are good, don't get me wrong, but I think adding a little more variety would liven up your writing. Other than that, good job!

~Amylith
If you fail to practice your art, it will soon disappear ~ German saying.

Some people just deserve to get tazed ~ Andy



Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.
— Lemony Snicket