An Open Letter to GM

This is directed to those in the upper levels of General Motors management who made the ultimate decision to not recall tens of thousands of cars with a faulty ignition switch. In testimony before Congress yesterday, it was claimed that the part would have cost just .57 cents per vehicle. The defect has been linked to 13 deaths and, shockingly, was not addressed by GM for 10 years. It was only when General Motors' new, and first female CEO, Mary Barra took over the company that this issue has come to light.

The situation still leaves many unanswered questions, but there can really be no doubt about one thing; if the higher-ups at GM knew about the defect for 10 years and did nothing about it then they are the reason why 13 people are dead. And if one had to guess why nothing was done, it simply cannot be blamed on incompetence and here's why:

YOU KNEW about the problem. You knew! You're not even disputing that fact. You admit that you knew about the problem but you chose not to act. You literally let 13 people die because you didn't want to deal with the financial repercussions of recalling so many vehicles. You looked at a spreadsheet and decided that you would be better off paying people whose family members died as a result of your criminal negligence.

We still don't know which individuals were directly responsible for this decision, but whoever it was; I would ask the following of you; What kind of a human being would make that sort of a decision? This wasn't one car with a defect, this was 2.6 million cars. You didn't only put one life in danger, you put 2.6 million lives at risk. That's nearly 1% of the entire population of the U.S., the country you so proudly claim to represent.

I wonder if you changed out the ignition switch on your own GM car before driving home? What about your children's car, did you double check to make sure their car didn't have the faulty ignition switch? Something tells me that you probably did.

Since GM was founded in 1908, it's been a part of not just the automotive experience, but the American experience. This betrayal of the public that embraces your products and keeps you employed is not forgivable. A once-proud American company behaving like this should be ashamed of themselves. What kind of way is this to honor the legacy of your predecessors who toiled for the company through two World Wars, the Great Depression and decades of turmoil in the country and the world?

Mary Barra is doing the right thing by admitting to the failures of GM's leadership over the last decade, but she should not shield those responsible from punishment. Perhaps putting her in charge was part of the plan to try to minimize the perception of how evil GM's actions were in front of the general public. But it won't be enough to just put a kind and reasonable face to take the blame. The people responsible should be brought in front of the public and forced to take responsibility. The families of the 13 General Motors victims deserve as much.