Outta Gas

 

Twenty years ago, we would just about wring our gas tanks with our bare hands to squeeze every last mile out of a gallon of gas. Now, we're driving around in vehicles that get gallons to the mile instead of the other way around. The price of gasoline jumps ten percent overnight, and we just sigh and fork over the extra two bucks, or four, or whatever. It's only money!

But that's the problem...it ISN'T only money. We've got kids getting blown up daily in Iraq, largely because of our dependence upon almighty gasoline. The air in our cities is thick enough to spread on bread. The weather patterns on our planet are getting screwier and screwier (she writes as she gazes out the window at the snow from the "storm of the century" that's STILL covering the ground.) This is NOT okay.

What has changed? We baby boomers have gotten old, fat, and complacent. We're too wrapped up in our aches and pains to worry about the planet anymore. And unfortunately, concern for the environment appears to be one of the many nobler aspirations that we forgot to hand down to our kids. They NEED that SUV or 4WD monster, even if they never intend to venture out of the city with it.

AND we have, sitting in the White House, a Texas oilman, with his staff of energy cronies. Do we expect HIM to start an investigation into the volatility of gasoline prices? Or waste any time or budget expense investigating alternative fuels?

This is important stuff, folks. These are the kinds of things we need to start thinking about before we head to the voting booths in November. We're too young to hand control over to the next generation because we're too pre-occupied to deal with it. We need to start making a fuss about some things that are really important to this country, and to the earth!  Anybody got ideas?