Posted by
dkell on Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:46:10 AM
My subject for today is the burden of responsibility that lies directly on the shoulders of the American people for the problems that our nation now faces concerning oil prices. We never seem to learn our lesson. During the 1970's we had an "Energy Crisis". Long line for gas and high prices at the pumps. Many people who drive today may not be quite old enough to remember those "Good Ole Days". During that time Americans were asked to drive less and buy smaller vehicles. People did just that, at least for a short time. The idea of the "Car Pool" took hold. People bought the new compact and sub-compact cars. The auto industry began to manufacture cars that got more miles to the gallon and the small print on car commercials ("Your mileage may vary") became the butt of many jokes. People took public transportation and, believe it or not Ripley, actually walked when the distance was short to moderate in range to reach one's destination. Then the crisis came to an end and guess what? We were introduced to the SUV, the Mini-Van, and of course, THE HUMMER. We also saw a rise in the sale of sports and ultra luxury cars. Now our vehicles have telephones, televisions, stereos, CD and DVD players, and on and on. What happened to the idea of a car being a vehicle that takes a person from point A to point B? The answer is that the American public has on on-going love affair with their cars. Cars are status symbols and personal cocoons that we drive everywhere including the corner store (although we might not have to worry about that as the corner store seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur, but that is a blog for another day!).
I live in a large metropolitan city (Chicago) and our expressways and highways are usually bumper to bumper at least 8 hours of everyday. People drive everywhere! Even when they don't have to! Chicago and the surrounding communities, many as far as 50+ miles away have access to one of the most outstanding public transportation systems in the entire nation. We have commuter trains, subway trains, elevated trains, buses, and bicycle lanes on our roadways. Every single community is serviced and reachable by public transportation for an extremely low cost (as low as $65.00 a month in some areas) compared to the price of driving (parking in Downtown Chicago is at least $20.00 per day in most lots in addition to the price of gas and vehicle maintenance). Many of the cars that I see from the window of my swiftly moving train carry only one passenger-many in SUV's or vehicles designed to carry at least six passengers. I am truly puzzled by the behavior of the driving public (I won't even go into the myriad of laws that are broken everyday-such a speeding and improper lane changing-again a blog for another day!).
I would like to note that I understand that some professions require the use of an automoble. That is well and good. That percentage is small compared to the number of people who hit the road everyday on their way to the office or other service related jobs (what other kinds of jobs are there-we don't make very much in this country anymore!). Please America, drive only when you need to. Car pool. Buy smaller vehicles. Use your vehicle as a means to an end. In the mean time try to convince everyone that you know that we need to drill for oil in our own country (technology now makes it safe to do so!) build more refineries and nuclear power plants as well as develop technologies such a hydrogen cell cars to wean our dependence on fossil fuels and Middle Eatern terrorist states such as Suadi Arabi. It will take about twenty years for these technologies to become available tot he general public and in the mean time the previoulsy mentioned idea will bring down the price of oil and gas and help save our economy. It is an oil based economy and an oil based society and it will not change until we force it to! By the way, does anyone find it ironic that we will spend $4.00 on a 16 ounce latte but complain about $4.00 a GALLON gasoline?
dkell