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Note to Washington Pols: it's not too late to save America
(July 7, 2008) – Those souls who swore a couple of years back that they would never pay $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline are eating their words right now (me among them).
When the news and broadcast media reporters stated firmly that we would see four-dollar gas prices soon, I was paying around $2.799 or $2.999 per gallon. I even saw the price of gasoline dip below the two-dollar mark, though ever so briefly.
On the Grand Strand on June 30, gas prices ranged between $3.899 and $3.959 – only to soar to to $4.039 just in time to gouge the tourists heading to Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach for the Fourth of July weekend. In Pinehurst on July 3, prices were between $4.019 and $4.039, although one station on N.C. 211 between West End and Pinehurst had the audacity to charge $4.149 a gallon for unleaded gasoline (and actually had a customer at the pump).
How in the world did America, the land of the free and the plentiful, get to four-dollar gasoline?
Conspiracy theorists arise! And, be heard.
After 9-11, America did such a great job of protecting its citizens from further terrorist attacks that it sent our enemies into a frenzy. What to do? What to do to bring capitalist America to its knees?
I bet Osama bin Laden gave his brilliant disciple a Gold Star when he proposed, "Let's hit Americans where it hurts … in the pocketbook."
To which bin Laden responded, "Let's direct all of our financial efforts to the Asian oil markets, drive up the price of oil in the United States and sink the Americans' ever-loving asses into a quagmire of political unrest. All in favor say 'Aye!'"
Americans, well most of us, like our lifestyle. We can board an airplane or a train and travel to any point in the continental United States; fly across great oceans to foreign lands; and drive our automobile across state lines to any destination – without fear of being accosted by border guards or Gestapo-like interrogators who question our intent.
We could travel because the price of gasoline was within a reasonable budgetary amount for the trip. We could drive our so-called gas-guzzling SUVs and pick-up trucks because we could afford the gasoline to fill our tank.
Then came the selling-out phase initiated by our Washington, D.C., politicians. First, it was those free trade acts that closed one textile mill after another and left thousands and thousands of folks out of work.
Next, corporations began out-sourcing work to India and Pakistan. And, Republicans were more interested in impeaching President Clinton than addressing local issues.
Then, the crushing blow, the United States was inundated with cheaply-made products from China. Those madeinchina labels suddenly cropped up in every retail market for clothing, appliances, junk, etc.
Out-of-work Americans had to depend on the federal government for unemployment dollars, funds to return to school to learn a new vocation and welfare subsidies.
Meanwhile, serious economists were warning Americans of an imminent recession; that gas and food prices were going to increase tremendously; and our standard of living was going to take a downward turn.
While Americans were coping with domestic issues, workers in India and China found themselves with spending money. They wanted nice clothes, modern appliances and technology and, most of all, an automobile.
Purchase a car and fill it up. When the demand for gasoline became higher because of the increase in the number of automobiles, the supply had to be diverted to India and China.
Enter the speculators.
New York City is no longer the mecca of stock exchange transactions. It's the foreign markets, especially the Asian stock exchange, where speculators (working on behalf of the India and China markets) can afford to pay $140-plus for a barrel of oil (because they are spending out-sourced madeinchina dollars that sould've been in the wallets of working Amerficans.
While New Yorkers slumber, their Asian counterparts are buying up the available oil from OPEC and are selling it to India and China. When the New York speculators arrive at their stations, they face an improbable task of securing cheap oil prices and fall into the trap of having to pay the same price or higher prices for a barrel of oil.
Our Washington politicians have no clue to what is happening to their constituents' economic well-being. They are too busy bickering. If the Republicans have an idea, Democrats oppose it. And, vice-versa. There is no bi-partisan politics in Washington any more. If a Democrat should agree with a Republican's proposal, then they are branded as a party traitor. And, vice-versa.
A grassroots effort to wake up our Washington politicians is needed. Maybe if constituents, who are dissatisfied with their economic status, began throwing rotten tomatoes or eggs at their representative when he/she pays a visit to participate in a ribbon-cutting or to stump for re-election, the news and broadcast media would pick up on it and the idea would become an "in" thing to do. You Tube and My Space would be filled with film clips of targeted pols wiping shit off their faces while spewing rhetorical drivel.
By getting the attention of our politicians in Washington, maybe we eventually could realize the change that our soon-to-be presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, have been spouting about on the campaign trail. No president can effect change without Congressional support. Just ask George W. Bush.
It's not too late to disappoint Osama bin Laden in his quest to undo our way of life, our freedoms.
It's not too late to save America.
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