Friday, March 09, 2007

The Price of Gas

A friend was right, the other night, when, at a play reading, she said that the price of gas would climb to $4 a gallon, in California, where it will remain indefinitely. Yes, indeed, and we don't need crystal balls to see the extent to which corporate gluttony has damaged not merely the socioeconomic hemisphere, but the heart, and ethos, of this country.

What is often ignored by the mass media is how lots of folks, including myself, will be forced to roll over, and make some immensely tough choices thanks to the lewd and lascivious conduct of the oil cartels. We hear much talk about the obscene profits the oil companies have made over the past year. We don't hear about the daily sacrifices, at the altar of the almighty buck, that 99% of Americans daily make in order to go about living their lives, feeding their families, and finding their way to work. After all, in Southern Califoria, Florida, and most of the country, which is rural, a car is not a luxury item; people must drive to get to and from work, and often in wrenching traffic.

And, we're not even going to talk about the cost to human lives of this monstrous appetite, and lust for profit, this warmongering that has cost more than 3,000 American, and 600,000 Iraqi lives.

This is usury on the part of Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, and the other gout-ridden oil giants. And, if the Internal Revenue Service can devote itself to going after John Doe Taxpayer who screws up on the number of deductions he claims, why in the hell can't the Justice Department go after these crooks, and carpetbaggers, friends of the president, and oil baron in chief, who are raping the middle class in the name of a war on terror. T his is a travesty that requires herculean consumer organizing efforts to stop it, and fast.... where is Ralph Nader when we need him most????