Cross Posted at www.andrewwarner.org.
Every time I pull up to the gas pump I'm more and more overwhelmed with disbelief. Why do I keep paying for this crap?
Prices surged above three dollars a gallon at one time, slightly subsided, and when I filled up today it was nipping at the heels of three dollars again. When is enough, enough?
The data has come out in the last year, oil companies are raking in record profits while we drain our piggy banks to get around to our jobs, school, or wherever.
I've tried to adjust, but Cincinnati and America don't make it all that easy. The Metro (bus) system is complicated, slow, and overall quite inefficient. I've known honors students who couldn't figure out the bus schedule. In Cincinnati public transportation doesn't even really exist outside of the Metro system. It's painful when there is a half-built subway system and a population that votes down light-rail (which would have been a big step into this century).
I've tried to adjust my life to minimalize my personal gas use; I live in neighborhoods where I can walk to pretty much anything, also good for supporting local business and your local community, and try to only drive when it's absolutely necessary.
But honestly, that's not good enough. I, like many, am hooked on fossil fuels and the convenience of cars.
Recognizing our own guilt, like any addiction, is the first step. The next step is to realize that our culture, our government, and everything around us wants us to keep spilling that blood-oil into our gas tank.
But like I said earlier, we need to get to the point where we say enough is enough, and soon. Lives are lost in the name of the oil that gets us from point A to point B, and in a more selfish regard, our wallets can't sustain the beating these gas pumps are giving it.
What can we do though? I guess we could take a simple step like buying a bus pass, which is a start. But more drastic steps are needed. We need to remind our city, state, and national government that we need a way to move around town that isn't $3 a gallon. We need to stop padding the pockets of these greedy oil companies that get some sick satisfaction from taking our hard-earned wages.
We can't keep sliding our Visas or Mastercards into these friendly pay-at-the-pump gas dispensers. We need to make this is an issue.
Is it time for a boycott? It's an idea. We need to ween ourself from oil and gas, America's strongest and most harmful addiction.