Gas Prices

3.40 a gallon. At what point am I supposed to feel like I’m being tied to a wall and hit in the spine with a sledgehammer? I do not understand how gas is so expensive. I read the paper, the net, the blogs, the op-ed, magazines, watch TV, ask my co workers, and I can’t find a consistent answer. It’s Bush. It’s big oil. It’s a plot by the democrats to drive the elephants completely out of office. It’s Al-Qaeda. It’s your local station gouging you. I can’t get a consistent answer. I’m sure it’s a combination of most of those factors and a great of one’s I haven’t listed. Like most Americans, I am not to interested in why gas is so high, I am interested in it not being so high.

Three forty a gallon is ridiculous. It kills most of our wallets. It demoralizes people. Makes them lack faith in the government. For me, it pisses me off every time I go to Super America or BP. I see the cost and just get angry. Some sort of visceral reaction, a turning in my guts makes my face hot, and the veins on my forearms bulge. I think about ‘Hulk smash’ and for a second I wonder who to smash. Can’t think of anyone right away. What makes me even hotter, is that it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change.

Organize. Mass demonstrations and protest. Worked for Civil Rights. People listened. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m not equating gas prices to the struggle for Civil Rights, but I am saying that a nice strong sit in, massive protest, or march might get some people’s attention. I don’t think our politicians are doing anything about because I believe that they feel that we’re just going to take it on the chin and move on. I for one, can’t really afford to take it on the chin, and before anyone suggests ‘get a hybrid’ I can’t afford that either. It’s be nice if we were all west coast Sierra Club members, but the majority of us are just working class, disappearing middle class. Sometimes a new car payment just isn’t feasible.

So let’s organize. Pick a politicians office, some senator and all show up with our signs. Maybe wear some gas station attendant clothes. Maybe explain to our senator exactly how much it cost us to drive down to his office. Maybe we do a sit in at a gas station. Imagine CNN picking that up (sic). A group of people all chained to gas pumps. Chanting some catchy slogan. It might make a difference. It might not, but then maybe me, for one wouldn’t feel like I was being completely shafted.