(Long Island, NY) It is bad enough to pay the insurance fees, maintenance and upkeep without adding a skyrocketing price tag for gas to our car-owner woes. An insult, I say, to expect us to keep on forking over more cash to drive these metal death boxes along the concrete graveyard, er, Long Island Expressway. Enough is enough!
I personally am planning on driving as little as possible until the price of gas creeps back down to a more reasonable two dollars per gallon. I currently drive to a single destination round trip, the rest of my excursions are done via shoe leather, bicycle, or public transportation. I am on gas-buying STRIKE, and so should all of you.
The only reason that prices are so bloody high on ANYTHING is that manufacturers know we are willing to pay up. If a massive boycott of gasoline suddenly appeared out of nowhere, prices would drop back down to a more acceptable level.
The boycott is NOT an ineffective tool. It worked for that crazy Reverend Donald Wildmon; back in the 80s he contacted the corporate suits of 7-11 and threatened a massive boycott unless they took Playboy off the floor and put it behind the counter. It’s time to take the Reverend’s tactics and use it for something that might actually do some GOOD. A public, noisy and very dedicated refusal to buy gasoline in this country would do wonders, not only for our national morale, but also for our security. A serious gas boycott would send a clear message to OPEC and the countries that hold the keys to the gasoline kingdom.
Is anybody listening? This is serious stuff—we need a boycott at the pump now more than we did during the energy crisis of the 1970s. It’s high time to show these companies we mean business. It would be sheer insanity to encourage people to carry picket signs at local gas stations, to instruct them in the old protest chants newly modified to fit modern times. Cries of “Go Away, We Won’t Pay!” could drown out the sounds of Muzak in the air-conditioned cashier’s cage at your local Shell, BP, Amoco, Exxon, whatever.
Insane indeed. But absolutely necessary.
Long Islanders, I am ashamed of you for not doing this ALREADY. It is high time to take a stand; refuse to buy so much as one gallon of gas and we shall see how long it takes before these oil companies are falling all over themselves to get us all re-addicted to gas again.
One parting thought. Gasoline is far more dangerous than cigarettes, yet we can’t seem to break our addiction to the rotten stuff. Shouldn’t we start thinking in terms of kicking the habit, rather than trying to be with the cool kids who all think that smoking-sorry-gasoline use makes us COOL? Forget trying to fit in with the in-crowd, people. This habit isn’t just killing US; it’s wrecking the planet and giving a bunch of faceless corporate zombies at the oil companies control of our entire economy. So quit driving already. I’m nearly there myself. Together, we could do it…
