Gas $3.11 in Washington DC
Keith Addison wrote:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0817-22.htm
Published on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Guzzle Gas, and Pretend
by Derrick Z. Jackson
Gasoline is over $2.50 a gallon, the death toll of American soldiers
in Iraq is over 1,850, and what patriotic, heroic displays of
sacrifice can we find on the American landscape?
Bigger garages. Bigger houses. New fuel economy standards that will
omit the biggest cars. Hoo-aah.
Brave Marines we are. From the halls of McMansions to the steps of our
SUVs, we fight our exurban battles, ripping up every living tree.
Next month will mark four years since the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11. Four years is a time period often associated with sending children
off to institutions of higher learning in the assumption they will
become members of an enlightened citizenry.
But the four years since 9/11 have come and gone with no sign that the
United States sees the light. As soldiers pay the ultimate price in
Afghanistan and Iraq, we continue to be toy soldiers, the invulnerable
warriors of consumption. No report of a real soldier dying from a
roadside bomb, no administration assertion that fades into falsehood,
not even fill-ups that hit $40 and $50 a tank has spurred us to
question our schizophrenic nature.
For four years, Americans have waved flags and stuck ''Support the
Troops" magnets on the backs of their cars. Such acts, of course, stem
from sincere sentiments we all share for their safety. But we can no
longer escape our responsibility in one of the most insincere wars in
the nation's history.
We have allowed a president to send off the sons and daughters of the
working class and the poor to invade Iraq, killing thousands of
innocent Iraqi working class and poor along the way. As each day
passes, the fact that no Osama has been flushed out, the fact that no
weapons of mass destruction have been found, and the fact that there
was never a tie between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 becomes not just
Bush's responsibility but ours as well.
Americans probably know this deep down. It is almost as if we are
binging to distract us from the needless killing. We build bigger
subdivisions as far out as we can, no matter what it means in
commuting time and $2.55 gasoline.
Even though the average size of the American family has shrunk, the
average size of a new home has grown from an average of 983 square
feet in 1950 to 2,330 square feet today, according to the National
Association of Home Builders. The percentage of new homes over 2,400
square feet has zoomed from 10 percent in 1970 to 38 percent today.
The percentage of new homes with two-car garages has grown from 39
percent in 1970 to 82 percent today.
In a New York Times feature this week about ''living large" in the
exurbs, a sales representative joked with a family that was looking at
a model home, ''Lots of places to hide, aren't there, boys?" It is
mathematically impossible for the rest of the world to live like this.
As the boys play hide and seek for a moment, the parents play out the
fantasy that hiding from the reality of consuming a quarter of the
world's energy and producing a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases
is an all-American right.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for a populace to be enlightened if its
leader keeps leaving it in the dark. President Bush, according to the
Times, is planning to leave out mega-SUVs such as Hummers from new
fuel economy standards, apparently to ease the competitive strain on
Detroit, which has invested far more in selling gas guzzlers than
foreign automakers. With the explosion of SUVs (trucks now account for
50 percent of light-duty vehicle sales), the nation's average fuel
economy has been flat for a quarter century and has actually fallen
slightly, from 22.1 miles per gallon in 1987 to 21 miles per gallon
today.
It is now the responsibility of Americans to turn on the lights in the
White House. It is understandable that the United States prefers
presidents who enable our denial. The death of each soldier denies us
that privilege. Supporting the troops just might involve rethinking
what it means to have a ''Support the Troops" magnet on an SUV, and
asking ourselves if we need that much room in the exurbs to hide from
each other.
© 2005 Boston Glob
_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000
messages):
http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):
http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
