Giving Up My Subaru Will Be Like Giving Up Lassie

I live where it snows, and I drive a Subaru that averages 25 mpg. I use to think that was pretty good for a 4 cylinder, all-wheel drive vehicle, but now I am having second thoughts.

This is my thinking: escalating gas and diesel fuel prices fluctuate between $3 to 3.50 a gallon in my state; I, along with many others, am getting poor, while the exploiters—the oil executives—are getting richer. So what else is new?

Smog, a health-damaging air pollution, is getting worse, not only in the major cities, but also in small suburban towns where I live. The ozone layer above us is getting clobbered; we are starting to feel like bugs on a skillet as the earth gets hot and hotter. All this is not so new either.

Here comes the new part, the only thing in 6 ½ years GWB has got right. We are at war—that is his part. This is mine: we are arming the very same people who have sworn to destroy us, by paying such high prices for oil, AND—it’s a big ‘AND’!—continuing to drive oversized trucks, personal and commercial ones, like gigantic Peterbilts and one ton sumptuous trucks, continuing to drive oversized SUVs, such as Suburbans, Expositions and the self-indulgent Hummer, continuing to drive big luxury cars that suck down the octane when there are so many smaller, comfortable autos for sale that get better mileage and pollute less.

The results are in: the Saudis, the Iranians and the Venezuelans are buried in petro dollars--ours. The beneficiaries, the Saudi princes, of whom there are too many to count, currently fund al Qaeda and probably radical Sunnis in Iraq and definitely the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan/Pakistan. The religious and fanatical Iranian government loves to bite our—the Great Satan’s Tail; they do this by funding, arming and training the militant Shiites in Iraq. Chavez in Venezuela, his treasury gobbling up big U.S. bucks, much smarter than our current president, is waging a one man anti-American campaign in Latin American and winning mucho followers.

So. . . if GWB could actually be right, and we are at war with an enemy who prays five times a day, why aren’t we Americans making sacrifices like we did in WWII—gasoline, fuel and food staples were rationed then. Everyone, even Baby Snookims, made sacrifices. For those of you who cannot remember WWII, the U.S. population became united against two vicious, underhanded powers, much like the current bearded boys hiding in the shifting sands.

Here comes the punch line: we must create a new awareness among ourselves. The awareness is that big chromed cars, big, often-unfilled, four-door trucks, big SUVs are as bad for us as cigarettes and secondary smoke are. If you drive one, get rid of it. If your neighbor drives a big SUV and does not have six kids, let her know she is capitulating with the enemy. If you see dozens of empty ¾ and 1 ton trucks middle aged men love to drive parked in a shopping center lot, put a loving note of awareness on their windshield; always do this with a watchful eye, because some of these guys, not appreciating an outlook adjustment, can be unreasonable. Nice elderly couples driving a big Cadillac, Lexus or Mercedes twenty-five miles an hour in front of you, with an American flag pasted on their bumper, cannot be let off the hook. Pull up beside the gas-eater, indicate that they should lower their window, and shout, “only traitors fund the enemy.”
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