Dear Mr. President, Senators and Representatives of Congress, Presidential contenders, and members of the news media:

I have been waiting for one of you, just one, to rise up in defense of the American People regarding gas prices.   

Obviously, none of you has a clue about real life in these United States.  Especially not as insulated from the poor and middle class as you've apparently let yourselves become.

Not a peep from my President, a well-known oilman, yet a President I whole-heartedly supported, a man I believed had enough moxie to put my best interests, and the interests of the American People, ahead of his own and keep them there.  I am saddened to say I simply do not believe this any longer. 

Not a single word from would-be candidates of both parties whorishly courting support for the upcoming Presidential election.  I don't believe that any one of you truly care whether I, as a single mom, am able to support my child.  The poor and middle-class aren't even a blip on your radar unless there's something to be gained from them.  It's always all about you, isn't it?

No objections, let alone legislation, from any sitting member of Congress, Senator or Representative, within my state or without.  As if I don't vote, or my child's basic needs don't matter.  As if I'm alone in my disillusionment. 

No explanation or specifics from the media, in-print or televised, local or national, beyond a wide skirting of the issue, a brief mention of restrictions on the output of twenty or so refineries across this great land of ours.  You have apparently all forgotten, or never heard of, Jefferson, who said that if he had to choose between government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he would choose the latter.  I personally don't believe the choice exists any longer.  It's really all about your individual careers, and who you put yourself under, isn't it? 

That every single oil company is in collusion with every other is no secret.  That gas prices rise collectively on the same day at virtually the same hour in advance of every holiday or at every spike in the price per barrel of crude is common knowledge.  It is also blatant evidence of collusion.  But none of you, from the President on down, speak out against this.  None of you care to act in defense of the American People.  To add insult to injury, we presently have an industry-wide manipulation of gas prices underway, masked in weak excuses such as "refinery issues" and "scheduled maintenance," designed to create the impression of "shortages" to further justify the obscene hikes and profit taking.  This is a crime being perpetrated on the American People by the oil companies working together, aided and abetted by the silence of the media and our elected representatives. 

And you dare call yourselves Americans?  You should be ashamed.  If you had an ounce of integrity, empathy, or compassion, you would be. But you don't, do you? 

All of you, like King David of the Old Testament, are feasting on the one lamb belonging to your countrymen versus sacrificing even the tiniest portion of your own venerable flocks.  As the prophet Nathan subsequently pointed out to David, this is a most grievous sin.

God, by whatever name you call him, or don't, or pretend you do, is not so blind or far removed that he does not see what you are doing, or not doing, or the intent of your selfish little hearts, individually and collectively. 

Feel free to dismiss me as some hick crank from the hinterlands of Montana.  Please do.  I'm just one American mother trying to survive, one little voter, and, therefore, expendable on all counts.  Correct?

M.L. Bushman

Miracle, the novel

Jigsaw Press

Sun River, Montana

Author's note: Permission granted to forward to whomever this may concern.