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Blogs by Jean Sheldon
Go Complacently into the Night 7/26/2007 6:16:41 AM
I have a 1991 Honda. Yes, this is 2007, but my little car has served me well. I’ll admit, she is beginning to look her age, and the desert sun has altered her color and removed the glossy shine we lovingly buffed. She is also beginning to act her age, I’m afraid, but it’s not easy to end a relationship that old.
Last week, my little car and I went to the gas station for a fill up. We pulled in front of a pump as a Hummer pulled out. He must have been there for a while because the meter read $80. 'Yikes!' I thought. 'If I had just spent $80 on gasoline, I would have been on my knees, beating the pavement with my fists in protest to the evil gasoline gods.' I don’t think I need name them.
Even as gas prices rise, and the news of our quickly dissolving environment grows worse, I see more of these armored vehicles on the road. Why would a person buy a vehicle that is so destructive? Why would a manufacturer make such a vehicle and advertise it as something wonderful? Silly Jean, ‘the bottom line’ of course.
People think they look pretty cool driving those things. I think they look silly. Although I have noticed a few stares at my aged car and I. Car manufacturers like to make money. Lot’s and lot’s of money. The same mentality that sells a Hummer sells a war to keep those babies running and that’s downright scary.
Complaining about anything these days somehow equates to being unpatriotic. The people who control the price of gasoline control the price of everything affected by it. It's getting more difficult to afford groceries because prices have risen with gas prices. Groceries, however, never go back down when the price of gas goes down, and that’s true of all other consumer goods. We’re not supposed to be upset.
Someday soon, I suspect I’ll simply lose it. I’ll stand at a gas pump and my heart will try to keep up with the flipping of those little numbers as I fill the tank. I’ll fall to my knees screaming and beat the pavement with my fists until someone calls 911 to stop me. They’ll probably send one of the new ambulances from the cities fleet of Hummers.
