WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

I just received an e-mail from a friend. It's asking me not to get gas on May 15th. Apparently people are upset about paying $3+ per gallon for gas. The idea is that if everyone who gets this e-mail doesn't get gas for one day, we'll put a hurting on the 'Middle Eastern Oil companies' to the tune of over $2 billion.

I got a couple of beefs with this idea. The first is the obvious. It's not the oil companies overseas that I care about-it's a certain man who lives in a certain colored house on the east coast who I want to be effected by this action. Him and all his 'good ole boy' friends. Yes OPEC has us by the nose, but I don't see the government griping too much. Three guesses as to why that is.

My second problem is the whole idea of just doing this one day. Why not every day? How about this: on May 15th everyone who drives vehicles that get less than 20 miles to the gallon trade in their vehicles for more fuel efficient cars. If we can neglect big oil of $2 billion dollars a day by not pumping gas, think of how much we can hurt them if we all started driving cars that can go farther than a few days without needing a fill. I filled my tank up over two weeks ago and have only gone through 1/4 of a tank. Yes, I live 3 blocks from work; however, I have been driving a lot more than I usually do. I can fill up my tank and have it last a whole month. At the rate I'm going now, it would be easy for me to only go through 1/2 a tank in a month. Think about that! An entire nation that only stops for gas every two months. Ouch!!!

I am so tired of people bitching about the price of gas as they jump into their obscenely large suv's that might average 12 mpg. Let's face it-one day isn't going to do anything. Americans need to make serious life-style changes. Walk, ride a bike, carpool, take the bus, or just stay home. If we really are upset by the quickly rising gas prices, let's prove it by changing our habits permanently-not just for a day.

By the way, that picture at the beginning is of the largest suv on the road: the Chevy Suburban. It is 18.5 feet long, over 6.5 feet wide, and gets 14 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway. B...E...A...yootiful!!!