Every day I get more and more infuriated over the current administration's lack of urgency concerning our dependency on foreign oil. It truly is a crisis. I need to hear things. I need reassurance.
In the late 1970's we experienced a similar energy crisis and similar economic woes. It can be argued that it led to the end of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. When Ronald Reagan assumed the Presidency in 1980 he replaced fear with hope. He was a man that was proactive. He was not reactive. We need the same type of President right now. Unfortunately that is not the case. Time will tell if our next President has what it takes to lead us out of this crisis.
What follows are the type of words and convictions I would like to hear.
Fellow Americans I come to you today to offer hope and not despair.
Many American's are unsure about their futures. The mortgage and banking industry has suffered failures. The housing market is dangerously down. These truly are causes for concern. More importantly they should be a reason to act.
We are all victims of higher energy costs. No one likes to pay 4.00$ for a gallon of gas. I know that many if not most Americans struggle to put gas in their car so that they can get to work.
Budgets are tighter for everyone. Fuel costs are instrumental in driving up the cost of the milk that you pour in your glass and the meat that you put on your table. When this happens your budget shrinks even more.
When you struggle to put food on your table you have little discretionary income to buy other items that enhance your life. This is what has driven our economy to great heights in the past.
Through hard work we have enjoyed things that citizens in other countries could only dream of. We have become accustomed to a higher standard of living than what we currently enjoy.
On September 11, 2001 we as a nation were the victim of a blatant, obvious terrorist attack. Everyone watched in horror as we lost many American lives.
Yet every year we send billions of dollars to the economies of nations whose citizens are hostile to us. This does not make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
They have not commandeered a plane to attack us this time. No it is not so obvious. In fact it is subtle but just as effective. They are using something else. Oil. They give us oil and we give them money. They use that money to wage war against the United States and other free nations. This does not make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
In any relationship the person with the most power is the one who needs the other the most. Do we need them today? It would be nice to say that we did not but I fear what would happen if they stopped sending us oil. Our economy and our standard of living would be ravaged. Yet we give them this power. This does not make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
Why do we allow this? We had an energy crisis in the 1970's. Gas prices rose dramatically and citizens across America were in an uproar. But eventually gas prices stabilized or decreased and we became complacent. The crisis was over. Everything was back to normal. For a little while anyway.
It is now 2008 and we face a similar situation. If the OPEC nations increase supply and effectively lower the price of gas are we once again going to stop calling for change. I am not willing to do that.
I say no more. I say no more!
We will use everything at our disposal to rid ourselves of this reliance on foreign oil. We will build nuclear plants. France is 80% nuclear and they have some of the cleanest air in all of Europe.
We will drill for oil like never before. We will increase our capacity to refine that oil.
We will utilize our vast reserves of natural gas to power our vehicles. We will continue to enhance our ability to produce bio fuels and do this at a reasonable cost. We will use hybrid cars powered by clean energy.
We will build wind farms to turn on the lights in our house. We will harness the power of the sun to heat our homes.
We will use every innovative mind and every able body to accomplish this.
When will this happen? Tomorrow. Tomorrow when you wake up you will be in a new America. This should be one of the most exciting times in U.S. history. I challenge myself, I challenge you, I challenge Congress to make this happen. This is a challenge. Do we back down? Do we walk away? Do we accept the status quo? No we do not. We are Americans and just like we won the race to the moon we will win this war.
This is an exciting time because we have all the tools to make this happen. We have the minds, we have the bodies, we have the need and now we have the desire. This is urgent and we must win. We will win. We will overcome.
This is an exciting time because as we become the leader in this movement to reduce dependency on oil we will be spawning new industry. New industry means new jobs. Good paying jobs. Clean jobs.
Our automobile industry will have to completely remake themselves. I will not allow them to slow this change because it lowers their profit. I will not throw billions of dollars at them to encourage them to bring forth new innovations. I am done encouraging companies to do what is best for America. I will demand it. We will demand it. If they cannot meet our requirements in the time that we set forth then they are done. They will not be able to produce or sell a car that does not meet the needs of our nation.
Reducing our dependence is not good enough. Making things better is not good enough. We are the greatest nation on earth not because we were content with the successes of our past but only because we continue to strive to be the best.
We will never again close our eyes. We shall ever now open them and see the future.
In ten years we will not send one dollar to a nation whose citizens despise us. I will not pay for their bullets so that they can kill young Americans.
Further more we will not spend our money waging a war in a region that is inherently unstable because we need their oil. No American lives will be lost in a country that does not want us there.
This is a win-win situation. We control our energy costs and we have cleaner air. When our children go out to play they will be breathing cleaner air than we could have ever imagined. We will have done our part to reduce the effects of global warming.
We will have a new America. We will lead a new world. We will be in control of our own destiny.
Sleep well tonight because tomorrow we get to work.
Dan Bimrose is the creator of coffeeandprozac.com a website devoted to making people think, laugh or cry. Daily ;Opinions, Editorials, and Stories He suggests dropping bread crumbs so that you can find your way back on a daily basis.
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