stop, drop, don't roll

By Todd Stadler · Thursday, November 15, 2001 3:19pm

President Bush ended his rallying cry for America last week by saying, "We have our marching orders: my fellow Americans, let's roll".

Mixed mataphors aside, let's not. Roll, that is. We'd be better off marching.

After Americans donated blood and money in huge amounts, they were left wondering what could be done next for America. In his speech, Bush suggested volunteering in the community. And that is a fine idea.

But something that would help just as much, as well as address the issue of our foreign relations, is a push to decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

And by that I do not refer to any short term solutions of drilling in Alaska, which would at best allow us to only slightly reduce the percentage of oil we buy from other countries.

No, I'd like to see our president (or, barring that, someone who doesn't have deep connections to the oil industry) suggest that now is a time for a new sacrifice, one in which we stop pretending that it's our God-given right to drive anywhere we want by ourselves at twelve miles to the gallon.

It would be far easier to justify such selfish behavior if we produced all the necessary oil ourselves. But we don't. And so we are forced to buddy up to nations of questionable repute, supporting dictatorships in the Middle East (that sometimes support terrorism), or whatever else it takes to ensure a steady supply of oil.

Even the terrorists in Al-Qaeda, if they can be believed, claim to be motivated in part by the occupation by American troops of sites in Islamic countries (perhaps we are there to protect our oil interests?), and by the less-than-democratic secular governments we support rather hypocritically.

OF course, consuming less foreign oil would not solve all our problems in the Middle East, nor would it wipe out terrorism. But it would untie our hands in dealing with those states - including those that support terrorism - and allow us to act in a manner more consistent with our supposed love of freedom, justice, and all that jazz in the Constitution.

For all the talk of September 11 being this generation's Pearl Harbor, and the many other allusions to World War II, no one has yet proposed that when you ride alone, you ride with Bin Laden. No, it's practically un-American to think about the global implications of your day-to-day actions.

So get in your car and pretend that the gas that drives it will always be available for low prices, because it comes from the magical fairy oil well, which produces oil for as long as we believe in it.