incongruities...

Earlier today, I was at the local Pep Boys to pick up some reflective tape and a convex mirror for my scoot, and noticed a McCain/Palin campaign bus in the Home Depot parking lot. My wife and I went over and I picked up a bumper sticker and a yard sign, which I never do, but this election seems to be the most important in my lifetime so far, so I am unwilling to just stand back and not let my voice be heard, so to speak.

In any event, when I mentioned that I planned to put the bumper sticker on my scoot, the gentleman standing there suggested that if McCain is elected, I will no longer need to ride my scooter. The first problem with that statement is that regardless who is elected, gas will most likely never be inexpensive. The second issue is that he obviously does not understand that scootsters and cyclists do not ride their scooters or motorcycles simply to save on gas. The third problem with his statement is that he seems to disregard the fact that using a large amount of gasoline to get from place to place is wasteful and pointless.

The latter of the three mindsets can be easily observed anytime one goes out on the road. Yesterday, my wife and I had gone out to the store, with our son, and I watched to see how many vehicles there were with only one occupant. I was surprised, yet unsurprised, to note how few vehicles were occupied by more than one person, on a Friday night!

I'm not a proponent of man-made global warming, or man-made climate change, or whatever you want to call it; however, I do believe that as a created being, I am responsible for my own little corner of creation. I believe in good stewardship of the things over which I have any measure of control. If that means using less gas in order to save even a small amount of money, I will do so. If it means not littering and not producing as much pollution in my local area, then cool, I'll do it, but mostly, I'm thinking money here. Regardless of the price of gas, a vehicle that travels 80 miles on one gallon of gas is less expensive to operate than a vehicle that travels 25 or 30 miles on the same amount. It's simple mathematics, and saving money is saving money, no matter how much one saves.

I will never say that the government should dictate how people spend their money. In fact, I believe that it is up to each person to make their own decisions on how they will spend their money. Just the same, since this is my blog, and I can say what I please on my own blog, I will say that I am ashamed of my fellow Americans for their wastefulness.

We live in a throw away economy. We don't bat an eyelash at spending 2.00 a gallon for gas that we will use to travel a measly 30 miles on. We fill landfills with heaps and heaps of refuse. When something is no longer useful to us, it ends up in the trash. Computers, cell phones, plastic bottles and bags, cars, whatever. We use it until it's no longer useful to us, then we just dump it. Many times this stuff ends up in some third world country being dug through by kids as they search for bits of metal to sell for a pittance.

In less than a month, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. The concept of the United States of America as visualized by the founding fathers is fantastic. This country is a great one but I fear that if we, the people, continue to be so wasteful, the greatness of America is in grave danger.

I doubt this will ever be read by anyone in the government, but I will write it anyway, just in case. If America is to survive, each of us must do our part to conserve. We need to use less fuel, but also seek new sources of oil, and seek out renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.

So far, all we've seen are crappy excuses for alternatives, like ethanol. Is that the best we can do? Ethanol is water based. It's corrosive garbage that really doesn't provide any cost advantage to the user. My scooter runs like crap with that stuff in it, and it doesn't work much better for my car. Unfortunately, due to eco-nazi efforts, ethanol is the "in" thing, and I don't forsee that changing unless we, as a people, wake up and actually work to make a difference.