Saturday, April 15, 2006

Are We the Victims (Part II)?

In the last blog, I talked about what might happen if we could overnight become energy independent.  What a rosy scenario it was.  What a different scenario from the reality that is ours now.
We knew in 1973 (remember the first oil embargo) that we needed energy independence from the Arabs, the South Americans and the Africans.  We knew it would only get worse.  Yet 33 years later, when we long ago could have been mostly independent of foreign oil, we are more dependent than ever before.  What happened?
Our government fiddled while our society burned.  If those who made the policy decisions, implemented the policy decisions, and financed the policy decisions would have done their jobs, we would be largely independent of foreign oil by now.
Think of those who served as Legislators, Presidents, and other government officials during the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  It was their job to look ahead, see this train wreck coming, and change the switch so we had a clear track.  That didn’t happen.
And it was our job to hold those people accountable.  It was our job to see that they were faithful.  It was our job to see that they did the right thing.  That didn’t happen, either.
We really have to point our fingers right back at ourselves.  Our greed, care-free attitude, and desire for the next dollar have all but bankrupted us.  The “live for today” philosophy has come back to haunt us.  Our young men and women are dying in a war brought on by 40 years of indifference and greed.  And we’ve no one to blame but ourselves.

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