Fellow Privates

Friends, countrymen, Americans; lend me your ears.
On Friday, February 6, 2009 I was at the meeting with Mr. Pickens in Houston. I heard say the following about the global competition for energy.

 Russia is committing 32% of the next annual budget to developing their energy production capabilities.

 Argentina & Iran have switched their automotive fleets to flex fuel capabilities that rely on domestically alternatives such as natural gas more than gasoline.

 Saudi Arabia has pegged the price of their petroleum sales to the US Standard, Texas Intermediate crude and reversed the discount that they were giving US customers to now charge us a premium based on what we charge ourselves for our domestic production.

What this means to YOU & I as Americans is that the energy price beast is about to re-awaken! If you memory doesn’t go back to last Fall ('08) you've got too much money and not enough common sense. These competitors have a solution. This Spring '09, they will relieve us of some more of that money.

The Case for Action
It would be far more useful to think of other nations as competitors. The international economic downturn isn't just an American problem. Not all nations are doing badly. Nations competing with us for affluent and comfortable lifestyles are banking on US in the USA. If we buy their oil, they will be more comfortable and affluent. We will be less capable of maintaining our freedom to educate our children, feed ourselves and militarily protect the shipping lanes that make sure their oil gets to our refineries. This is the argument and the point of reference for the Pickens Plan.

There are things that people like Boone can and can't say in public. A lot of people are counting on him for their paychecks. This is HIS reality, it is not YOURS. OUR reality is that one person in the private sector is providing and trying to maintain access to the public soapbox. Thanks, TBP!

The real work is ours to do. We need more pressure on Republican elected officials to stop politicizing the economic recovery. Less taxes means less to spend. We can't be singularly focused. We need the money to be spent on domestic projects to make our system work better at the civil infrastructure and public education levels. We also need to put Russia, Iran, Argentina, and OPEC on notice that they don't have to worry about terrorists stopping the flow of oil to their consumers. Our Navy can bottle up the Straits of Hormuez (sp) just as effectively as their bombs.

China can get Oil from the USA, Australia & Canada. It doesn't have to be Saudi. We can't do anything about the Russians selling their oil to China, but we can stop buying Chinese goods as a mass public boycott of their siding with our competitors. Mr. Obama and Boone can't ask us to this, but as American's we have right to do as we please with or without elected leaderships blessing.

Questions of Morality vs. Politically Correct Speech
This is the undercurrent of the T. Boone Pickens message. The unspoken unvarnished truth of what it means to be American isn't high ideology. It is plain old common sense. Other nations want what we have in terms of peace and the comfort of abundance. Getting it at our expense isn't acceptable. Yes, in some eyes that may be the swapping proverbial shoes, but are you ready to wear shoes that don't fit us for the sake of their prosperity.

To answer the immediately relate question; No, we don't (at least I don't believe that most Americans) wish poverty on anyone, least of all our next door neighbors; but that wasn’t that the point of electing Barak Obama?

If the world's leaders want to take their nations on the 'Let's Bleed America' tour, we should charge them a very dear admission. We can back our government globally by doing practical things that make it personal at the point that those nations can feel impact. We don't need to be violent, just persistent and consistent. We can start training ourselves for this discipline of the 21st Century. Be effective by recruiting more people to the Pickins Plan and upping the noise to those holdouts in the Senate, Congress and Governors’ Mansions.

Every member of Pickens Army has the right of free speech and the obligation to protest inequity. There are over a million of us. Personally, commit to getting three outs in this inning (the current quarter) before the State of the Union Address in April. If you get three people to join and they get three that would swell our numbers to nine (9,000,000) million! With enough Americans enrolled in Pickens Army, we can coordinate their concentrated private efforts to boycott the products of nations that use us as though we are fools for their pleasure.

Be Proactive
Where there is no Unity in opposition to the people of the USA, we can reward those nations with consumption on a nationwide level. It only works when ‘we the people’ are united in an effort to make a point. Where the international opposition is dogmatic in anti-American jargon, we can find the alternative routes their products take to get to our shelves and leave those items there to rot.

Oil from Iran via Canada may be in Chevron’s or Texaco’s tanks. Not buying Chevron for one week per month penalizes their system and rewards the alternative you choose. That's twelve week's lost revenue shifted to their competitors. If we apply this simple strategy to other gasoline vendors we can appeal to our friends and neighbors in simple but decisive ways that are equitable to our nation’s international balance of trade.

Practical Proof
We can’t just talk about doing things; we need action and the proof thereof. We can show the world we mean business by putting on a demonstration. Cut out the logo of your gasoline vendor’s (any you choose) charge card and send that to the White House to show them that there are real people with real intent in the Pickens Plan. Keep the rest of the card for your practical purchase activities. If millions of plastic pieces start arriving on Pennsylvania Ave, it'll make news we can use to recruit more American's to the one week boycott.

Your credit & debit cards will work without the logo so long as you don't cut the magnetic strip. The missing notch will remind you to check which company is to be boycotted that week. There is some other competitor across the street in most cases. Using less gas would be the better solution and using no gas the ultimate, but this is how we get started.

If you recognize the possibilities that you may not get your card back, use your ‘notched’ card to purchase gas at your local filling station. In all likelihood, the card won’t slide back out of the slot and no one will be able to use the pump until the card is physically removed. This forces the consumers to go inside or find another pump. You will be leaving your name at the scene so you had better think that through before you take that action. That is a form of extreme protest, to say the least.

I’m asking you to take a picture of yourself holding up the notched gas cards and post that on your favorite social networks. Use the notch to block out your face and post this on Facebook, or whatever with a caption stating the week of the month (1st, 3rd, etc…) that you will be boycotting that oil company. This tells the world that Americans the People are not going to standby and take it.

If They Don’t Like Us, They can . . .
I am sick and tired of people in foreign nations saying "we like Americans, but we don't like their government." If we are the people of this planet who are govern by ourselves, then they don't like us. We don't have to return the favor, but we do need to recognize their hypocriticalness, given we've changed (January 20th 2009) and the only change they want to make is lip service to ours.

In recent weeks, the response to our change of government has been one of attempts to take advantage of the situation to position their economic interests ahead of ours. Perhaps this is just the normal course of international business, but it is high time we adjusted to the pace of this global economy. Sabotaging filling station pumps in the dead of winter so other Americans can’t buy gas without going inside and paying give voice to the consciousness of people who have had enough of the pricing roller coaster. Is it destructive? No, just remove the card and it good as new.

The real question is “Is it effective?” If a million people went out in the streets and protested any topic, the government would setup and pay attention. If three million changed their fuel buying habits for one week a month, the gasoline corporations would take notice of the winners and losers. This disruption to the distribution channel would expose some weak player’s inefficiencies and weaken some of the strong. Finally, if nine million Americans jammed 9,000,000 pumps with notched cards, the rest of us would have to take note because there wouldn’t be a working pump in America. In effect, the oil would stop being consumed at the pump.

Notice
This would put all the petroleum producers, refiners and distributors on notice that we have a means to reach out and touch them without hurting our ability to continue our economy. Police and other emergency or civil services don’t necessarily use public pumps. Where they do, those are generally rural communities and a sign can be place on the pump informing the community of the fact. Any attempt to fraud the public would be an open admission of duplicity with the people that want to ruin our lifestyles and an invitation for full boycott of their establishments other operations.

We can’t be divided against ourselves and accomplish much in the way of unity against those who profess to be opposed to our existence. Some nations have legitimate beefs about past administrations and historic inequities perpetrated on their people. The main play is Iran and their effort to derail America by any means necessary. To them I offer a personal apology even though I personally have never met an Iranian or done anything to hurt their economy. As a people, we need to make it clear to the Iranians and others that sympathize with them that we are trying to right wrongs, but this one-sided approach to attempting to publicly humiliating our leaders has got to stop. They have elections and we have elections. We took care of our shame at the polls, what’s their excuse for continuing that dead dialogue?

The Private American Interests in World Affairs
I believe that most Americans feel like I do. There is a hope in a nation like Iran because there is an electoral process there for changing what they don’t like about themselves. Where there is no hope as so represented by even a marginal political power sharing, we need to make certain that the people are aware of the American position on their personal sovereignty. Some of your leaders may be our allies, but they are none the less your leaders. If you don’t like them and you can’t vote them out, you need to consider immigrating to some place where you can participate in governing yourselves. If you choose to arm yourselves and fight their leadership, you need to win the domestic economic battle before you attack American interests.

Many corporations that were organized in the United States aren’t necessarily American owned. Just like your homeland, our nation is dealing with business interests that have no loyalty to any nation and serve only the interests of greed. We are trying to do what we can to make them behave, but that fight has only just begun. Some of your people are taking advantage of Americans as surely as some of our people are taking advantage of you.

If your government is corrupt and you blame our government, we are trying to change that situation. First, we both (mutally) have got to purge our systems before we can address the others. If you wait for us to complete our house cleaning before attempting your own, we may mistakenly figure that you like what you got and don’t need any assistance from us. We've begun the process and you can read about it online, but we don't trust the media.

Our media is a captive of the global interest that dominates international trade. If you want us to know something, you need to work on your media’s access to our news distribution system. You have to stop killing the journalistic messengers if you want the message to reach us.

We recognize that in the sense of humanity, you are no different than we are and you want to aspire to a better world. Borders were cultural boundaries long before they became political. Our nation is the place of the greatest abundance of cultural freedom on the planet. We welcome every tired body and weary soul that seeks refuge from tyranny and dogmatism. As Americans, we will fight to defend this privilege as a people united against a common danger.

I consider the reality of the human condition as the ultimate respect for the right of the other’s self-determination so long as all are determined to pursue peaceful progress. Might does not make it right, but weakness is no substitute for persistence in the face of injustice.

This is why the Americans will never give up this fight. One taste of freedom and you will also have to learn to resist the temptation to abuse the sensibilities of peaceful coexistence by holding regular referendum on your progress. For us, it is an ongoing lifelong work for all prosperity. All that we ask is that you recognize and work with us in the reality that acknowledges that our imperfections are no different from yours, but our dreams are identical.