A Call for Sacrifice

We face, as many have written here and elsewhere, a crisis that gnaws at the roots of our sustenance. We, as in the world but especially here in these United States, are running out of, what can rightly be called, our economic lifeblood, namely affordable oil. Increasingly, as has been well cataloged here, with limited dissent, we must confront the fact we no longer have ready access to, at rates compatible with the lifestyles we’ve grown accustomed, energy, primarily from petroleum and its derivatives, at prices which allow us the luxury of not choosing, for example, if it really isn’t in the family budget to drive eight hours to Aunt Nancy’s for the family reunion this coming Labor Day weekend,. For some the choice becomes more basic, as in which cut of meat can be afforded for the family table given the increasing appetite of the 4 year old family SUV bought originally for its utility hauling young Missy and 6 of her closest friends to soccer practice.

That this is a real crisis, unlike the manufactured ones such as, who will be voted off of this or that Island on one of 123 hi-definition channels this week, seems self-evident but, if not, a legion of economists, scientists, and other self-appointed experts will attest. The rapid deflation of the checkbook balance provides evidence enough to make the most idealistic believer in American Supremacy for Life blink.

So what is to be our response?

The title of this exposition suggests a course, or part of a course, for action. Sacrifice is often equated with weakness - a surrender of our rights to do as we please – freedom if you will. As one who has adopted views many would label conservative I am quick to disassociate myself from the usual call for “sacrifice” that amounts to some guilt ridden self-loathing that somehow, we Americans, consume too much, abuse too much, and therefore should be expected to, as if somehow the Genii could be coaxed back in the bottle, atone for our wasteful and prolific consumptive ways. Turn out the lights in Las Vegas and somehow African famine will be accounted for, at least on someone’s idea of the great ledger in the sky.

That is not the sacrifice of which I speak.

What I suggest, is that we need to recall the sacrifice of what has been called the “Greatest Generation” and the generation before who brought them into this world and offered, however reluctantly, them to be the saviors of western civilization. But is such sacrifice even possible today? The Greatest Generation came of age out of the Depression, therefore schooled by and large in the lessons of deprivation – not by choice but by grave necessity. Then, given the opportunity, or more correctly having it thrust upon their very young yet later proven capable shoulders, to save the world from a depravity of a scale unseen in human history, met the challenge in a manner to earn them everlasting admiration from freedom loving people everywhere. Are we capable? Are we, the children and grandchildren of people such as these, willing to do what it takes to solve this problem and eliminate this threat to this great manifestation of the ideals our founders so captured in the Declaration and Constitution?

I’m not talking about checking your tire pressure, which, while certainly a good idea, seems rather pathetic when compared to taking Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. But what sacrifice are we willing, or even able to muster without the inevitable Senate filibuster, hate speech blog rant, or Supreme Court challenge?

Gas rationing? Forget it
Scrap metal drives? To what end?
War Bond drive? The proceeds look pitiful in comparison to our debt financing requirements.

I just have the unshakable belief that, if we are to prosper long as a nation, we are going to be required, and I pray will be called by some leader with enough courage and integrity to endure the attacks and abuse that are sure to accompany it, to sacrifice for the common good and to prepare the way for those who come behind, in individual, meaningful, and impressionable ways.

My question is: will we be so blinded by our righteous convictions that we will miss our opportunity for immortality in the annals of American history? Will we, in President Kennedy’s immortal words. “Ask not…?”

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Comment by Edwin Irby on October 4, 2008 at 10:15am: Getting involved and being willing to sacrifice for one's country are both important attributes. Yet I have heard it before. Often the end result is that people start down the road and realize it requires really hard work, ultimate patience and hard sacrifice. After a few years of participating they get jaded or burnt out. It is a hard to sustain the effort or stay on the path.

I was heavily involved with the environmental movement for years. Early on the concerns and motivations of most that I knew were quite honorable. Then a new generation came along. They no longer either want to truly protect the environment or work within the system though the said they told other that was their purpose. They certainly didn't want anyone, no matter how knowledgeable to tell them they were wrong about anything. The environmental movement became first a political movement, with various radical egotistic and arrogant offshoots whose intentions was to change our political system not to make it work. Then large portions of the movement became a religion, where anyone not attesting to the orthodoxy is considered as much a heretic as the Catholic Church considered anyone outside their orthodoxy during the Middle Ages.

It is one thing to be passionate but such passion most remain open to new and different facts, opinions and technoloies. Democracies, all democracies have not been, are not and cannot be perfect. Still our democracy as bad as it might seem at times to us as individuals, is still the greatest government ever devised by man.

It will require sacrifice for the country to acquire energy independence. It will demand the development ALL domestic sources of energy, that will require time. If we don't attain energy independence then we will no longer be able to afford the environmental ethic we have tried to live since the 1960s. Just cleaning large particulates out of the air from the mid-1950s until now cost us all a hidden tax in the trillions of dollars. Was it worth it? I would argue yes. Could we have afforded it without being the economic machine that we were? No!

The good news is that the country started out surviving worst (strongly suggest reading "1776") and has seen worst throughout our history. We are a resilient people but there is a limit to how much tyranny we are willing to withstand. Our government was never designed so that the federal government accumulated or held all the power. Yet that is what we are watching today.

A good political history lesson is to study the "subprime" debacle we are suffering through from its infancy in 1938 with the creation of Fannie Mae through all the various pertubations up until now. Throughout "the political sell" to "we the people "sounded honorable and certainly idealistic but lacked common sense and almost any wisdom.

Comment by Donna L. Hill Powell on September 11, 2008 at 9:42pm: Boy could I put my 2 cents in here. Fellas, have you really looked into what is being taught to the millions of school children out there, every single schoolday? It's not, love your neighbor, love your country, it's honorable to serve well, honor your parents? Just the opposite. All the foundational building blocks that built us up into solid citizen material has been meticulously removed or changed to where the message the children come home with is, "You can't tell me what to do." What ever happened to reading, writing and arithmetic? It's now, who told you that you are heterosexual?
The classroom has become a forum for alien theocrisy and the kids coming out every year just don't have it. Somehow, its like their minds [for the most part] have been erased or at leased really goofed around with. A sidewalk reporter asked many young high school to college age people, "Who was George Washington?" Duh! Not one got it right. Not one! How can we expect our kids to go on to "higher learning" if they can't even master the basics? How can they when their time is concerned with video games, what designer wear is in this year, are my tennis shoes going to be the right ones this year, sex ed. When my folks grew up and when I grew up, we didn't have to have a class. It wasn't in our "things to do" list till after schooling was completed. There just wasn't time for all that junk. We were from back in the archaic times when there wasn't much tv even. We did get to watch Ed Sullivan, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, a few others, once in a while, but as a steady diet, you can forget that. On Saturday mornings there were no cartoons, there were however bowls of soapy water and clean water, rags and instructions to wash the baseboards, doorways, doorhandles, then on to the dusting while Mom did the heavier work. Then, when that was finished and had been checked for quality, that was when we could run free the rest of Saturday and play, outside, in the dirt and sun and on horses or whatever we wanted to do. Sometimes we went to the Saturday Matinee for a quarter and watched 2 films and a documentary and cartoon, plus had popcorn or candy. Nobody had both. Anybody else out there old as me? Well anyway, we learned to LOVE our folks, and learned about Patriotism in school in the mornings when we pledged our allegiance to the flags and sang the National Anthem, and prayed together, daily. We were in elementary school the first time we heard the National Anthem being played by a full orchestra, with flags waving and soldiers marching and felt that overwhelming tightness in our throat and our chests swell feeling as if it would burst and had such a strong urge to cry and shout at the same time. Now they fight, curse, ignore and run amuck. I've been there and seen it. Broke my heart.

For something to change for the better, there has got to be something for the kids to be proud of. Constant rhetoric of disdain isn't going to help them, and teaching them homosexuality and mistrust of their elders and forefathers is hollow, instead of what we were blessed with the pride and love of who we are and who our forefathers were and all the while reaching for excellence in training and betterment of our minds.

Well, that's a portion of my 2 cents worth. Got lots more...lol.
Donna

Comment by Robert Jackman on August 25, 2008 at 9:08pm: If we are sober on this subject in every sense of the word, we must accept there are a few things that most people don't want to admit.

Mankind has many great gifts but a few flaws too. The two greatest flaws are cowardice and laziness. I read Mark Twain make this observation over a century ago and man has done little to improve his station in life as far as I can tell.

As a result, far too many people today are willing to treat the voting booth as if it were a slot machine and take from others via their vote backed by guns and force without regard for the health and welfare for their selves or their children's future.

To be brief in the extreme, this is why if You were trying to exchange dollars for local money in Europe this summer, it is getting harder to do every day. People should take notice of this frightening fact but I fear they will bury their heads in the sand.

We are about to face the possibility that one day soon, perhaps too soon, oil tankers won't bother to stop here as our money won't be worth the paper it is printed on. Transportation fuel won't be the biggest of our problems. Every barrel of oil we buy generates thousands of dollars in activity by making pesticides, herbicides, nylon, chemicals, etc. Some items generate $2500 out of a 44 gallon barrel of oil, making it moot weather oil costs $45 or $145 a barrel.

I ask every person reading this to consider that energy problems are but an effect of greater problems we won't face directly.

I see an answer in returning 95% of government functions to City and County and allow, No,,,, "Require" State government to pay the very few absolutely necessary items that the Federal State must do, but do it with control via our state legislatures so nothing will ever get out of hand again.

Locally, we can make changes that can be done without permission from Uncle Sam. We can use primary treated waste water that is full of nutrients to feed man made marshes on marginal land like empty gravel pits and grow cattails and generate 100 billion gallons of gas eq. as methane, and 50 billion gallons of ethanol off of as little as 20 million acres nationwide, about ten sections per U.S. County.

We can do it. We can drill for oil once we return lands to the States and allow states to chart their own course.

I submit to You reading this to consider the Federal State is Irresponsible and Bankrupt. They have no business in being an agent for We the People who are Government. The State is Our servant and has acted in stead as a Master without regard to our welfare and safety.

If you get anything out of this screed of mine, please remember who Government is,,,,,,, And forget about looking for a Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Ain't No such thing.

Wake up! Quit pretending.

The answers are within us, but only if we take Responsibility, act, and Govern accordingly.

Comment by Janice L Stephenson on August 20, 2008 at 12:44pm: Thanks Lawrence, you told it like it really is. We too are too warm in summer and too cold in winter, only drive when we absolutely have to and don't flush every time we wee. My husband even catches the water from the washing machine and puts it in the yard. We had Edison put a device on our air conditioner that gets us a20% discount all summer long, (we never turn the air on, but we still get the discount) this month our total bill was $32, and that was including the need to run the pool filter to keep the stupid thing from turning into a mosquito den. The pool was here when we bought the house, and we have tried to think of ways to get rid of it, but then we end up with an 8' deep trap in our back yard, that is more likely to kill something or someone than having it full of water. We truly need to make the sacrifices big and small. I unplug the chargers when the phone, hand vacuum, tool batteries, etc. finish charging. It probably doesn't save much, but it does save. I never leave town so I never get over 45 mph. I volunteer with our local Sheriff's Citizen Patrol, and don't drive our Patrol Units over 35 mph top speed. Usually when on patrol I just take my foot off the gas and coast around residential areas, saving fuel and keeping ourselves slow enough that any citizen can flag us down. Because of living in the Desert I do have to use the AC in the car, there is no way out of it, even with all the windows down it is still 100 in the car on hot days. I live for the day it cools off enough that the air can go off and stay off until next summer. I have fanny warmers in my car so I rarely use the heater, the warmers do a sufficient job.

Our only course of action is to vote every politician out of office and demand politicians that will listen to the citizens and not to Exxon or Chrysler or some other corporation. We need to rescind the law that allows the justices life terms on the Supreme Court so they can be recalled and made to pay attention to the citizens as well as the Consititution. It is time for a big shake up in this country among all politicians at every level. For several election cycles, both local, state and federal, I have been voting against incumbents in the hope that enough people will do the same to get some new blood that isn't beholden to anybody but citizens in office. Get them all changed out and we may make some progress. It is obvious that politics these days is just a game of play along with big business now, and I will be greatly rewarded when I leave office, and soon be a millionaire. Pish Posh. VOTE EM ALL OUT!!!

Comment by Tom Kenimer on August 20, 2008 at 10:18am: Our energy problems, as severe as they are, are really just symptoms of "the problem". So, let's look at some more symptoms.

World demand for oil has pushed the price up, primarily because of political restraints on drilling and refining. So, supply has not increased to keep up with increased demand. The value of the dollar has fallen, pushing the price that Americans pay up relative to the world market. Events such as the sub-prime home mortgage problems have caused further decline in confidence in the American economy. But this was initiated by political pressure to provide money for people with weak credit to buy homes, and then it spun out of control with people buying well above their ability to pay. Our entire Social Security fund has been "borrowed" to add to other excessive spending to create a national debt of over nine trillion dollars, and growing. Much of that debt is held by other countries such as China.

Our founders established that the federal government would be financed primarily by import taxes and it operated that way until the sixteenth amendment. Over the decades the tax burden has been shifted from import taxes to private individuals and corporations. We have been sold a bill of goods that we now live in a "global economy", so it's OK if we send all of our technical know-how and manufacturing capability overseas. Our political "leaders" made trade agreements that allow other countries to export to us with no or small import taxes while our exports remain subject to their import taxes. Now, they negotiate "trade agreements" to try to reduce the taxes. Meanwhile, companies have shifted manufacturing overseas, where they can use inexpensive or even slave labor to produce inexpensive products to sell to Americans. This has resulted is a significant shift in our import-export balance so that today we are a net importer at a very unhealthy balance of trade ratio. And it has removed us from being the world's premier manufacturing and exporting nation, with high paying technical and manufacturing jobs and good benefits disappearing overseas.

When we took on the role as the world's police force the natural result was that the other nations decided to a large degree that they didn't need to sacrifice their blood and treasure quite so much. Evil needs to be fought, but this role has cost us greatly and, to a great extent, has increased contempt for our country. The rest of the world has recovered economically, so we need to back off a bit and let the other nations do more. We need some time to recover.

The decisions that caused these events originated in congress. The excessive spending originated in congress. The President can only request money, congress approves all spending. The huge debt was incurred by congress and a lot of it went overseas in direct loans and "faith and credit" loans that were never paid back. The obstructions to increasing our energy capacity came from congress. So here we are all jazzed up about electing someone to be the President of the United States But we are also about to elect about one third of congress. I would really like to see the American people clean congress up by electing some people who care about the American people more than they care about their careers, pork spending, and partisan bickering. Having looked at the spending figures over several "administrations" with both parties in control of congress at different periods I have concluded that both parties are guilty; however, the one currently in majority is by far the worst. And, sadly, the current polls predict that they will gain even more seats this coming election. If we are going to improve our energy situation, we need to have leadership that is willing to drastically cut federal spending and encourage all forms of energy expansion.

The party currently in majority is hung up on "green" energy and climate, so they are not willing to expand our fossil fuel production. Public pressure is pushing back on that resistance. New and cleaner energy sources and infrastructures need to be developed and the Pickens Plan is an important example of how to do that. However, we must realize that there is a great investment in our existing forms of energy and transportation and the infrastructures that support them. We need to do everything we can improve and expand these so that we can bridge to the new and clean energy sources that do not currently have mass manufacturing, low cost, universal availability, and infrastructures in place. For example, I own internal combustion engine cars. Gasoline is expensive and the cars are complicated and break down far more often that I like. I would like to have an all electric car with good speed and range. It would be cleaner, less expensive to operate, and much simpler in design, so there would be fewer things break down. But, I presently have a limited income and need other things like housing, food, medical expenses, etc. And, electric cars are not in mass production yet, so they are still in the expensive "innovation phase" with very little support infrastructure. So, I have a choice. I must either increase my income or the electric car will have to wait. We need a congress who can make choices like that. Oh, by the way, I would like solar panels on my house, and a wind generator, and I would like to do research on things like using REDOX flow cells for energy storage, and lots of other things. But these things are way out of my reach. Right now I'm limited to things that I can afford. For example, I'm looking at adding a hydrogen electrolizer modification to increase my gasoline mileage. I can afford one of those. And, my tires were five pounds over the car's recommended pressure (but well inside the tire's rating) a long time before Obama announced his energy plan.

We need a congress and a President who can make economic decisions based on a fixed income. And we need American voters who care enough to elect the right people into government. Our government was founded on the idea that the people would elect honorable and principled people into office. I don't think that we always do that. The American people need to tell congress how much government they are willing to pay for, not be subject to paying for what congress wants to spend. We really need to get back to the basic fundamentals that our founders gave us.

So, "the problem", as I see it, is that the American people keep electing the wrong kind of people to make the important decisions. We need the right political decisions to be made and a strong and vibrant economy to support our transition from energy dependence to energy self-sufficiency. The "change we can believe in" occurred in the 1770's and we need to find our way back to those principles.

Comment by Lock Piatt on August 20, 2008 at 7:58am: Good, well thought out and maybe it will awaken some of the little gray cells in some American minds. It could even bring the site back to the goal of improving America's energy problems and lake of basic freedoms to conduct the needed legal buisness of energy production.

Comment by Gerry Miller on August 20, 2008 at 7:36am: It is painful to say it, but I think that the voters have lost control of their government. In other words, we have lost democracy.

This has happened over many years, and has been expressed using terms like "two faced", "liars". etc.
The last election showed it very well, when contestants campaigned against the war in Iraq, and then turned 180 degrees as soon as they were elected.

So, I think the voters have no option except to regain control.
Some practical things we can do is to re-organize at the grass roots level.

For example, we can quit voting for ANY incumbents.

We could assert nomination control at the State level, by controlling how candidates are selected and financed.

Representatives could be financed solely by their district, and Senators solely by their
States.

All contributions, financing, advertising, and support from outside of the State
could be outlawed.

This way, each State could begin to break the juggernaut and restore control to its voters.

Gerry

Comment by Chris Havrilesko on August 20, 2008 at 7:25am: Richard, Your eloquence is uplifting to say the least. Do you know the local fire chief?? Please does anyone have a personal friend who is a fireman ??If so, he can make a difference,a substantial difference!! All communities have local fire laws and ordinances that compel the dept.to check exit signs each year for proper operation.Its a simple task,but if they look a littler closer at it they can tell if its incandescent or LED bulbs in it both are legal.If they only switch the incandescent to LED the savings on power is a mind blowing average of $80.00 per year.The task of switching them is,remove the cover and unscrew the old bulb and screwing the LED stick in its place put the cover back on.
Imagine this a 4 story office bldg has 12 exit signs per floor 2 in the lobby.Do the 4 th grade math thats $4000.00 saved per year.In stupid exit signs alone.
Hows this? In a town meeting get a local politician to introduce that every fireman take a sack of LED with him on his annual check.Have him change as needed,but do it dont talk about it actually do it...Fight over whos gonna pay for it later. Im blessed with working in this energy conservation feild fo 18 years and know how to reduce power usage to its absolute minimum.Unfortunately I only work for large corporations,they are quick to embrace Newtons laws of physics, where small businesses are still neanderthals with investment in energy conservation.

This will make a difference today as friends or neighbors if they have friends who are firemen or firepersons (gotta be pc here lol) I will give my knowledge to anyone who asks or can email me with a small business description of lighting .I love doing this stuff.

Chris

Comment by Janis Oney on August 20, 2008 at 6:42am: The way I see this enegry problem . The more our govment gets involved in a project the worse the problem becomes. I like you Sam joined about the same time and am in 300 slot also. I have e-mailed everyone on my list many times as well as our officals to get off the dime and do something. In the beginning few up in D. C. paid any attention to all of this writting. I am retired and live on a fixed income therefore I am concerned about many things food, utilities, etc. etc. Gasoline ups the price of everything and once it goes up then in most cases it never goes down.. So I am ready to declare "it will not be business as usual". Would it not be nice to have a continuing place like this to send millions of e-mails for everything that displeases us to W.C.?? .. Janis

Comment by Sam Fleet on August 20, 2008 at 5:04am: Richard, I joined Pickens Plan real early, think I am like number 348 or something, that was over a month ago. Since then, everything has changed for me. I am a Realtor, haven't sold anything in 3 months now, and all the troubles tied in with that, debt and the like. So I am watching TV, and here comes T Boone Pickens. My husband is forced to work out of town because of the lack of new development in our area because of the real estate slow down, so anyway, I am at home, my two little girls are in bed, so I go to the computer, something hit me about what he had to say about energy. I didn't really know anything about it. So, I joined the site, and this is what happened. My real estate business is picking up because of connections I have made through the more than 340 friends I have on the site. I have the online store going at www.zazzle.com/samfleet with 2 designers on board, I am part of the American Energy Investment Fund, I am marketing solar to businesses and residences here in Georgia, I have taken hold of the GA Leader for Pickens Plan Spot, okay, I think that is it....What I am saying is that one person can do alot. I have never taken hold to a plan like I have this one. I am committed. I have read and learned so much over the past month. I feel like I am making a difference. And let me tell you, if I can do it, anyone can. The future of our country is up to us. We have to change America's way of thinking before we can ever change the way we live.Set our minds and keep it set to the higher things. We must all have faith. The enthusiasm for this plan is contagious. So, we have to tell people about it. People miss opportunities in their lives everyday because they have grown accustomed to the status quo. This is a new door for us, all we have to do is step through. Thank you for your thoughts and listening to mine. We are all in this together. And if everyperson is strong and stands together, we will find the solutions and work together to make our nation a better place to live work and play. Sam