First of all, gas prices still continue to rise, and there apparently is no end in sight. In fact, they are making historically high records, consistently. This is scary, because I know that I can’t afford $4 a gallon for gas, and I just wonder what people with tighter budgets are going through. Also, I find it interesting that they don’t ever mention premium gas when they talk about how high it is… I have to use premium, and the price difference is significant. I know I am feeling it a little more than the regular users out there. This is the first time I am wishing I would have gone with the Prius instead of the Acura. If it gets bad enough, maybe they will let us telecommute or something… something has to give. And do you people still believe that the Iraq war has nothing to do with this? Yeah… moving on.
This just bothers me. Not that a rich congressman lost his PB&J, but that this is the reality for tons of people, and I can’t believe that people continue to believe that “taking advantage of the system” is the norm. I can’t believe that people are expected to get by with just $3 for food a day. $3. A. Day. That is inexcusable. And worst of all, most of these people have families to feed, as well as themselves on that $3 a day. If we don’t start focusing on our own citizens, we are doomed as a society. Things are getting so far out of perspective, that it just seems that turning our backs on those that weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths is becoming acceptable. I think that it is pretty clear that we love shooting ourselves in the foot, but it seems to me that we have almost shot our feet off, and we are certainly not going to be able to walk away when the shit really hits the fan. I think we need to spend more time focusing on rebuilding our own nation, rather than nation building half way across the world. I mean, it is all about a little bit of perspective, right? The worst part, is that this burgeoning war on the middle class is forcing more and more people into these impoverished situations. This is enough to stress anyone out; I guess I just worry more than some others do, and so, I worry about this a lot.
I saw a story about this on discovery HD a few nights ago, and while I find the phenomena fascinating, I can’t believe that people still live in areas like this. Take for instance Pompeii. I mean, there are thousands of people that live right next to an active volcano that could seriously go ballistic like it did back in the day, and we would have an even worse modern disaster. The government even offers people money for them to relocate, yet people remain. While I know that the lake Nyos situation was slightly different (they didn’t know it would do what it did with the CO2), I can bet that people still live right around that area, much like Pompeii and other dangerous areas. I just wonder what the motivation is to live in areas that an imminent threat that could kill you and everyone around you at a moment’s notice. Like, I know for sure, that I would never want to live in tornado alley, nor do I think I could live comfortably on the San Andreas fault. I don’t even like living in a hurricane zone. I need to live somewhere that doesn’t pose imminent threat to my life, you know? Maybe that’s just me, but I just think that it is common sense not to want to live somewhere you couldn’t escape death if something completely unstable and out of your control is just outside your back door. But, apparently, there are plenty of people that live in those places and don’t seem to lose sleep over it. Perhaps I just worry too much…
I guess that is a three-fer, for this Tuesday, eh? Give me your thoughts, folks. Hope you are well, kids.