Saturday, July 5, 2008

"Ask Not.. What Your Country Can Say About How Fast You Can Go...."


Yesterday we celebrated the observance of our independence from England.

Although, truth be told, the fourth of July long ago wandered away from that commemoration and is now primarily an excuse to take off work, grill hamburgers and risk body parts by mixing booze and bottle rockets.

God bless America.

And surveys tell us that a lot of folks stayed home this holiday weekend because when it came down to a choice between paying the mortgage this month and filling the car up with the fuel needed to spend the fourth with Aunt Harriet and Uncle Ferd, many Americans opted for the former.

Meanwhile…back at the Capitol.

Sen. John Warner has called for a re-implementation of the 55 MPH national speed limit that was imposed thirty years ago and repealed a ways back.

The savings on fuel consumption would, statistics prove, be considerable.

Not to mention the saving of lives that lowering the speed limit always seems to increase.
So, CNN has an online poll going, asking US of A’ers how they feel about having their maximum allowable driving speed shaved back a bit.

Here are the numbers at this writing.


Should Congress reimpose a national speed limit to save gas?


Yes 37% 45232
No 63% 75862


That right there, among so many other things, is what I love about America.

Self sacrifice?
You bet.

As long as it’s YOURself and not MYself.

And while we are clearly not happy, as a nation, about paying more today for a tank of gas than we paid five years ago for a new CD player for the car, we are also just as clearly not ready to slow down to save.

If you’re one of those folks who does make the effort to drive more efficiently, then the rest of us thank you.

And hope you enjoyed your time at home this fourth of July.

The commemoration of declaring our independence from England.

And who knows?

Maybe when gas hits seven bucks a gallon, we’ll get an additional and unexpected holiday out of the deal.

The commemoration of our declaring our independence from the oil fields of the Middle East.

No comments: