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Our Sacred
Natural Resources - What you can do to save the day!
Granny was at the wheel, a fifty-pound stone statue
driving a car that was the size of a battle tank. I was riding shotgun,
passenger seat, front of vehicle, seatbelt fastened, center-positioned in front
of the airbag that I was certain I would need before the ride was ended….
I chanced a glance at the old girl. Granny's
tiny body was perched forward, her flat chest practically laying on the horn.
Her hands held a death-grip on the steering wheel. Any slower and
we’d be walking. The speedometer indicated 22 mph. And how she’d
talked me into accompanying her on this ride to hell was beyond me. She
was so….sweet, so irresistible, so….harmless-looking back at the house when
she’d asked me to come along for ‘a ride’.
 Her age had nothing to do with her rotten driving.
She’d been 4-F at the wheel since before she’d acquired her driver’s license.
The only reason that she’d passed her driver’s test was because she’d
heisted her skirt at the examiner. And he’d examined her pretty well as
she’d gone on to marry him.
Granny had the windows rolled down, the hot breath
of summer sneaking into the car, adding to my anxiety. I saw the fuzzy
dice list to one side, then I widened my eyes in shock as Granny offhandedly
decided to turn into an approaching car. I could hear the brakes of the
other driver being painfully applied! I heard tires screeching and the
smell of burnt rubber permeated the air as Granny continued tottering with her
turn.
Seriously, my life flashed before me. I was certain
it was the end. Amazingly enough, when I felt brave enough to chance a
glance, the other car stood at a dead halt a mere foot from Granny’s battle
tank. The driver looked as stunned as I, his hair frayed, his eyes leaking.
“Virgil Thompson,” Granny eased out in a shaky voice,
the shakiness due to age rather than fright. “That boy can’t drive,” she
shared to my flared ears.
I remember kissing the ground when we got to our destination,
but other than that, it’s a blur. The episode got me thinking, though.
Shortly afterwards, I hired a young lady to take Little Granny back and
forth on her round-abouts.
As I continued to ponder life, I decided that even
though Granny didn’t belong on the road, she had belonged in that battle tank
size of a car. It was for her own protection.
Bottom line: big vehicles drink a lot of gas – a sacred
resource. Yes, there are times when only a giant vehicle will do, but
for the most part we’ve got three-quarters of America conversing back and forth
to work in a SUV or pickup truck with one person on board.
Fact is, our transportation system is behind the times
for our growth size. Due to lack of funding, most of the trains in America
will probably fade out of existence in 2002.
(continued
in next column) 
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While America continues to
cut funding for our train system, foreign countries have threaded tracks throughout
their lands, eons ahead of us in regards to transportation systems.
There is a flip-side of the coin; fuel. While
we seek other methods to obtain oil, we ignore proposed alternatives.
In
recent years, vehicles have been powered on everything from electricity to pig
poop, yet those means get little recognition. Does our solution to the
energy crisis really lie in obtaining more oil sources?
Or would it make
more sense to explore these other alternatives? Even more troubling, our economy
would go south fast without traffic. If we continue
on the same course, satisfying the financial wants of
the auto industry rather than meeting the financial
needs of the average consumer, the end result spells
disaster any way that you look at it. Those who can
afford an auto won't be able to afford the fuel that
goes into it. In time, the oil fields will run dry.
This is what you can do to help:
 Contact your local representatives and tell them
your thoughts on the transportation system.
Let the government know that you 'vote yes’ for the
train system.
If possible, work and shop close to where you live.
You’ll also save precious time.
Think about investing in a smaller car (if you don’t
already own one) for use to work and back.
Ride share.
If your city offers public transportation, take advantage.
One thing for certain, our sacred natural resources
won’t last forever.
Whether we conquer capturing and mastering the wind,
the sun, and the rain – or we turn to another invention of man that will allow
America to move, eventually we must integrate new ideas, new methods, and new
designs in order to remain independent in the New World of the Future.
Hopefully that world
will be built on the foundation of protecting nature
to better mankind rather than depletion and ruin.
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