The Extortion of America

Many Americans have been persuaded to drill for oil. The current events driven against our nation, the rise in gas prices and the resultant increase in the cost of food, goods and services have thwarted many to consider what was once unacceptable, the foregoing conservation of our shorelines and natural reserves in order to lessen the stress of our personal expenses. We are confronted with nothing less than economic extortion by oil companies when we are coerced to do what is not in our best interests. The oil companies have maneuvered us in a position when many of us beg to give them license to pillage the areas they have been long banned from invading in the past. Their demand upon us is nothing new. Yet our government has allowed it to come to this when many can no longer bear the burden of finding enough money to fill their coverts as well as their gas tanks. The government has cowered to industrial lobbyists; they have given way over and over again to the persuasions of the oil, automobile and other related industries.

The great Nicola Tesla warned us over 70 years ago about how the depletion of fossil fuels would eventually arrive and would have dire consequences upon our energy needs. Since his death almost every decade of our government has withstood the impact of the energy industries controls upon our nation and the rest of the world. The world has been driven to wars and nations humbled to economic crises; perhaps the most memorable in the U.S. during the oil embargo of the late 1970's when long consumers were forced to wait in long gas lines, and the oil shortage of the late 1990's when oils prices rose in excess again.

Now in 2008 we face another period when the prices of fossil fuels cause many of us to buckle at our knees as we strain to measure the worth of each penny in our possession. Many cry out the injustice felt, a shout many do not realize has echoed from decades before and has never ceased.

We live through a time when we can alter the painstaking effects of the cycle of this energy dilemma. But the questions remain… Shall we continue to allow ourselves to be subject to the demands of oil barons? Or shall we institute real reforms to diminish their demands upon us?

It would be prudent for us to end this treacherous cycle at last. We must reduce our consumption of fossil fuels to regain our sense of control and preservation of our environment once and for all. The expansion into alternate energy sources is our only option. But the task though well desired is far too little lead by those who presume our leadership. Sadly for our cause, many of them have built huge stacks within their coffers from those whom extort us and the others seem to hold their positions merely for the esteemed ride.

Now it is alarming to hear the concessions of so many Americans willing to relinquish our nation's hold on our nature's wilderness and wide open seas, especially while the companies which place these demands upon us have not even begun to drill on land and off shore sites they are already permitted. These companies are intentionally holding back their building of offshore drill platforms they retain, driving up the prices of oil, and manipulating us for yet more licenses to drill.

The thought of blotches of oil staining our luscious wilderness and floating blobs of blackened crude polluting ocean waters is a horrible vision which shall become so real. Our nature placed in jeopardy. Yet we would surrender our position to say “no” or “it shall never happen” only “for a few dollars more”.

For those who have forgotten what it is to be a human being, to care for others, to smell the freshness of clean air, to see the tranquility of nature's trees and floral designs in our forests, the distant radiance of snow capped white terrains, the serene splash of ocean waves and the awe inspiring beauty of this world we call Earth; for those would build a wall and put our backs up against it and to insist we have no other choice; let us say to them we will stand upon each others' shoulders until we climb over your wall and tear it down piece by piece. Your wall shall not stand up against us. America shall thrive with or without you.