Artificially inflated gasoline prices are inappropriate during holiday

Due to an ongoing family emergency, I’ve been driving a lot lately, and I can’t help but notice the price of gasoline.

This past weekend I had occasion to both make several trips to central New Jersey and also attend two Memorial Day events.

On the surface, it would seem these two things bear little connection with one another. But I noticed something that has been bothering me since this weekend, something I’ve not seen the pundits take note of.

This weekend, as it does every weekend, and especially on a holiday weekend, gasoline prices rose.

While this is not entirely unexpected, as I watched veterans and their families, along with “civilian” members of the public honor the sacrifices of those who have served in our armed services. Many of those sacrifices have been of life, as well as limb.

It may seem a lifetime ago, but just a few short years ago, I very clearly remember seeing war protesters with signs that said, “No blood for oil.” The slogan also became a bumper sticker.

We were assured by the current president and his administration that the conflict in Iraq is not about oil. I have to say, in the face of current gas prices, coupled with some very suspicious fluctuations (always on a holiday or a weekend, when many people have a need or a tendency to travel), I actually agree. This war was not about oil—it was about profits.

Not too long ago, I read a national news article that estimated our current vice president, Dick Cheney, makes about $22,000 per day from oil stock dividends and related income. This figure did not include other war profits one would be reasonably certain would be forthcoming (not to mention increasing) from being a stockholder in companies such as Halliburton that profit from the sale of armaments and military equipment.

Such a figure would arguably make one wonder how much our president, George W. Bush, would profit from increased oil prices. After all, that is the empire that made his family rich in the first place—along with holdings in military contracting companies. But, alas, that figure was not to be had. The very well researched and fact-checked article I read could not come up with an accurate figure. The reason given was that Bush’s holdings are so intertwined with the rest of the Bush family holdings that the author felt it was impossible to be able to estimate the amount—but that it was likely several times the amount Cheney receives in war profits.

The more I think about this, the more disgusted I become.

As companies like Texaco, Exxon and Chevron unabashedly inflate prices and proudly post record profits, our U.S. service men and women put it all on the line daily—and they are dying daily.

So, this weekend, as gas prices rose, so did my temper. It is a poor excuse to blame the war—after all, it is the same oil, the same refineries and the same pipelines that carry that petroleum to us. The only thing that’s changed is the price—and someone, very likely our elected officials and their oil company PAC cronies, is laughing all the way to the bank, all the while explaining to the American public, with their bare faces hanging out, that this is the consequence of war, a war they refuse to even consider ending.

Okay, so there’s a lot of money at stake, you say. But how many people would you kill for a few million, or even billion, dollars? Is there some amount of money, a minimum amount, say, that makes getting people killed so one can get richer (or richer) okay? Isn’t this the very definition of evil? And assuming one is actually that depraved to buy into that sort of thinking, that this is somehow okay, when does it end?

But either way, during a time reserved to reflect on the sacrifices of American service people, literally, our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, who have died and will continue to die until this current war is ended—Memorial Day weekend—it is especially pernicious to jack gas prices just to make an extra buck.

It’s enough to make one wish for instant karma.