No - this picture is not a Las Vegas gambling casino with a fleet of Rolls Royces, BMWs and Mercedes waiting to pick up the high rollers from the airport. Rather this is the family house of Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of The United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu-Dhabi. The automobiles are for family members and the collection seen here does not even include his silver plated Audi and one of every exotic sports car in the world today. Your gas dollars support this magnificent edifice and car collection as well as many other palaces of the various kings, sheikhs, mullahs and run-of-the-mill potentates of the Middle East.
This picture might give some insight into the reason why the rulers of the Arab world are rather satisfied with the status quo #- why, perhaps, they are not too anxious to see democratic governments spring up among the oil wells. Many of them are financing the insurgency in Iraq as well as terrorism around the free world and our petro-dollars support it. Their message is: “Leave us alone - we like the system just as it is. We don't want western foreigners telling us how to treat our women and, most of all we don't want a government of the people #- that would ruin everything.”
Meanwhile in America, we continue to feed our habit of cheap foreign oil (most other industrialized countries pay twice as much). The stock market rises and falls on the price of a barrel of oil and our economy languishes. Our government pontificates about energy independence but does little to implement it. Detroit continues to pump out 10 MPG SUVs cleverly designed to climb Mt. Everest but in reality only used to bring junior to soccer practice.
Our first wake-up call about this ridiculous situation occurred in 1973 when the Arabs stopped the oil barges for about 30 days. Pandemonium broke loose with fights at the gas pumps and the stock market crashed but soon the oil flowed from the desert again and we forgot all about the visionaries who tried to promote energy conservation and energy independence at that time.
If what's happening now, with the Iraq war, global warming and sluggish economy, is not our final wake-up call it will do until the real thing comes along.
However, the goal of energy independence will not happen without some sacrifices on our part. Americans are not big on sacrificing these days what with our penchant for instant gratification and deficit financing. Those of my generation remember the ration books that became a part of our life in the 1940s. While the threat to our way of life is not quite as severe as World War II, the consequences of sticking our heads in the sand about global warming and our gluttony for energy will affect our lifestyle in the near future if we don't do something about it - starting now!
There is growing support for a federal tax on imported oil with the revenue earmarked exclusively for funding research and development of alternate and renewable energy. The returns from this tax would come directly back to Auburn and Cayuga County to bolster our budding BioFuel and alternate energy industries as well as a potential research center.
If our engineers and scientists can design machines and propulsion systems to travel the universe they can certainly design machinery and propulsion systems to travel this country without utilizing fossil fuels. It's all a matter of priority.
There is a story about a man who had a dog that loved ice cream but unfortunately the dog developed diabetes. Every time the man tried to wean the dog from ice cream it whined and whimpered until the man gave in. The dog again became happy #- right up to the day it died.
Harold Miller is a businessman and Auburn native. He may be reached at hmillermod@aol.com
Meanwhile in America, we continue to feed our habit of cheap foreign oil (most other industrialized countries pay twice as much). The stock market rises and falls on the price of a barrel of oil and our economy languishes. Our government pontificates about energy independence but does little to implement it. Detroit continues to pump out 10 MPG SUVs cleverly designed to climb Mt. Everest but in reality only used to bring junior to soccer practice.
Our first wake-up call about this ridiculous situation occurred in 1973 when the Arabs stopped the oil barges for about 30 days. Pandemonium broke loose with fights at the gas pumps and the stock market crashed but soon the oil flowed from the desert again and we forgot all about the visionaries who tried to promote energy conservation and energy independence at that time.
If what's happening now, with the Iraq war, global warming and sluggish economy, is not our final wake-up call it will do until the real thing comes along.
However, the goal of energy independence will not happen without some sacrifices on our part. Americans are not big on sacrificing these days what with our penchant for instant gratification and deficit financing. Those of my generation remember the ration books that became a part of our life in the 1940s. While the threat to our way of life is not quite as severe as World War II, the consequences of sticking our heads in the sand about global warming and our gluttony for energy will affect our lifestyle in the near future if we don't do something about it - starting now!
There is growing support for a federal tax on imported oil with the revenue earmarked exclusively for funding research and development of alternate and renewable energy. The returns from this tax would come directly back to Auburn and Cayuga County to bolster our budding BioFuel and alternate energy industries as well as a potential research center.
If our engineers and scientists can design machines and propulsion systems to travel the universe they can certainly design machinery and propulsion systems to travel this country without utilizing fossil fuels. It's all a matter of priority.
There is a story about a man who had a dog that loved ice cream but unfortunately the dog developed diabetes. Every time the man tried to wean the dog from ice cream it whined and whimpered until the man gave in. The dog again became happy #- right up to the day it died.
Harold Miller is a businessman and Auburn native. He may be reached at hmillermod@aol.com
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