Hummers

I get angry every time I see a Hummer. It’s not the fact that they are huge and dangerous to anyone that isn’t in one. Neither is it the fact that I’ll probably always be too poor to afford one. It doesn’t even have much to do with the fact that any “professional” who can afford one can write-off the entire purchase amount on his or her taxes. My rage can be attributed to what the Hummer represents.

The Hummer represents a dead-end economic system based on fossil fuels, namely petroleum. Oil. Why are we occupying Iraq? Why are there higher instances of childhood asthma and emphysema in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington, Tampa, Memphis, and other large cities than in their smaller, rural counterparts? Why do we have acid rain and smog? The answer to these questions is…our oil-based economy.

The next question is, what is the root of our oil-based economy? The answer is, the automobile. As long as the quickest way to get from point A to point B is in a car, we are slaves to oil. As long the best mass transit systems our cities have are dependant upon cramped, dirty, unreliable, gasoline powered buses we are slaves to oil. As long as our sense of self-worth and identity, in our own eyes and in the eyes of our peers, is dependant on the kind of fucking car we drive, we are slaves to oil. As long as we are willing to sit in front of the television and watch our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, lovers, our sons and daughters, friends, fellow Americans, go into battle (in Hummers) and sacrifice everything for an otherwise desolate piece of real estate so that we can continue to be defined by what we drive, we are slaves to oil. As long as an oil baronette sits in the Oval Office, we are slaves to oil.

So, think about all that, between cell-phone calls and road rage on your way to work tomorrow. Just think. Meanwhile, us pedestrians will continue to scurry from corner to corner, breathing your exhaust and trying not to get run over by your big, shiny Hummers.