Difficult things going on here, abroad
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
After being away for a birthday trip to St. Augustine and then coming home to find my hard drive crashed, I am back at work on my column. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks it’s hard to decide which direction to go in.
I just cannot ignore the Ukraine issue any longer. We are seeing too many things here in the U.S. that are being affected by Russia’s invasion of this sovereign nation for us to not pay attention to what the future may hold. The MAIN issue is the huge increase in the cost of gas. But, the invasion did not START this.
It’s almost like we have been set up for the destruction of our economy and that our government has been working with the Russian government to help. The very first thing President Biden did after being sworn in was to shut down our energy infrastructure. We had finally become an energy independent country being able to not only supply our own needs, but to also export oil to other countries.
The Keystone Pipeline, other oil fields around the country, our offshore drilling operations, and use of clean coal had provided us with four years of a significantly lower cost of fuel products which, in turn, helped bring down other costs of goods. But add insult to insult, President Biden also supported a pipeline from Russia and started buying THEIR oil.
We were already experiencing a shortage of goods because of the difficulty of unloading imports at our seaports, then transporting those goods to the distribution points, and finally to the shelves in our stores. Add in to this the lack of people willing to work, and we have had a disaster in the making. So, then comes this new hit to our trucking industry (remember – trucks move on diesel fuel), and we will see things continue to skyrocket.
And this hurts us in the rural areas more than others. We have to drive further to buy groceries, see a doctor, go to work, go to school, go to church, and all the other things that we have taken for granted. People in the cities have better access to these things, but they will also be affected.
Today (Tuesday), President Biden has finally said we will no longer import Russian oil/gas, but he HAS NOT said a word about reopening our oil production industries. Instead, he is shopping with other countries who are not our friends – Iran, Venezuela and the OPEC nations, to name a few. What part of insane does he not understand? These things cannot open at the drop of a hat, and it will take time to turn the situation around. In the meantime, we suffer.
These issues affect everyone in the United States regardless of political affiliation. At what point do we all finally stand up TOGETHER and demand these policies be changed? It is not like the climate control groups can flip a switch this afternoon and move us from fossil fuels to all electric energy. AND, even electric energy depends on petroleum based products! There are not enough electric cars available to buy (and they are way too expensive for most of us), there are not enough charging stations in the country, and there are not enough batteries available to operate the cars.
I’m all for a clean climate, but we have the cleanest climate in the world. Go clean up China, Russia and other third world countries! But, again, maybe that’s the entire idea. We are moving faster and faster towards becoming a third world county here in the United States.
I have been talking about all the difficult things that are going on here, but they are NOTHING compared to what the people of the Ukraine and western Europe are going through without assistance from other countries. While our president is tearing down our country, the Ukrainian president is standing toe to toe against the might of the Russian military. And, praise God, the Ukrainian people are holding them back.
Regardless of what political party you lean towards, do you really approve of how things are being done? Has your life been better in the last year? Do you see your finances getting better in the near future? If your answer to those questions is no, please consider contacting your representatives and senators in Washington and telling them it’s time to make a change in direction.
And, while you are at it, please keep the people in Ukraine and western Europe in your prayers. But of course, include our country in those prayers, too. I hope that by this time next week we will have seen some type of assistance sent to turn the Russians around.
*Note, as I write this, I heard that Poland is going to send planes to the Ukraine through our NATO bases. This is wonderful news.