The American Way

Admittedly, my criticism comes from a soundbite version of a news story I heard today while running at the gym. Don't worry though if your news knowledge as of late, like mine, consists mostly of soundbites, because our ease in accomodating our interest and intelligence to these bites can just as easily be diverted from us and placed on the news stations, for that is all they seem to offer us these days, and when you know just enough about a subject to have something to say about it people think you are informed. Alas our sad state of affairs brings me to the point in question I heard covered today in less than a minute. It was a report primarily about the alarming condition the oil fields and refineries find themselves (and so ourselves) in following hurricane katrina, and rita. We are running low on oil in a nation whose very life-blood seems dependant on the convenient independence our gas affords us the luxury of. Ought we then to find ways to conseve and, dare we say it modify our lifestyles? No, President Bush responded, according to the report, this situation should not cause us to change our american way of life. Of course, his words may have been taken out of context, but this didn't change the emotion that this suggestion engendered. There is something quite sick about being encouraged to consume, and if this is what the american lifestyle is centered around I would like an alternative. Perhaps there is some great economic reason for this suggestion, but for now I remain disgustingly perplexed at the suggestion that altering our lifestyle to be less dependent on a limited resource is not a valid, noble option for people who embrace the american way of life.