Perhaps if I write this in a column as my own voice, someone will see it. We are in trouble folks. America is under financial siege. In the transportation industry, the supply industry, the hospitality industry, the food industry and as we know here in Platte County, the public schools.

Gas has headed somewhere over the rainbow per gallon.  It’s now double what it was when the new administration took over. Is it because the agenda is to make gas so high in price that the world MUST opt for electric cars? One can only speculate.

In some states it has already continued to hover near the $6 per gallon range.

There are states that are chosen to set the precedent so that gas that climbs in other states maybe won’t seem so bad. Perhaps it is so someone can say, “well, at least we are not paying as much as California or Hawaii.”

Heading into the summer and those who want to take vacations, can’t. Wages haven’t gone up, but the prices on everything else have. Concessions must be made and instead of traveling to Yellowstone to swim in a glacier lake, people are planning trips into their backyards to the Walmart plastic pool.

Things have turned south in 18 months’ time. When will people who have learned that just a year ago when gas was a dollar less per gallon that the economy doesn’t have to take this nosedive. The reports that came in from across the nation this past weekend painted a bleak picture, citing gas prices higher than they have been in seven years and the prognostication was that they would continue to rise.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we are paying on average an extra $15-$30 on each fill at the gas station depending on what you are driving. Right now. That will go up. Myrle Ingle who works in the oil field says that it’s not only the high prices to frac, but supply has also been an issue, not getting the fuel that is needed to complete the jobs in the field.

Current averages according to AAA this week in Wyoming: Reg: $4.288, Mid-grade $4.525, Premium $4.792, Diesel $5.479  A month ago: Reg: $4.122, Mid-grade $4.339, Premium $4.610 and Diesel $5.098.

 March 2018: Reg: $1.92 per gallon, Mid-grade $2.00, Premium $2.14, Diesel $2.14

(that last line was courtesy of CNN: https://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/gasprices/state.html)

It also doesn’t take a genius to figure out that stimulus checks that were touted as taking people “out of poverty” is another smoke and mirror from the powers that be to a media that gets paid to publish lies. They don’t tell you that the stimulus money is going directly into the tanks of your cars and in a few years, the government will recoup all the “free money” and put it back into government coffers.

When will people begin to quote the phrase spoken by television anchor Howard Beale in the 1976 film, Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

And excuses were “cooked up” long before prices “went up.” They throw the word “hack” into the public media and suddenly it’s OK to raise prices on gas nationally? People need to do their research, but even then, it’s hard to find a media outlet that will call the “hack” a “hoax” and a marketing genius to plant an excuse to put the stimulus money back.

When will people begin to understand that it’s not OK to be silent. It’s not OK to just keep your mouths shut and take the whipping. When will people begin to flood the local politician’s offices with complaints and threats of our own letting them know that if they aren’t strong enough to stop this insanity, then we will search for the ones who will.

A lot of “talk” and the economy tanks. A lot of promises and prices continue to rise. A lot of lies and corruption and America begins to grow more silent. There is a growing sentiment that was planted in the last election that “there’s nothing we can do and we must just bear down and weather the storm.”

You may have called your politician one time. As opposed to you having to fill your tank up sometimes twice a week. Perhaps we need to make calls after every uncomfortable trip to the pump. Put your legislators and senators and congressmen on speed dial. We could always call the administration, but they may be hiding in a basement or too busy prepping another White House press secretary.

And fuel is just the tip of the iceberg along with the trickledown effect of everything else going higher because it costs more to ship. This is domestic terrorism at it’s finest and most deceptive practice. What happened to “if you see something, say something,” is that people just don’t feel as if their voice is going to make a difference. The deadliest words are being spoken in our society today and the voices speaking these words are drowning out the words of those who are outraged. “What’s the use?”

Have we given up? Have we thrown in the towel? Have we decided that apathy is so much easier than the fight for your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren?

Somebody has to say something. Somebody has to do something. The insanity from Washington all the way down to the local levels MUST STOP. And if not now, then when. And if not you, then who?