Not even a short-term solution

By Jayne Lyn Stahl

Make no mistake, the Democrats, in this election, have got it right. Not only is drilling not a solution, it's not even a short-term solution.

Moreover, the notion that drilling in Alaska, or anywhere else, will produce enough oil to relieve what is, for most of us, colossal pain at the pump applies the same logic as trying to put a bandaid on the trunk of a bleeding elephant.

This is thinking that is not only unsound, but intentionally unsound because the goal is to deflect attention away from longterm solutions and instead put it on a free market fix. Well, hey, guys, we see where free market fixes got us, deregulation, and all the flawed economic policies from Reaganomics on down: the stock market has suffered its greatest decline since 9/11; the credit card empire is falling apart before our very eyes..

But, you ask, what does this have to do with drilling for oil? Everything.

Going back to the future, and undoing all of the efforts at environmental sanity made
in the past two decades just won't cut it anymore. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but your 15 minutes of fame are up.

We have too many empty gas tanks, too many empty refrigerators, and toomany empty dreams as a result of those whose chief goal is to explore ways to enhance their own financial bottom line like Exxon, and Chevron while theaverage working man and woman in this country can barely come up withwhat they need to make it to and from work every day.

We need leadership with vision, not just a plan. We need a president who looks to alternative energy the way John F. Kennedy looked to exploring outer space. Only those who respect dreams, not those who worship schemes. need apply.

Give tax incentives, not to those whose gluttony has led to the all but certain decimation of civilization as we know it, but to those who look for alternatives for how we consume, and how we grow, energy.