An Oil Spill

Yesterday I pulled in to a gas station.

Finding myself in a legitimately good disposition, (I had been working so hard through final week at school, and had found out I aced a couple of exams!). I got out of my car and walked to the pump and read out loud: “three-seventy-seven”.

An immediate turn for the worse: In my mind I pictured an empty wallet, a zero balance on my bank statement, my car stranded on the highway. Three-seventy-seven!?

I looked around at the dismal crowd pumping gas: A guy next to his Hummer banging his head against the bumper, a poor old lady at the cashier digging at the bottom of her purse for pennies. Expressions of defeat and surrender.

All over the news the anchors say how it is not going to get any better any time soon. There is a News Team at every gas station across the country focusing stage-center: those incredibly astronomical numbers. I sit at home and watch news story after news story, the apologetic expressions on Brian Willam’s face, Katie Couric’s regretful tone. And then the weather comes on and we can think about something else for a minute, but it is always hanging in the back of my mind.

I think of how it is spreading its effect all over. Food prices, air travel, recreation. An inflated taxation barrel hit the middle of a serene lake and its ripples are reaching the shores on all of our doorsteps. It’s an oil spill.

Whether I get political or not, one thing is for sure: Things have to change! Especially for those we dedicate this website: the assisted families, the ones in need of a helping hand out of poverty. How can we expect them to get better paying jobs when the facilitation works against them to even GET to their job? This is the reason why Section 8 was initially created, to address the inflation and rising costs of living.

I know I usually write blogs with the hopes of creating better days, instilling hope in the hearts of those disheartened. I would like to look the other way when I watch the news and tell myself, no , things WILL get better. The US will fight it, we’ll elect someone who will fight for us.

And then, the weather comes on.