al the prophet

[your-pal-al]

i was at home the day the jetlinners took down the twin towers. i called my wife just after the first tower was hit. she's a v.p. at a bank and had no idea what was goin on . she went in the back and turned on a t.v. i was still on the phone with her when the second tower was hit. i was reminded of a line from a song : " it's the end of the world as we know it".
i even told her that. here we are a few years later .....in a war ... two dollar gasoline prices..... a divided country politically.

i watched the berg video and wished i hadn't. i didn't sleep at all that night.
the next day while returning home i came past john d. long lake and decided to pull in. for those of you who do not know j.d. long lake is the place where susan smith drowned her two children. there are markers there erected to the two young boys that died . the place has become sort of a shrine. there are always flowers , a baseball, a toy or teddy bear laying on or at the foot of the large monument. i sat there deep in thought for a long time. it makes me wonder how much more bad can the world endure?

al

[Hunter007]

You know I get down at times and think of all the bad things going on in thw world. The war especially puts a damper on things. But this world has always had things going on. People will never completely get along - we will always have controversy.

[Thumper]

Al- I see it getting worse than it is.
I was at work (Firehouse) when the first plane hit,as you were,and i felt a feeling that i could not explain. The feeling was horrible.It was really bad when i found out it was an attack. We stood there for 30min or so before we could even speak.
The U.S. should not let those feelings die,cause for once the House of Reps.,The Senate ,and Congress were all as one.No republican,no democrats we were AMERICANS.Alot of the same feelings have deminished,we are getting back to our seperate little clubs. If the war continues we will find that we will be under more attacks by terrorists and by people in our own country.
I am for the war, we need to stop the terrorists from coming in our country and doing this.
Are we strong enough to follow through to the end?
Will we become stronger or will we destroy ourself?

Who knows...

[the doctor]

still the greatest nation in the world, glad to have the opportunity to pay for two dollar gasoline

when you look at the economic value of gasoline, its still pretty cheap!!

consider the value of one gallon of fuel, and the energy it produces compared to say beer, the equivalent of about $9 a gallon, or milk, $4 per gallon, hell some bottled water is over $2 a gallon

everything is releative, right?

the doc

[Hunter007]

America is in fact the greatest place on earth. No doubt about it.

But Doc, if the price of gasoline stays near or above $2.00 a gallon, that gallon of milk $6.00, beer $13.00, water $2.50. The price of gasoline tells a lot about the world's economic / evnironmental status. But I get your point.

[the doctor]

I fully understand how the price of fuel affects all our goods and services, I work a great deal in the shipping industry...everything we consume comes overland at some point.

I am referring to the output or benefits of burning one gallon of fuel versus consuming one gallon of beer, water, milk etc.

One gallon of fuel can move an entire truck of milk, beer, water etc 6-8 miles maybe more!

...indexed for inflation, fuel is still fairly cheap.

I do not enjoy paying that much at the pump just like the next guy, but this is a situation we as a nation must address and have needed to address for some time, and that is our sources of energy.

At this point there are alternative methods for powering a vehicle, none quite as efficeint as gasoline (my opinion) but I fully believe that neccesity is the mother of invention and soon Americans will realize the NEED for alternative sources. This has been an ongiong problem and if it takes a war to make us realize it, so be it.

the doc