Texas Tea Guzzlers

Want a real eye-opener to what is really the problem with the Middle East? Want to know the real reason young American soldiers are dying in Iraq? Want to really understand the anger and mistrust many Arabs feel towards our country?

Then take a drive through Dallas down I-35 in a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. The Dallas HOV lanes, for those who do not know, allow vehicles with two or more occupants to use a special left lane to pass all those one-person occupied vehicles in the other five lanes.

I did just that a couple of weeks ago, and it was an almost surreal experience.

This is what I saw: truck after SUV after minivan after truck after SUV after car, with air conditioners at full blast, stuck in snail-paced traffic with one lonely driver at the wheel. Their zombie-like eyes stared vacantly at the bumpers before them.

Mile after mile, five lanes stuffed with vehicles, as I cruised passed in a tiny compact. Zombies staring into ugly highway space, stuck, idling, using gasoline but going nowheresville real slow. Meanwhile, I felt like a cheat and a fool, especially since I displayed Okie plates and a John Kerry for President bumper sticker.

(It was probably so much of a contradiction no refined Texas lady could believe her eyes.)

How dare I actually have someone in the car with me so I could pass all these good, warm-hearted Texans who love our troops the most of everyone in the country? Was this right? Was I going to get myself . . . kilt?

I saw not one bus much less a commuter train or any other form of mass transit.

I did see big, big, big vehicles.

Now before you truck and SUV owners label me a pinko, communist Mazda-driving, unpatriotic, peace-loving latte drinker, let me admit I have an older Chevrolet Suburban gathering dust in my garage. I actually once drove it when I coached a little league baseball team, and it was not uncommon for me to "haul" (and that is the appropriate word)twelve kids, give or take a couple, to games and practices. I don't drive it now because I have no need for that much room, and I don't sell it because, well, because gasoline prices are so high right now I don't think it's even worth the hassle.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with big cars, just like there's nothing intrinsically right about an American who is not paying attention to what is going on in the Middle East today.

Our country supports Middle East dictators with our military strength so we are guaranteed access to oil.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer of oil, is the perfect example. The Saudi dictators oppress their people so much that Islamic fundamentalism actually seems attractive to many of their citizens. (Remember, folks, virtually all the September 11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.)

Our country encourages this dynamic, and then we invade a country without one iota of a connection to the terrorist attacks but with plenty of oil for all those lonely Texans in their Texas tea guzzlers. Folks, stay tuned to Channel Bush. Undoubtedly, the puppeteer Dick Cheney will soon install and support yet another oppressive regime in Iraq because we simply have no sensible policy to wean ourselves from Middle East oil.

What would happen if there were actually two people in each vehicle going down I-35 through Dallas? How many American lives would have been saved? What if our country didn't need a drop of Middle East oil, yet we still had our trucks and minivans? Those Middle East dictatorships would crumble, and then, only then, would democracy and freedom have a chance in that region of the world.

John Kerry has a plan to get us off the Middle East oil teat in ten years. Dubbya, I suspect, has golf plans with members of the Saudi royal family.