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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Friends,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>This is a forward of an email I sent to the editor
of the Gazette earlier today, which may or may not be published on
Wednesday.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>If gasoline seems pretty affordable, it's only
because the price (in dollars at the pump) is held artificially low.
There's a far dearer price that we're paying for it, both in defense spending
and the lives that we're losing or destroying in order to get it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Please do what you can to support public
transportation in Oklahoma City. Even better, think twice before driving
somewhere, especially one at a time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Thanks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Walter Jacques</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=jacq2@cox.net href="mailto:jacq2@cox.net">Walter Jacques</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=rcollins@OKGazette.com
href="mailto:rcollins@OKGazette.com">Rob Collins</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 02, 2011 3:49 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Comment on "Bumper Cars" (OKG, 12/29)</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>To the Editor,</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>An interesting exchange in the
December 21 city council meeting between Councilman Brian Walters and Mayor Mick
Cornett (“Bumper Cars,” OKG, December 29, 2010), caught my eye.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Walters complained that public
transportation, as opposed to vehicular transportation, is subsidized and would
“take away that freedom.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Mayor Cornett correctly pointed out that roads and fuel are also
subsidized.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>I served in the defense of this
country for 21 years, periodically having to wear a gas mask at all times in a
region where they really don't like us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I was there in large part to give Americans like Councilman Walters the
freedom and ability to pump foreign gas into their cars.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Fuel subsidies extend far
beyond financial subsidies mentioned by the mayor.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Add the cost of prosecuting a war
costing billions of dollars a day (now totaling in the trillions) for over nine
years; the thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of limbs lost;
and the enduring effects of traumatic brain injury, PTSD and other psychological
problems that our troops bring home from combat, sometimes to marriages
doomed to failure from the stress.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>These are the often-forgotten costs of "affordable" foreign oil and
individual transportation.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Councilman Walters’ daily commute
is not only the most highly-subsidized mode of transportation in the history of
this planet; it’s also the most wasteful.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Choosing to travel one person at a time in a vehicle consuming extremely
costly foreign oil where public transportation is or should be available will
ultimately cost us the freedoms that Councilman Walters and the rest of us hold
so dear.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When defense spending to
support this addiction to foreign oil has destroyed our economy, life for us is
going to change – if we don’t run out of oil first.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Nobody is proposing to take away
Councilman Walters’ personal vehicle.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But when it makes sense to fund and develop solid public transportation,
we should support it and use it to the hilt.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>Walter J. Jacques, Maj. (Ret.),
USAF</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><st1:City><st1:place>Del
City</st1:place></st1:City></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>