What You Can Do About High Gas Prices

"US drivers do not have an entitlement to cheap gasoline. And no matter who is the president, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East should not be predicated on an urgent need to keep gasoline prices from rising. I know this is controversial, what with prices hitting new records as the coming Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer driving season in an election year. Higher fuel costs affect prices for all kinds of goods and services...I'm writing after a 600-mile round trip drive this week from Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine, where prices for regular unleaded gasoline ranged from $2.03 to $2.18 a gallon, which makes sense since the new national average is $2.06 -- up 58 cents from last year at the same time. News stations in Maine were reporting that motorists from border regions in Canada were crossing into the United States to get cheaper fuel. Europeans pay more for gas. Americans are spoiled...I want to address short-term solutions here -- not the long-range plans of Kerry or President Bush's so-far-unsuccessful push to pump oil from Alaska's reserves to get more product into the pipeline and wean the nation from foreign fuel. And my suggestion is stop complaining. For daily discretionary travel, drive less. Conserve. Walk more. Ride a bike. With the obesity epidemic what it is, that would take care of two national crises at the same time."