A good friend recently expressed great offense to something I said in an online discussion of how the crisis in Ukraine has affected gasoline prices. I pointed out that our grandparents and great grandparents put up with rationed gas that they sometimes could not get at any price, and they did it to defeat Hitler. Then I said “Let’s not be snowflakes” and that really set my friend off. He launched into a long and impassioned indictment of President Biden’s energy policy, said that Ukraine is not World War III, and accused me of not caring about the average working American. After reminding him that I am an average working American who feels inflation as much as the next guy or gal, I asked him to let me explain myself and he did. My response was seen by Mike Ford, who asked me to make it an OpEd for AFNN. And so, dear readers, here is what I meant when I said we should not be snowflakes.
Full disclosure: I voted for Joe Biden, and for that many of my friends often take me to task, but that’s another story. The issue discussed here is the obscene rise in fuel prices, and I absolutely blame the Biden administration for most of it. The prices rose mostly because of Biden’s domestic energy policy. That is totally aside from the Ukraine issue. From Biden’s inauguration up until Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil were announced, the average gas price rose from about $2.25 to about $4.10. After sanctions were announced, it rose another fifteen cents or so and has now receded a bit. That means we are paying an extra $1.85/gallon because of Biden’s stupid energy policy, if it is blamed to be entirely on him, and I wouldn’t argue against that. That increase is baked in, Ukraine or no Ukraine. We are paying at most an extra 15 cents per gallon for the Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil. For my 16 gallon tank that’s $2.40 per fill-up. I’m happy to pay that to stop Vladimir Putin.
No, Ukraine is not WW III, as evidenced by the fact we do not have 3 million of our sons and daughters fighting in Europe–and I want to keep it that way. Poland in 1939 was not yet World War II, at least not for us. Had there been a way to stop Hitler in Poland there would not have been a World War II, or at least not then and not against Germany. Let us make no mistake. Putin wants to reclaim all of Eastern Europe, he will do it unless he is stopped, and he cannot be stopped without our great country’s strong involvement. There was no way to stop Hitler in Poland, but there is a way to stop Putin in Ukraine. A part of that way is to pay even a bit more for our already too expensive gas right now, and we need to do that.
I will complain right along with everyone else about the extra $1.85 per gallon that I have to pay. I have been known to mutter Let’s Go Brandon while filling my tank. When I say let’s not be snowflakes, I’m saying let’s not complain about the additional 15 cents. It’s a small price to pay now so we don’t end up paying later like our grandparents did in the last big European war—and so our sons and daughters don’t have to fight in another one.
Randy D. Johnson is a retired Baptist minister now residing in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He also retired from a 21-year career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A native of Minnesota, he is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and of the Morehouse School of Religion in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Ukraine was an after effect, when it comes to gas prices. I never thought of Ukraine as a cause, and I abhor the idea that Biden would even have gone and said it was the cause.
As to being snowflakes, no one should be being a snowflake, except those who can’t use their brain and all the information leading up to what did cause the prices going up.
I’d say it is a bit more than $1.85, but you made good points, and we are in this for whatever reason, with few options to reverse it.
Good op-ed, stick around!