Monday Musings

Dodge is off to a great 2008 season by winning the Great American Race – the Daytona 500. The new car (COT) made its debut at Daytona and the 2008 NASCAR season is off and running. And how about Toyota? Dodge placed first and second (Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch), but Toyota placed 3rd and 4th (Tony Steward and Kyle Busch)! Not bad for their second year in NASCAR.

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Gasoline prices have soared up again. I bought gas early last week (Monday or Tuesday) for $2.70 a gallon; by Saturday the same station was at $2.85 per gallon. We worry about stimulating the economy, and yet there are people who cannot afford to buy gas to get to work! The divide between the haves and have-nots grows every day. As one who definitely was on the “have” side a few years ago, but is now closer to the “have-not” side (life as a middle-aged student is definitely a different tax bracket than we were used to), this is pretty obvious. For most of us, we cannot see it. As long as our economic situation does not change, we think the world is OK. What happens, though, when your job depends on you having a car (because our public transportation is inadequate) and you cannot come up with gas money, on top of groceries and car insurance, and the other necessities of life? No – we do not have and are not guaranteed the “right to drive” in this country, but then, we make it so hard for those who need other options. Our streets are not pedestrian friendly, we only have bike lanes in the “nice” neighborhoods, and we as drivers do not show the proper respect to our neighbors on foot, or bicycles or mopeds – we just want them to get out of our way so we can get to where we are going. We even complain about the public transportation that we do have – busses that stop in front of us and block our travel lane. We even complain about the small percentage of our taxes that are used to support public transportation, and yet, most of us are not willing to car-pool or offer a ride to someone standing at a bus stop.

As a Lenten discipline, maybe we could just try being nicer while driving. No road rage, no yelling at other drivers, and maybe, just maybe, give the right-of-way to a pedestrian or bicyclist once in a while. If you are in a great mood, offer a ride to someone who is struggling to carry their groceries down the street.

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Tornadoes again – more tornadoes so far this winter than most of us remember in a long time. We offer prayers for those in Florida and Alabama, struck by tornadoes yesterday. May God bring you peace, and comfort you in your loss, and bring you volunteers who will help, and pray, and become a part of your life as you rebuild and repair.

If you wish to help out, contact your local Red Cross, or Lutheran Disaster Response, or check with any member organization of VOAD.