Tired of getting gouged at the pumps.

Hurricane Ike has just passed over Texas and instead of a sigh of relief, we're left with record gas prices by greedy and unsympathetic oil companies. Their only concern is the color of money. They don't care if families have lost everything because of Hurricane Ike, all they care about is their bottom line on how much profit they can make of this disaster.

Even before the Hurricane hit the Texas coast, these oil companies were already bracing themselves for record profits with Hurricane Ike. It's like they were saying to themselves come on baby, "hit them up high", so we can charge these suckers whatever we want. I mean their favorite person must be W.C. Fields, as they're definitely using his favorite line. "Never give a sucker an even break." And believe me the oil companies out there live up to that every day.

With crude oil at a record low, these massive oil giants still manage to squeeze the average consumer out of whatever little extra money they fight have. No wonder oil stock prices are at an all time high and oil company C.E.O.'s are literally laughing all the way to the bank everyday, especially when a natural disaster like Hurricane Ike hits. That gives them the perfect excuse to blame the outrageous gasoline prices on supply and demand. The only thing they can't explain or don't want to explain is when crude oil is trading at just above one hundred dollars a barrel, how can you justify the prices we're still paying at the pumps? One simply explanation is sheer greed on the part of the oil companies, no matter how they try to shift the blame or explain themselves, the bottom line is this, a five letter word, profit.

Which brings us to what's happening now. Living in Toronto, gas prices jumped a whopping 12 cents a litre on Friday night to $1.36 a litre, by Saturday it was $1.38, what's it going to be on Sunday $1.40? Why not make it $1.50, or $1.60. It doesn't matter cause we're going to pay it like the fools we are, and that same thing goes for our American neighbors who we're hit with $5.00 a gallon prices. I mean when is this all going to end? This sheer price gouging by the big oil corporations that seems to have a monopoly all across North America, and especially in Canada.

The majority of our gasoline in Canada is controlled by the big four. Petro-Canada, E.S.S.O. (which is Exxon/Mobil), Shell, and Sunoco, with the Irvings, Chevron and Ultramar playing a role in some provinces, but not in Ontario itself. In the United States the major oil players are Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, Texaco/Chevron, and Conoco-Phillips. These corporations literally control the gasoline flow and dictate what you'll be paying at the pumps. There excuse for higher gas prices is the refineries, it's always the refineries to blame, well if your a major oil company you gotta say something and refineries sound like a really good way of getting your point across, plus we as consumers buy it lock, stock and barrel and just complain but don't do anything about it.

There are people out there, especially the naysayers that laugh at the thought of a group of dedicated individuals trying to save a Disney animated show like Kim Possible, and American Dragon, Jake Long. They mock the efforts of the Jericho fans out there who just won't give up on fighting for what they want and believe in and scoff at the attempts of Moonlight fans who have hunkered in to save their show from disappearing forever. Even the media themselves ignore this cause. Now were was I getting with this and what does it have to do with gasoline? Well it has everything to do with gasoline and why you're getting gouged at the pumps. Unless your willing to stand up and fight to make your voice heard and be willing to stand up and make a stand for something you know has to be changed, nothing will change at all. The same goes for those fighting to save their shows. By standing up to the big corporations like Disney, and CBS, these fans are demonstrating to these powerful corporations that they've had enough of business as usual. They've had enough of studios and network heads making all the decisions for them as to how long they can watch their favorite program and when they have to go on and watch some other crap that Disney or CBS has decided to put on to replace their favorite shows. These fans have had enough of being studio and network executives puppets and are standing up to fight the powers that be and show the studios and network executives that they can't just get away with everything they want so easily anymore.

Now that same attitude is what we all need to have together if we're ever going to get these oil corporations to stop price gouging us and stop considering us to be run of the mill suckers that they can do with whatever they want. We need to stand up and be heard and most of all we need to hit them where it hurts them the most, their profit margin. We need to take a chapter out of Disney's Kim Possible. Nothing is impossible for a possible, and all of us here are possibles, we just don't know it, or haven't realized it yet. If we all stick together and lobby the giant oil companies and most of all hit our politians where it hurts.

There's a general election in both the United States and Canada. Both John McCain and Barack Obama are fighting for the white house, meanwhile Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, and Jack Layton are all fighting for Parliament. It's time we seriously lobbied each of these candidates on what there going to do about big oil companies and there record profits, as well as the price gouging of the average worker to the point of sheer . I mean we already work basicly for rent or mortgage, food, car insurance and gasoline which takes a huge chunk out of our pockets and now it's taking out even more to the point where we have to decide whether to eat, or buy gasoline for our cars. Some choice eh?  

Now I'm not against big oil companies making a profit, what I am against is there heartless consideration of a situation like Hurricane Ike. People in Texas and the surrounding areas have suffered enough, they don't need to be hit by record gas prices all because some rich fat cats have decided that they need even more money to buy that new third or fourth yacht they really don't need at the expense of others. Oil companies need to finally take responsibility for their actions and realize what there doing to the average consumer and how there hurting families. And if they choose not to care, then it's time we made them care. We're the consumers who are getting hardest hit by all this. It's time we stood up and lobbied our local congress, and especially the candidates in this years elections. It's time we lobbied the media, and if the media refuses to listen to us, like they mostly do, seeing they also side with big business, case in point when it comes to fans asking for media's help to write articles about their cause, and the media just ignores them flat out.

We can make a difference and we can financially hurt even these big oil companies by simply being smart and working together as a collective. We don't need to completely fill up our tanks, half way is more then enough. We can simply stop buying anything else at a gas station, (as gas stations make their profits off other items such as sodas, magazines, lotto tickets, cigarettes, etc) just gas and that's it. We can constantly write to the gasoline giants and tell them that there practice is unacceptable to us as consumers, and that we want fair prices for fuel and not be gouged at the pumps like there doing right now with Hurricane Ike. We can choose one gas station such as let's say ESSO and use that same station for the entire month. Then next month we choose a Shell station for the entire month, the month after that a Petro Canada station, by diverting our funds to one station alone for each month, we can hurt all the other stations in the pocket book where it counts. (the same can be done even better in the United States as there's more gasoline stations there, then in Canada). Eventually our efforts will be felt one way or another. Especially with a letter writing campaign to all the big oil stations letting them know that we're fed up and we're not going to take it anymore. But as with everything just like the fans fighting to save their shows, it all starts with you! Whether your willing to stand up and make a difference, or just continue on with things as they are and vent and complaint. The choice is perfectly up to you.