LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: WORKERS MUST GUARD AGAINST HIGH-COST FUEL

To the editor:

I want to thank you for the editorial cartoon on major oil companies and alternative fuels that was published a few days ago. That prompted me to write this message for workers who have to drive to work.

You have had two wake-up calls. The Arabs cut back supplies, and you paid $1 a gallon for gas. Recently the Arabs did it again, and some of you paid over $2 a gallon. The third time will be the final time unless you take action now.

What will it profit you to have a $100,000 home, a $20,000 car and a $30,000-a-year job if you can't go to work? Your work place would have to close. The farmer wouldn't be able to plant a crop. And if he managed to plant a crop, he wouldn't be able to harvest it nor get it to the processing plant nor deliver it to the stores. It would be disastrous for the entire country.

What does it take to motivate you? Another Pearl Harbor? Please think and do something. We have a great supply of corn, a surplus to make ethanol fuel. I implore you to please call, write or e-mail your senators and representatives and ask them to stop all of those huge giveaways and grants to foreign countries and to build ethanol plants in corn-growing sections. Charity begins at home. Inform your elected officials that our future depends on what they do about this.

When this happens, and with our own oil wells, we can cut down our dependence on Arab oil. The Arabs will no longer be in the driver's seat and be able to tell us what we have to pay. Please consider what I have said, and I implore you to do something about it now.

DEAN LOFTIN

Olive Branch, Ill.