Gasoline prices

Why are gasoline prices so high? Supply and demand? Oilmen in the White House? Lack of refinery capacity? Not yet drilling in ANWR?

I think it’s a lot simpler than that.

Do you really think it was a coincidence that the lowest price for gasoline for the entire year of 2006 was the day before Election Day?

Were you surprised that gas prices fell an average of 80 cents a gallon between August 2006 and November 2006?

If you were surprised, then you may not understand the very simple reason that gas prices are now about $3.50 a gallon.

An artificially high price plateau is being established from which the prices will fall before Election Day this year. That will enable Republicans to pretend that they’ve done something for the consumer by helping to bring down prices.

The Republicans and their rich friends in the oil industry are playing the American people for chumps.

Would you like to bet that prices drop to under $3 a gallon by Nov. 4, 2008?

David Johnson,

Denton

High gas prices

I recently read an article stating that Canada has the second-largest oil reserves in the world.

Canada has a large population of caribou. How do the Cana­dians retrieve all of their oil without harming the caribou?

I wonder if all those overly concerned environmentalists are overly concerned about the price of a gallon of gasoline today. Probably not, because they don’t work or don’t have to drive to work.

Is Congress concerned about the price of gasoline? No, because members want us to drive less and think higher prices help achieve that goal. I don’t think they realize there is a correlation between people working and the tax revenue they take from the taxpayers.

If they don’t get enough, they will just raise the rate and make up any deficit they see.

When will the taxpayer say, “Enough!”?

Dennis Morse,

Denton     

Keep the CSA statue

The statue of a Confederate soldier downtown is a memorial to men who fought to defend their homes and families against invaders. Soldiers were unselfish then, just as they are now.

The real cause of the Civil War was the same as the war in Iraq: Corporations were trying to protect their access to raw materials, and they used whatever excuses were available.

Slavery did not end after the Civil War. The corporations merely moved it overseas, where they could deny it.

When $100 shoes are made by Asians who make 20 cents an hour, then are endorsed by rich celebrities and sold by rich CEOs, did slavery end?

The same people who talked about slavery were speculating in cotton on Wall Street.

Whether in the 1860s or the present day, soldiers represent the best in society. We lose soldiers in Iraq because they try not to take lives. This stands in contrast to the manipulation and selfishness of the people who start wars but don’t have to fight them.

Leave the statue alone.

Rocky A. Mooney,

Denton

We are found wanting

Well, I’ve known for a long time that the DRC was in dire need of a few good reporters and an experienced editor.

If the DRC wasn’t parroting the news items of our neighbor to the southeast, it was finding two-day-old news to fill the empty space in its pages.

But, today’s headline (April 30) trumpeting the earthshaking news that nothing is going to change [“Address to stay the same,” Page 1A] really takes the cake.

Didn’t you think that the Yankees winning at Gettysburg was exciting enough?

Joseph Sanders,

Aubrey