vegetables are for eating

now is the time to say quite archly that the country should
eat its vegetables
and mean several related and useful things by it

the literal aspect of it is driven by the present rise in the cost of food
abetted by the fact that we pay people who grow it to turn it into something that
isn't food
what's worse
that something is fuel for that other insatiable american appetite
the automobile

of course ethanol is something of a white elephant as it is not efficient to produce
or very profitable if not for the rather hefty subsidies involved

who's to say if it's better than oil or not
come a time when we're out of oil it might be a good thing to be able to take corn
or switchgrass
and process it into fuel using cleaner energy

but the second half of this equation is the more figurative reading of
how to eat our vegetables
as a nation

right now
senators mccain and clinton
are both in favor of a so-called gas tax holiday
a reward for american consumers who have sacrificed so much

or to continue to abuse that metaphor
a thick slice of cake for the whiny kid
who pushed around the green beans on his plate
instead of eating them

whereas now is the best opportunity
when everyone's interests are aligned
to set the country to work on the apollo project-like
task of getting ourselves set to face the next century

instead of making it easier for everybody to limp along
and ignore the problem for another ten years

while carmakers and oil companies
continue to profit from our indolence
literal and figurative

we need someone with balls to grab the nation
by the scruff of its neck and say that it's time to change our habits
to maybe do without some stuff that we want and don't need
to say that sometimes doing great things is a hard thing for everybody and that
hard things require effort

effort
you may remember is something that requires work
as in it may create jobs
which are good

but doing hard things is not a way to get elected

getting elected is a short-term concern and that's why it's so tempting to promise short-term fixes

senator
don't let us leave the table until we're done