World Without Oil 2

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Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 6:30 AM
To: wwo@worldwithoutoil.org
Subject: World Without Oil 2

It is a historic day around here. In the emergency town meeting, the mayor got 75% votes necessary to began what is known as “executive control” of the town. With this newly formed power, he’s allowed to cut through all the checks and balances and has the ability to pass direct law with out any referendums. This “privilege” is only going to last for 6 months or as long as the “emergency dictates”. This new overwhelming power scares the hell out of me and unfortunately I was part of the 23% of the people who voted against this. This is the first step down a slippery slop which leads to a dictator. We’re not even allowed to appeal this decision because the state appeals court is so backed up that they won’t be able to even look at the case until some time next year.

On the brighter side, the community is starting to bond together. People seem to be happy around here for the first time since I can remember. Everyone I’ve talked to say they feel say they are pleased with the changes. My parents even said they were considering moving back. Our community has been setting and accomplishing many goals. One such goal is to keep public use of gas down. Our gasoline usage is the lowest in the state in proportion to our population, which is a major accomplishment. My friend and I were joking the other day about how they should open a moped shop around here because it seems almost vital now, and sure enough King/Johnson Discount Mopeds had its grand opening yesterday. The acts of extreme violence rarely occurring anymore or at least if they are occurring they are not getting as much media exposure as in the past.

The police have been doing local raids on buildings and house they suspect are housing “terrorist organizations” aimed at extending the anarchy and chaos in our town. Some raids have included an old warehouse down by the pier, the basement of our college, and even a church. These reports about the raids were leaked to the press sometime last week and seem to be all they are talking about now. I was appalled at these reports but the media acts as though they were necessary; I guess it’s just business as usual for the media. A couple of key local activists against the mayor’s “executive control clause” where arrested and brought into custody in these raids. One of them was our local pastor. I’ve known the pastor my whole life and never in a million years would I suspect him to be a terrorist. I still can’t believe these accusations, to be true. Despite my uproar, most people in town think that I’m exaggerating and that I just too caught up in conspiracy theories.

The mayor is wasting no time in putting some of his new policies into action. Besides enlisting a larger police force to enforce earlier curfew (9:30 P.M.), the mayor has also put up check points on the entrances/exits of our town. The mayor explained that this is to monitor the traffic in and out of town to look for unusual suspects whom might mean harm to our community. Also, the government is now in complete control of the local farms. There isn’t very much variety around here but at least there are no food scares any more. The government stepped in and told the farmers exactly what to grow and not grow. They are now directly in charge of paying the farmers as well. The mayor set up an artificial price on the agricultural products making importing externally grown foods nearly impossible or at least not cost effective to do. I guess some of the big wigs in the capitol are taking notice to our fine little community because our governor and senators are make a special visit some time this week. I guess they are going to propose some of the mayor’s ideas in Washington to help out the nation. I can’t help but feel a little nervous on the amount of power the mayor around here has been getting and the fact he has no problem using it. I have this bad feeling that we as citizens have given up too much in order for safety. Is safety worth freedom?

-FatHead-Americano