I read the article by Bill Van Auken entitled, "US Senate feigns outrage over big oil’s windfall proits published on 10 November 2005.

Bill Van Auken's observations are astute and precise. It is an excellent article and i wish more writers would take up the pen and tell it like it is.

However, there is one aspect of the high gas prices which he -- and most journalists -- fail to address.

To begin with, in our contemporary society gas is an indispensable commodity which you and I absolutely need to conduct daily life. It is not a luxury. Without gas most of us couldn't get into our cars and go do the grocery shopping, for example. We would starve to death, to put it lightly!

We have become exceedingly dependent on our automobiles and our trucks. If millions of Americans have chosen to live far from city or town centers where food and other essential, life-sustaining  commodities are available through retailers, it is because we rely on our cars to take us there when the need arises. And this need arises on a daily basis.

Gas for our cars, therefore, is a life-sustaining necessity, an essential and vital requirement to  help maintain us alive and in relatively good health. Were it not for gas we'd have to go back to  the horse and buggy. This is unthinkable in today's world!

Bill Van Auken concludes with this statement: "....the testimony that was elicited made a strong  case for a necessary measure that neither Democrats or Republicans will advocate, much less carry  out: the nationalization of the energy industry so that it can be run under public ownership and  control in the interest of the entire population."

Bravo! This is exactly what is needed in this country. Such commodities as gas, real estate (homes),  and anything that is vital to existence must be regulated by an intelligent and wise government  whose interest is the safety, health and happiness of its citizens. As it stands, however, our  entire economy is based on capitalism of the worst sort, and this current gas crisis proves it.  Large conglomerates do as they please and gouge innocent people right before their very eyes while  our government -- the people who are supposed to look out for us -- stand idly by and do nothing  whatsoever to alleviate the hardships imposed by capitalistic motives.

It is my hope that more ordinary citizens like myself get involved in raising their voices in  protest against large corporations that take advantage of their position as suppliers of  life-sustaining commodities to a helpless public. It is injustice itself to have to be subjected to  the capitalistic whims of a handful of corporations that care only for their own pocketbooks and not  for the benefit of the very consumers who are the cause of their existence.

JLA
California