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Published Wednesday, October 01, 2008 in Opinion
There's fear in the air
When you have to wait in line for 20 minutes to buy gas, and then pay $4.50 per gallon for the privilege, you want someone to blame.
I guess you can blame my wife.
She called me at work on a Friday two weeks ago, just as Hurricane Ike was closing in.
"Have you heard about the gas shortage?" she asked me.
"What about it?"
"Make sure you go fill up when you get off from work today," she said. "Everyone's saying the hurricane is going to wipe out the refineries!"
When I got off the phone, I asked my news editor, Ellen, if she had heard anything about a possible gas shortage.
"First I've heard of it," she said.
"Well apparently they're talking about it at my wife's workplace," I said. She put Sarah Faye on the story, to see if there was any truth to the rumor.
"And while you're at the station," I told Sarah Faye, "you might want to go ahead and top off your tank."
The rest of the newsroom got the word, too, and ... well, do you remember that old TV commercial for Faberge organic shampoo, with "pure wheat germ oil and honey"? Some lady liked it so much that she told two friends, and then they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on ...
Yeah, I think it kinda happened like that. Not just in the newsroom, but all over town.
Ever heard the term "self-fulfilling prophecy"? Just listen to our governor, Sonny Perdue. He'll tell you all about it.
And it's not just gasoline. There's fear in the air. You can smell it everywhere you go. It's why people believe rumors about gas shortages in the first place. And if enough people believe it, what do you know? It suddenly becomes true.
Funny thing, fear. Wikipedia defines it as "an emotional response to threats and danger" -- a basic survival mechanism that occurs in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or "the threat of pain." It can make normally rational, perfectly nice people suddenly downright ugly to one another. If you don't think it's happening here, pay a little closer attention to how people are treating one another in the gas pump lines.
I was standing in line at a gas station near my house. A lady comes in with a desperate look.
"The pump," she told the man at the cash register. "It's just dripping. There's no gas!"
I had already laid down my $20 for gas at another pump at the far end of the station.
"You'll have to get in line behind this gentleman," the cashier said, pointing to me. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but we're running low. We're almost out. I believe his pump is the only one with any gasoline. There isn't much left."
Like I said, I had already laid down my $20. I was trying to "top off," to get me through a couple of days. Like most folks, I'm scared I'm going to get caught up short, and run out. Like the lady behind me was obviously about to do.
Suddenly I remembered that scene from one of my favorite movies, "It's a Wonderful Life." George Bailey is about to leave town with his new bride to go on their honeymoon. But they notice the crowd gathering outside his Savings & Loan.
"Don't look now," says the driver, "but there's something funny going on over there at the bank, George! I've never really seen one, but that's got all the earmarks of being a run."
"Uh-oh," says George, trying to calmly assess the situation. His wife pleads with him not to go back to the S & L, but he knows he must.
"Now just remember that this isn't as black as it appears," George Bailey tells everyone as they wait anxiously in the teller lines to withdraw savings.
"Now you're thinking about this place all wrong, as if I had the money back in a safe," he tells the fear-stricken customers. "Your money's not here. Well, your money's in Joe's house, that's right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house and in Mrs. Maitlin's house, and a hundred others. You're lending them the money to build, and then they're going to pay you back as best they can. Now what are you going to do, foreclose on them?"
One customer comes forth and says he's entitled to his money, and "$242 isn't going to break anybody."
"We can get through this thing all right," Bailey assures them. "But we've got to stick together. We've got to have faith in each other."
But one has medical bills, and another has a sick husband. They need their money, and they want it now. It doesn't look like there's going to be enough to go around, which will put the Savings & Loan out of business. But then George's wife offers up their honeymoon money.
"How much do you need?" she says. It's just $2,000, but it's all they have."
The first man wants his full amount $242 and to close his account. The next two customers say they'll take just $20, which should "tide them over until the bank re-opens."
The third customer, an elderly lady, thinks hard for a minute.
"Could I have $17.50?" she asks.
George Bailey reaches over the counter and gives her a kiss.
"Bless your heart," he says, "of course you can have $17.50."
So the cashier asks me again how much gas I want.
I glance at my $20 on the counter and then again at that look of desperation in the eyes of the woman behind me.
"I'll take $5," I say.
And that got me home to my wife.
Who, despite what I may have said here, is almost certainly not the only one to blame.
Jeff Bishop
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