My Response to Russian Sanctions

I will try to not complain about gas prices. Yes they are absurdly high. Unless I consider the worldwide network of oil commodities I won’t comprehend why this is happening. I could have the tendency to blame Big Oil for gouging us. Yet I try not to be insular, paranoid. The price of gas is the result of a vast embargo on Russian oil, and that is it.

I see pictures and read stories of indiscriminate mayhem in Ukraine caused by Russian bombs. Evidently the coup they expected has become a protracted siege. And I see and read about the rapid, vast, thorough response of the West to wage a sanctions war against Russia. Rather than engaging militarily countries are hitting where it hurts, in the pocketbook. Russia’s biggest export, oil and gas, is finding fewer customers.

I would love to help settle Ukrainian refugees in my city. I would love to provide temporary housing for some fleeing soul. I doubt I can, though. Any money I can spare to aid organizations seems like a drop in a vast ocean of need. But what I can do is pay high gas prices.

I will fill my vehicle with fuel at an absurdly high price and I will do it willingly and gladly. I will not complain. I will participate in the embargo at the gas pump and do it cheerfully. Each additional penny, dollar I pay is my contribution to fighting this ghastly war. It is my tithe. It is my solidarity.