In an airport the other day, I overheard a man talking on his cellphone with someone in his family, "I've left you money for food and gas." Strange, I thought - the two "necessities"....

People's memories are short-lived when it comes to oil. Prices shoot up from $50 a barrel to $ 70, and the media generates a panic. Then a month later, they are celebrating "cheap oil" and the stock market jumps when prices "plummet" to $ 60. When prices at the pump jump from $ 2.00 a gallon to $3.50 there's talk of a coming depression; and then they talk of "cheap gas" when the price drops to $ 2.50.

Behind all of this, sooner or later Americans will pay for this oil addiction through a steady decline of middle-class purchasing power. Our increasing reliance on oil and gas poses economic, geopolitical and environmental dangers to the country.

Clearly oil money funds anti-American regimes and even terrorism. Beyond that fact, a dramatic price rise could quickly put this country into recession. The status quo energy policy promoted by the current administration is simply not enough. But who cares?

Again, America needs leaders - now!