Has anyone noticed that gasoline prices are rising so fast that no one seems to notice the stock market is crashing at a scary rate or that soon you will need a mortgage to buy a week’s worth of groceries?

Without a doubt most of the blame for this falls to the horrendous situation in Ukraine. We have a bon-a-fide nutcase in charge of Russia and he is wreaking havoc with the world economy.

Some people are shouting “turn the pipeline back on” but those ill-informed people don’t realize “it” was never on. In fact it was only 8% completed before the Keystone Pipeline was officially stopped. We believe it should have been completed, but realistically that would have taken several more years, so it would not have helped with this crisis.

The fact is that unleashing each and every option available for producing alternatives to not using foreign oil, such as taking the restrictions off of oil drilling and coal mining, would take years to have serious impact.

Being self-sufficient should be a goal of every household, every community and each state, and a matter of national pride. Is ot 100% possible? Most likely not, but we can always do better.

One of Pennsylvania residents’ biggest complaints is always the high gas tax placed on fuel consumption versus what most perceive the condition of the roads that we continue to finance, including the turnpikes.

This may very well be the perfect time for Gov. Wolf to actually do something right, do something non-partisan and, dare we say, popular with the residents — at least temporarily cut the state gas tax in half, or even more, until the prices get back down to more reasonable levels.

Will it hurt the state treasury and limit the money going into other targeted collection boxes, such as the state police funding? Yes it will, but we have been printing money at alarming rates for everything else for two years now, so why not ease the burden on passenger-car drivers, as well as the trucks that keep the nation supplied with all our perishable goods.

The only reason anyone would oppose it would be if it is proposed by the rival political party. New day, same problem — politics stink and so does any politician who puts party in front of the good of the people.

Drop the state tax on fuel immediately or explain why not. Gov. Wolf is a lame duck, but the rest should answer for their slow or no reaction to this crisis.

— RV