DON’T DRIVE SUNDAY
I want to suggest something I don’t know how to organize. Maybe somebody out there does.
How about a national Don’t-Drive Sunday?
Just stay at home for a day. If you skip 50 miles of driving, you’ll probably save $10 on gas plus whatever you would have spent when you got there. Use the money to pay down a credit card charging you 23% interest or a Sears account charging 33%.
A national Don’t-Drive Sunday would put a dent in Exxon Mobil’s obscene profits. Give Hugo Chavez, Dick Cheney, and some Arab princes pause for thought. Remind WalMart and other stores you don’t visit that day that they (and their lobbyists) have a stake in alternative fuels. Remind Congress we’ve seen through the $3+ gasoline and we know they’re in on the game.
Of course not everybody would, or even could, participate. It doesn’t matter. Even a 10% or 20% participation rate would save consumers at least a billion dollars and would rattle a lot of smug assumptions by people who think they were born to rule.
They do understand the language of money.
If consumers stay home, the jig is up. And a one-day consumer boycott now would remind them, there could be a much larger, longer, wider consumer strike in store.
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Uhmmmm … I’m thinking collection plates. Getthe reverends going, you got outrage.
Comment by David McFadden — May 19, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Well, Saturday is out. One of my best friends is a rabbi. What would Jesus do? The priests are nice to his mother, but they insist his wife was a prostitute. They won’t give the sacraments to pro-choice candidates. And they’re tax exempt. One Sunday’s handle won’t hurt them.
Comment by Al — May 19, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
Well, I didn’t drive today, but then I rarely do, so I can’t feel too virtuous. (about driving, that is) My husband drove himself to church, which isn’t very far, and we did go for a nice walk today, but to no purpose but exercise. It’s a good idea though!
Comment by Carol Galante — May 20, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
Great idea. Pick a date and we’ll walk. Pass this one around to you d-lists and see what happens. In the best tradition of people’s choice award aka democracy.
Comment by LindaNGriffin — May 21, 2007 @ 6:28 am
Why just one Sunday? Let’s try to start a movement and get it happening every Sunday! A similar idea has been implemented on the Web by a guy trying to get people to switch off of energy-inefficient incandescent bulbs … have a look at A Billion Bulbs.
Comment by Mark — May 21, 2007 @ 8:21 am
We posted this on DailyKos.com today and got a lot of comments, including some skepticism and a couple of alternative ideas. That’s the trouble with Democrats. They think too much.
Comment by Al — May 21, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
Ideas like this look good on paper – until you find yourself on a Sunday with somewhere you actually have to go. The best way to give the oil companies a jab in the economic eye is to get rid of this fucking anti-constitution administration and elect some decent Americans who will be in a position to tell the oil companies where to go … and where to send the windfall profits tax.
Comment by Steve Alber — May 22, 2007 @ 11:01 am
Right on! That might even force he oil companies to pay for their leases on public lands. This was just an idea for a small interim step, and nobody seemed able to get enthusiastic about it anyway. But there will be a massive consumer boycott. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, it will be caused by a recession or depression instead of voluntary civic initiatives.
Comment by Al — May 22, 2007 @ 11:29 am
Yeah, right; getting ‘Merkins to stop driving even for one day would be about as easy as getting them to give up Big Macs for a day. I don’t see it happening, but there may be a sneakier way to stick it to the ‘oil-igarchy.’
Do YOU believe the jive about ‘refinery repair’ being the reason behind current high gasoline prices? My jive-o-meter is red-lining. I propose a F#?K THIS JIVE, DRIVE 55 campaign where we go the speed limit–and not one mile over–all day, every day to cut down on fuel use. Think of the statement an Interstate full of vehicles poking along at 65–or 55–would make!
Comment by Joanne — May 23, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
No, Joanne, I don’t believe them either. It’s true there’s still some catching up to do from Katrina’s damage, but the fact is they haven’t built a refinery for three decades. Since they can’t control the supply/demand equation for oil, they do it for gasoline, creating scarcity to drive up prices. So when oil went down to $10/bbl in the 1990s, gasoline prices made no comparable plunge. As for 55 mph, that would do it, but it’s just as hard as the Big Mac habit — especially when at 55 you can’t even keep up with Joanne on her bicycle.
Comment by Al — May 23, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
We’ve got you covered. Our second year of “protest” kicks off with our Don’t Drive On Sunday campaign on Sunday, June 17, 2007. It’s time that consumers take some of the responsibility for the spiraling demand on gasoline. And sacrificing a holiday such as Father’s Day makes an important statement. After all, a Father’s responsibility is to secure the future for our children, and what a better example than to stay at home and park the car on a day that already has significant meaning.
Comment by Patrick Rule — May 24, 2007 @ 5:28 am
It works for me. We’ll do it. If it were Mother’s Day instead of Father’s day, though, there could be a mighty backlash.
PS: We didn’t realize you’ve been pushing this idea for a while. I just checked your site. Good show!
Comment by Al — May 24, 2007 @ 12:54 pm