Petition to President Bush to Lower Gas and Diesel Prices in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina–Grass Roots Effort!
Summary of eRumor:
This is a petition for you to add your name to and forward to others.
After 2000 names, it is to be sent to President Bush asking him and Congress to lower gas and Diesel prices in the U.S.
This was in response to the rising gas and diesel prices after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina along the U.S. Gulf Coast and it’s affect on the U.S. oil industry.
The Truth:
This is a grass roots effort that was started by someone somewhere who thought it would be a good idea.
It reflects the frustration over spikes of gas and diesel prices after Hurricane Katrina and at a time when gas and diesel prices were already at historic highs.
Efforts like this feel powerful to many people because of the knowledge that petitions have accomplished a lot of change from time to time in our democratic culture.
Emails like this one, however, are not effective and for several reasons.
Normally, a petition has significance because it represents people who registered voters and who have authenticated their participation by providing a signature and address that can be verified.
An email petition that simply has names listed on it is virtually meaningless because anybody who wanted to take the time could fabricate a list of names and send it to a government office or elected official.
There is no way of validating that the names listed are real people and that they signed on to the petition.
Another problem with this kind of petition is that it relies someone along the way to be responsible for sending it to the intended ultimate destination, which doesn’t often happen.
The best thing to do when you want elected officials to hear your opinion is to find the email address, fax, or phone number for their offices and communicate to those offices directly using your own name and contact information.
A third problem with this particular petition is that rises and drops in oil and gas prices are the result of complex factors both internationally and locally and it doesn’t always mean that your local gas station or the oil company it works with is making a killing financially.
The rise in prices after the Hurricane were affected by the very real factors such as a severe disruption in American oil production.