Once upon a time, there was a farmer named Sam. Sam owned and operated a huge farm. The farm was so vast and rich with stock and other resources that it was the third largest farm in the world. Sam’s huge farm had dairy cows, poultry, sheep, and lots of vegetation. He could grow his own food and even knit his own clothes. He had not only enough resources to take care of everyone who lived on his land but was able to trade what was left to the supermarket chain that had a store not far away.

Sam had a very large extended family. Being a fair man, Sam tried to incorporate everyone’s opinions in the way that he operated the farm. Over the course of time, some members of Sam’s family began to have strong objections to the way he ran the family business.

Some thought that Sam had no business milking the cows. They thought that to continue doing so was disruptive to the serenity that the cows enjoyed while grazing on the land. They also thought that the automatic milking machines were too noisy and that the system caused too much waste to be spread on the pasture. Even though Sam’s family liked to drink milk, Sam honored the request and stopped milking. He decided they could afford to buy milk for the family from the supermarket.

As soon as this decision was reached, some others in the family told Sam that they didn’t like the idea of continuing to farm chicken. They feared that the drainage wasn’t adequate and that it was difficult to protect the chicken from predators. They didn’t like the mess they created and feared the possibility of catastrophe that could happen with birds - such as the outbreak of the Avian flu that they heard about. Although Sam’s family loved eggs and could supply their own needs and the needs of others with the poultry farming, Sam again relented. They allowed the chicken population to die down and did not continue to grow more. Instead, they ate more cheese instead. And to get the cheese - like other milk products, they now needed to buy more from the supermarket down the road.

Sam’s family had a lot of specific concerns that, while valid in some ways, limited his ability to use the resources on his farm. Some didn’t like the idea of picking too many vegetables (the cattle needed them). Others didn’t like the idea of shearing the sheep for clothing (didn’t like the usage of the shearing board). And even though they had many opportunities to start farming different types of stock and livestock, they refused because they were able to get by with what they were doing at the moment.

Eventually, Sam was no longer able to sell anything to the supermarket chain but needed to buy a lot from them instead. And what’s worse is that, instead of scaling back on what they ate and wore, Sam’s family just bought more and more, eating and buying as much as they wanted because the prices weren’t bad.

The managers of the supermarket chain, not being able to buy from Sam, needed to get their supplies from other farms that were a lot further away. Those farms charged a markup and increased their prices as they realized the supermarket chain kept buying more and more. And to make as much money as possible, the supermarket chain also added a markup of their own. Eventually, the dairy products that once were pretty cheap at the store started to become unaffordable for Sam. Sam’s family couldn’t eat or wear as much as they were accustomed to. And they quickly became furious at the supermarket chain.

They accused the chains of being greedy and getting rich off of their misery. They blamed everybody that they could think of. And while the supermarket chain and the faraway farms certainly were guilty of some element of greed, Sam’s family refused to understand that they weren’t doing everything they could do to help themselves. It was all somebody else’s fault.

Sam’s family found itself in danger of going hungry and not having enough to wear. But they still were hoping that eventually, the greedy supermarket people would show them some mercy and make the price of the milk - the milk they chose to buy instead of producing themselves - affordable again.

In case you haven’t figured it out already, the Sam mentioned above is Uncle Sam, the government of the United States of America. In our great democracy, we allow everyone to have a voice and to fight for the things that concern them. However, some people here have worked very hard to limit the ways we can use our own resources to produce more of our own energy instead of buying it from the global market. Others have just been lazy and complacent and haven’t worked hard to find new forms of energy. And meanwhile, most of us have refused to conserve and use only the energy that we need to use. We keep consuming more and more. We are Sam’s family.

There’s certainly plenty of blame to go around in the “supermarket” - the oil companies, the speculators, the foreign governments that are selling us their oil. But, like Sam’s family, we don’t have as much right to shake an angry fist at others as we think - until we’ve done all that we can do to help ourselves.

Let’s tell our elected officials that while we’re on the hunt for greedy bad guys, we also have to do everything we can to work our own farm. After all, this country is the third biggest farm in the world.

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.

“The Values Voter”