By Staff
My patience with gas prices is running on empty.
Driving by one station in Niles one morning this week, the price of regular unleaded was $2.15 per gallon. An hour later, I drove by again, and it was down to $1.98 per gallon. At the end of the day, I passed by this station yet again, and it was back up to $2.03.
Now, I know the station didn't receive three new truckloads of gas that one day, meaning what the station paid for the regular unleaded gas it was selling to its customers hadn't changed. So, why the drastic swing in prices?
Don't give me the supply and demand story. That theory stinks to high heaven. I don't think the supply and demand dynamics changed for that Niles gas station twice during that one day this week.
The truth is, we're all just puppets and our strings are being manipulated by oil companies who are making obscene profits and are in cahoots to artificially inflate gasoline prices. As consumers, our short-term recourse is very limited.
I'm all for capitalism. Heck, I'm one of its cheerleaders. But oil companies and their ungodly tax breaks have positioned themselves far outside the boundaries of fair competition and our elected representatives have allowed it all to happen.
What we can do in the long term is demand that those who represent us take away the legislation that is allowing oil company executives to dangle consumers at the end of their pricing strings.
I love visiting our neighbor to the north, Dowagiac. Next weekend, we all have a great reason to do just that.
Dowagiac's 11th Annual Ice Time Festival is Saturday, Feb. 3, an event hosted by the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce.
I hope the weather for Dowagiac's ice festival is better than ours was in Niles. However, despite bitter cold and a steady drizzle of ice, Niles' event was well attended. I'm hoping for cold but sunny weather for Dowagiac next weekend.
The highlight of Ice Time, of course, is the competition of carving 440-pound blocks of ice into life-size sculptures. But the event includes much more. I'm looking forward to the Chili Crawl. Five Dowagiac restaurants – Woodfire, Zekes, Beeson Street Bar and Grill, Wounded Minnow and The Eagles – will compete in a chili-cooking competition.
We get to be judges and cast ballots for the best on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To participate, simply visit each of these five places during the day, sample their chili and vote. Now that sounds like a great winter's day!
Our community is going to miss having Muhammad Ali and his family among us as residents. In addition to the many public contributions the boxing great made to Niles – too numerous to mention here – we will never know the many contributions and donations the Ali family made anonymously.
We wish them the very best in their new Arizona home and trust they will always keep a part of southwest Michigan in their hearts.