This letter is in response to the growing gas prices and growing complaints from the American people. It is time that the American people step up to the plate and stop driving big trucks, SUVs, Hummers and other gas-guzzling automobiles.

The simple solution to gas prices is to cut down demand/consumption. Anyone who has taken any kind of economics class should know that. I can understand that many people in the north country need to have trucks due to the business they are in, but there is a large majority of people who simply have a big truck or SUV as a status symbol of sorts.

I am really tired of listening to people cry about gas in the store, as their three-quarter-ton truck that gets about nine miles a gallon sits running in the parking lot. Or the truckers driving by the White House honking their horns for help from our government. Did we all forget this is a free-market system and this is democracy? The government is supposed to stay out of the private business sector.

I traded in my truck for a small car and am saving about $2,800 a year and obviously burning about half the gas I used to. Do I miss my truck, sure. But did I really need it? No. I borrow a truck when I have to haul stuff around or simply find another method.

Go to any other country in the world and see what they are driving, little cars and bikes. Do you think they choose this method of transportation? Please step up to the plate and start cutting down on your gas.

Michael R. White

Star Lake