But for Western ingenuity, we'd still be riding horses

I got mad at the Saudi government after the attack on 9/11 for not working to investigate the incident and purge radicals from their midst. As they say the silence was deafening.

I wonder what the repercussions would have been if 15 American citizens had flown aircraft into, say, Beijing high-rises in China.

The best thing that would benefit America is for gas to go to $20 a gallon forcing the country to alternative fuels and means of transportation. We wouldn't suffer long. Entrepreneurs would be in their garages working on efficient batteries to power our vehicles. Corporation capitalists would turn their attention from developing new cell phone rings to get us to work and the grocery store.

If it weren't for American and Western European technology the rest of the world would be riding horses, eating by candlelight and using carrier pigeons.

I don't think the Mideast nations like us; I don't think Venezuela likes us. And were it not for their oil fields they would be of no more value to us than some lost tribe in the rain forest.

As far as the future our kids are pretty smart. We are cleaning up pretty well after the industrial revolution and have reaped the benefits that arose from it. Our grandchildren will probably dig up all that nuclear waste we've got buried out west and attach it to some type of space elevator or find a way to neutralize it.

I would rather they tackle those problems than patronize people who consider them infidels.

KEMP LOY
Burlington