Bob McCarty Writes

Last night, a frequent-flying relative of mine forwarded an e-mail he had received that contained “An Open Letter to All Airline Customers” signed by 12 airline CEOs. I replied to his message, but wasn’t satisfied with my response. Today, thanks to Hugh Hewitt, I’ve found better words to express my opinion.

After reading that letter (right), I replied to my relative’s comment — “I believe their summary of why oil prices are skyrocketing” — with these words:

“I’m inclined to believe it if only because Southwest’s big guy signed on to it. My fear, however, is that big government will use any precedence they set regarding the oil industry to attach untold regulations to other businesses and industries. That scares me more than rising gas prices.”

Not satisfied with my response, I found this morning that Hugh Hewitt had crafted and published a letter on his Townhall.com blog in response to the airline CEOs. For the most part, I find myself in agreement with his letter, snippets of which appear below:

Dear Airline Execs:

How spineless. You want me to help you complain to Congress about “speculation,” but you quiver at the prospect of speaking truth to the Congress about the need for immediate, increased domestic exploration and drilling. If you are really concerned about your businesses, employees and especially your customers, you’ll send a second e-mail that bluntly demands drilling on the outer continental shelf immediately. If Congress put together a crash program to increase domestic supplies and backed it overwhelmingly, the speculative fury you wrote me about would dissolve overnight.

..and four paragraphs later…

Don’t send me pleas to contact Congress on your behalf if you lack the courage to speak the plain truth to the democratic leadership in the House and Senate: We need oil to fly, and we need to get it from wherever it is. Now.

Send another letter to Congress. Tell them to allow drilling on the outer continental shelf. Now. Right now. Then you might get some respect from your customers.

Sincerely,

A Very Frequent Passenger

Read Mr. Hewitt’s entire letter here and see if you agree with it as well.