WASHINGTON, DC — At a Shell gas station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.
"Last
week, this station was 3.51 dollars. Now it’s practically 3.60. So it’s
gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars’
worth of gas into his thirsty American car.
"Someone’s
making a lot of money and it’s really, really wrong," added Twyman, who
founded the Prayer at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a
higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in
Washington haven’t.
The half-dozen activists —
Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction
company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen — joined hands,
bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.
"Lord,
come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down
these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens."
"Prayer
is the answer to every problem in life… We call on God to intervene
in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices
high," Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of
Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.
"Lord,
the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you
are able, that you have all the power in the world," he prayed, before
former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version
of the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome".
"We’ll have lower gas prices, we’ll have lower gas prices…" they sang.
At
the weekend, Twyman had led a group of around 200 people in prayer at
pumps in San Francisco, where gas is touching the four-dollars-a-gallon
mark.
On Thursday, US lawmakers and experts at a
congressional hearing on Capitol Hill painted a grim picture of how
Americans are being hammered by record fuel costs and the steepest food
price spikes in 17 years.
"We pay more to drive to
the supermarket, and then get hit with higher prices when we get
there," Senator Charles Schumer told the hearing.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said Americans have been forced by soaring prices to go on a "recession diet".
"In
some areas of the country, people are paying four dollars for both a
gallon (3.79 liters) of milk and a gallon of gas," and are substituting
meats, fish and vegetables with lower-cost pasta and canned foods,
Maloney said.
On the forecourt of the Washington
Shell station, retiree Rufus Simpkin was feeling the pain at the pump
and praying for relief.
"I’m having to spend much more on gas, and I am retired," he told AFP.
"It is really hitting me and my family hard."
Marcia
Frazier-Foster was filling up her car for the long drive home to
Laurel, a suburb from which she commutes 35 miles (53 kilometers), four
days a week to work in a Washington soup kitchen, serving a hot meal to
scores of men who have fallen on tough times.
"The
cost of food has gone up… quantities we get from the food bank have
gone down. The cost at the gas station has gone up and that means I
spend more money to get here," she said after joining the prayer for
gas prices to come down.
"Yet I don’t see anyone
in power really concerned about the high gas prices — President Bush
doesn’t even think we’re in a recession," she lamented.
Americans
have turned to prayer because the earthly powers-that-be don’t seem to
give a hoot, said Judy Dugan, a research director at Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit group based in California.
She described Prayer at the Pump as "the ultimate Hail Mary."
"It’s
what you do when you feel you have no one on your side, and they
certainly don’t have the US government on their side on this," Dugan
said.
At the Shell station, Twyman had dire words of warning for those who are raking in profits from high gas prices.
"Woe
be unto those people that are really greedy and taking advantage of
American families," he proclaimed from his pump pulpit.
"These
prices will come down, just like the walls of Jericho came down in the
Bible," he said, as another chorus of amens punctuated the sound of
cash flowing out of the gas pumps.
