HUFFINGTON: Dump the SUV, Beyond Being an "Automotive Fashionista"

On the way to my daughter's school this morning, I encountered the usual L.A. rush-hour road rally of elephantine sports utility vehicles, many flying American flags. Taking the cake was a massive SUV proudly sporting half a dozen -- one on each window and two on the bumper. My first thought was, how patriotic! My second was, how much more patriotic it would be to trade in the gas-guzzling leviathan for something that sips, rather than chugs, at the gas pump.

Which, thinking globally and acting locally, is precisely what I've decided to do with mine.

Though I don't consider myself an automotive fashionista, I must admit I followed the thundering herd of protective parents unable to resist the allure of what is basically a comfy Sherman tank. My SUV, a Lincoln Navigator, was, I was told, the safest way to transport my kids. And, as an added bonus, I could haul around a decent-sized Girl Scout troop.

But now we're at war, right? A New War. Everything has changed, hasn't it? Perhaps in rhetoric. In practice, what are we being called to do for the war effort other than shop 'til we drop, eat out and visit Disney World?

Given that our ability to play hardball with nations that harbor terrorists is going to be seriously compromised by our foreign oil habit, shouldn't we be doing everything we can to reduce that dependence -- starting, say, yesterday?

On Tuesday, the president ordered the government to boost its emergency stockpile of oil to "strengthen the long-term security of the United States."

But nothing is being done to heed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's warning that "reducing our nation's dependence on imported oil is crucial to our national energy security, now more than ever before."

On average, SUVs consume over 6 miles per gallon more than a family station wagon. No small difference when you consider that an improvement of just 3 mpg in autos nationwide would save 1 million barrels of oil per day.

On top of this, I have belatedly discovered that despite those TV ads showing them heroically scaling snow-capped mountains in a single bound, SUVs are actually risky to drive: four times more likely than cars to roll over in an accident and three times more likely to kill the occupants in a rollover.

Flag waving is great, but patriotic display is not a substitute for patriotic action. And the public is galvanized for action, just as it was during World War II. Back then, Americans answered their leaders' call for sacrifice in dozens of altruistic ways: They collected scrap metal to be refashioned as guns, planes, and tanks, planted 20 million vegetable "victory gardens," and made do with 3 gallons of gas a week. Just about what the average SUV devours on a few latte-hauling trips to Starbucks.

But when it comes to summoning the national resolve for shared sacrifice, W has been no FDR. There have been too many pep rallies and too few fireside chats. This president has the national ear, in a way few presidents ever have. The problem is, now that he's got our attention, he doesn't appear to have much to say.

His speech last week included a general call to serve our country by "mentoring a child, comforting the afflicted, housing those in need of shelter and a home." But his appeal lacked the kind of specificity that prods people out of their armchairs and into action. If the president had informed us, for instance, that 12 million children live in households where people have to skip meals to make ends meet or that there are a million homeless children in this country on any given day, then Americans would be far more likely to become what he dubbed "a Sept. 11 volunteer."

Of course, when it comes to acting on our patriotism, we don't have to wait for our leaders. If they won't lead, we can just step around them. And when it comes to the vital issue of energy policy, it appears that we'll have to.