It is said that one of the invisible effects of being the victim of a robbery or a burglary is that a person feels violated by the experience. There is a sense of powerlessness that others cannot see. I remember what it was like for my father-in-law, a World War II POW, who had a car stolen from his backyard.

All of us can now experience this up close and personal. When we buy gas for our cars there is a sense that "something" is wrong. Someone is lying to us and stealing our money on what has become an essential part of life to work or play or be able to go about our lives.

Gasoline has risen more than 80 cents a gallon since the president's inauguration in January. Republican revenge? It may be just a relatively few speculators that have found a way to exploit us even though the United States now produced much more, about 60 percent of our domestic needs. The have purchased the gas futures when they were low but not sent the gas to refineries. The are holding 460 million barrels off the market to drive the price up and then sell it at a huge profit to the those who will buy it out of necessity.

If you really believed our president held the middle class interests at heart, contact him (and your congressman) to have him release Strategic Oil Reserves to punish these predators causing this. We need gas controls much more than we need gun control.

Joseph M. Reichert

Belleville