Kane Watch: Gas Prices Affect Everyone

I know it's run-of-the-mill writing for Gene to lump inner-city people and everyone else into the same respective economic categories, but this time I've had it.

Kane's article today, "For poor, gas prices more than annoyance," really hit the head on this guy's bigotry. For example, Kane writes:

Many low-income residents in Milwaukee struggle with high gas prices to a degree that doesn't really resonate with the rest of the area. Filling a gas-guzzling SUV or minivan for driving to work in the city and home to the suburbs is a legitimate ordeal for many readers, but don't forget the plight of a single mother in Milwaukee working a minimum-wage job who still needs her car to make appointments and maintain her livelihood.

It may behoove Mr. Kane to consider that the population of Milwaukee alone is greater than the populations of any of the surrounding suburbs. As such, comparing the situation of only those in the inner city, to only those suburbanites who also own an SUV is to eliminate most of his reading audience.

And I'd like to get another thing straight: I'm 28. I've got a mortgage, a car payment (not an SUV), my zip code is 53207, I have $40,000 in student loans and the goddamn gas prices are not just annoying me, they are forcing me to make decisions about where I go and how I spend what little discretionary income I have.

In case I didn't make that clear enough, I'd like to reiterate: I do not live in the inner city, and I don't live in a suburb. I am a "middle-class" Milwaukeean and these gas prices are crippling my budget. If Eugene Kane honestly thinks that the only people who are feeling the pains of this situation are those in the inner-city, then I have to question his ability to observe the world around him. Wake up, Gene.