1974

Putting out the fire with gasoline.

I remember waiting in our Orange Duster in a long line to get gas. It was 1974, I was eleven years old. I asked my dad why this was happening and he explained that the Arab nations that we were dependent on for oil had stopped selling us petroleum products for political reasons. This was my first political awakening as it directly impacted my life. In the 70’s, when you were stuck in traffic, there was nothing to do but breathe in second hand smoke and watch the streams of condensation dripping down the windows. I was upset and confused. I had questions. 

How could the super-powerful United States be at the mercy of these less powerful nations? 

Why can’t we find oil in our own enormous country?

How long am I going to be in this fucking car?

It all made no sense. 

This was also the first time that I decided to create an illustration as a reaction to the emotions I felt about this incident. Many of the geo-political dynamics that lead to the embargo are still tragically in play a half century later. 

My dad saved this cringe drawing for 50 years. I see now that the pride and love I felt coming from him after I showed him the drawing set me on my path. I found a way to get his approbation and I was hooked. Drawing the image also helped me feel better about waiting on lines for gas. I was doing something. Of course it was really nothing, but it felt like something to me.

Some history of the Oil Embargo of 73-74:

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation for the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military and to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations. Arab OPEC members also extended the embargo to other countries that supported Israel including the Netherlands, Portugal, and South Africa. The embargo both banned petroleum exports to the targeted nations and introduced cuts in oil production. Several years of negotiations between oil-producing nations and oil companies had already destabilized a decades-old pricing system, which exacerbated the embargo’s effects.

The embargo laid bare one of the foremost challenges confronting U.S. policy in the Middle East, that of balancing the contradictory demands of support for Israel and the preservation of close ties to the Arab oil-producing monarchies. The strains on U.S. bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia revealed the difficulty of reconciling those demands. The U.S. response to the events of 1973–1974 also clarified the need to reconcile U.S. support for Israel to counterbalance Soviet influence in the Arab world with both foreign and domestic economic policies.

These measures included the creation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a national 55-mile-per-hour speed limit on U.S. highways, and later, President Gerald R. Ford’s administration’s imposition of fuel economy standards. It also prompted the creation of the International Energy Agency proposed by Kissinger.

50 years later and I’m still drawing pictures and getting “love” in the form of clicked-on little hearts exchange for my efforts.

50 years later and much of the Middle East is embroiled in brutal combat.

The Holy Land is on fire. 

And they are putting out the fire with gasoline.