Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis of the 1970’s In the speech that President Jimmy Carter preached he regarded plenty of important things, but one of the main ones was the issue with the energy. 0n his speech he says that one thing he has been asking himself is “why hasn’t the nation been able to resolve the serious energy problem? ” (109) The whole nation is responsible for this issue and just like the President addressed saying that” it wasn’t only the gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession” (109), it was way more things that came along with an energy problem.
The president knew he couldn’t fix this problem on his own, he knew that he needed the entire nation to help him and fix this problem. He thought as a good idea he would go and listen to what America had to say. He got different answers some were positives, negatives, different religions and believes but that was the controversy here that not everyone thought the same and everyone had their own different opinion. He didn’t give up and kept listening, one lady caught his attention she said “The big shots are not the only ones who are important, Remember; you can’t sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first. (110) Energy was an issue but there was another problem that was just or even more important than the energy problem and that was the fundamental threat to American democracy. He addresses that “the threat was nearly invisible in ordinary ways, it’s a crisis of confidence, it strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of the national will. ”(111) The loss of unity and purpose for the Nation was getting lost and worse was the meaning of the people’s lives.
He was worried that the people were “losing the faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of the democracy. ”(111) The president felt as in his people were closing the doors to their past and was losing the confidence in their future. The president says that one way he thinks the problem could be fixed would be by “having faith in each other, faith In their abilities to govern themselves, and faith in the future of the Nation”. 114) He thought restoring the faith would be one of the biggest challenges ever but by everyone being together it would be done. The president went back to the energy issue and stated that there were going to be changes made for example he said “ this Nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977, never”. (115) That would save them over 4 ? million barrels of imported oil per day, he also said that he would “forbid the entry into the country of one drop of foreign oil more than those goals allow, that would allow reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels they set at the recent Tokyo summit. (115) He gave up to six points that had to be made to help the Nation with its issue, he also asked everyone to be fair no matter what class, race, religion people were part of. He also said that “Congress give him authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. ” (117) At the end he made it clear that he was going to fix this but he wouldn’t do it alone he needed the entire Nation to help.
