June 17, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 9

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, June 17, 2020 American society seems to be Opinion Page “ElkCituNews collapsing, but one thing still binds us Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 U.S. was right to economy as well as extreme lems and supporting com- By Elizabeth Souder, The the term to explain the senti- Dallas Morning News wealth disparity. And what mon joys. ment in Texas ahead of the There is a word for what he couldn't have foreseen revolution. At the time Santa What our Constitution avoid tariffs in oil Americans are experienc- ing, what we have been ex- is what would ultimately separate us into ever-smaller Anna failed to implement what the Texicans, Anglos does is frame a way to sort out our differences, or at periencing for the past few groups, technology that was price war who settled in Texas under least live with them. Can we years. There is a word for supposed to make us more Mexican rule, considered at least agree on that much? the division, the economic connected through a World a good and fair constitu- There is a light of hope. By H. Sterling Burnett upheaval, the loss of faith in Wide Web would give us a tion. The end result was that Those protesting the lock- The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil institutions, the erosion of tool for enhancing division: many felt that Mexican au- down and those protesting delivered in May recently dropped into negative territory. the rule of law, the collapse social media. thorities failed to uphold the police brutality continue Prices have cratered for some simple reasons. When of social norms and the de- Americans have lost faith tule of law. People in Texas to use the language of our the coronavirus began reducing demand for jet fuel spair so many of us feel. in once-rock-solid institu- were left on their own to po- founders and the Constitu- and gasoline, Saudi Arabia and Russia ramped up The word is anomie. tions that bound us to one lice their property. tion to make their cases. crude production. They deliberately drove prices to The concept of anomie another and the world. From Many looked to the U.S. lows not seen since the early 2000s. It was all part of was developed by French the local police department, in anticipation of eventually They point to their First Amendment rights to con- their attempt to cripple American oil firms, who’ve sociologist Emile Durkheim school district, chamber of joining the union. But first, in the late 19th century to commerce and family doctor they would face a deadly gregate and protest peace- become powerhouse producers in recent years. fully. They point to the right describe the state of an in- to the North Atlantic Treaty fight against Mexico and Senators from energy-producing states urgently called on President Trump to impose tariffs on oil imports. They dividual disconnected from Organization, the Catholic years of economic malaise to due process of a black all social norms or rules. Church, the Federal Reserve before President James Polk man under arrest, the right hoped these taxes would artificially prop up crude pric- to survive an arrest in order While Durkheim — wrote and the World Health Orga- ushered Texas into the U.S. es, thus tossing a financial lifeline to U.S. oil companies. to make his case before a chiefly about the impact of nization, there are few insti- To Durkheim's point, sev- Luckily, the president pursued diplomacy in- anomie on the individual, tutions left that have a deep eral prominent leaders ofthe judge, the right to face a jury stead. Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other foreign oil other thinkers have applied level of trust among Ameri- Republic of Texas died by ofhis peers rather than being producers recently agreed to slash production by the term to societies that ex- cans. suicide, including President killed by a police officer. 9.7 million barrels a day in the coming months. perienced a collapse in laws So when COVID-19 be- Anson Jones and attorneys Protesters explain their po- The Trump administration was right to favor negotia- or values. gan to spread rapidly, it was general James Collinsworth sitions using various clauses tions over protectionist measures. The desire to help do- There is some comfort hardly surprising that many and Peter Grayson, both in this part of the Declara- mestic firms is understandable. But tariffs would prove in having a word for what people refused to believe while campaigning for presi- tion of Independence: counterproductive, hurting both energy companies and America is facing, though, the news was serious or take dent. “We hold these truths to their consumers. As coronavirus continues to curb oil de- based on Durkheim’s analy- precautions for themselves And surely many of our be self-evident, that all men mand, government officials should steer clear of tariffs. sis and historic experience, and others. In a few places ancestors experienced a de- are created equal, that they In recent years, the United States has become the world’s the outlook is grim. Some people even showed up at gree of anomie during the are endowed by their Cre- top oil producer, thanks mostly to hydraulic fracturing and individuals experiencing open businesses armed, in American Revolution. At ator with certain unalienable horizontal drilling. Those twin technical advances have en- anomie are prone to suicide, the time, there was a grand rights, that among these are protest against ordinances to and nations, to violence. debate about what laws to life, liberty, and the pursuit stay at home. The president abled energy companies to extract enormous quantities of oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. Just last month, Perhaps this explains cheered on the protesters, follow and whether the king of happiness. That, to secure U.S. producers extracted a record 13 million barrels of oil the rising rate of suicides and Texas Gov. Greg Ab- himself had opened the door these rights, governments in America, up 35% in the bott joined the Free Shelley to lawlessness by not re- per day -- more than double what they pumped a decade ago. are instituted among men, past 20 years, according to chaos, promptly changing specting basic rights. Russia and Saudi Arabia have eyed this development with deriving their just powers the CDC, and in particu- his ordinances when protest- It’s also fair to ask if there dismay. To regain market share, they launched their re- lar it may explain the mass ers demanded the release of was a sense of anomie for from the consent of the gov- cent price war, hoping to outlast each other -- and U.S. shootings that end in sui- a salon owner who had ille- people on the frontier, in erned.” producers -- in a hugely consequential game of chicken. cide. Anomie might explain gally opened her shop. Kentucky, the Ohio country These words brought this American energy companies can’t remain why this nation elected a It was stunning to observe or later farther west. With- country through even more profitable at current prices. So they’re cut- president who has pledged officials undermine the laws out any organized society, divisive times, providing ting spending and preparing to lay off workers. to tear down many of our in- they themselves created, settlers would almost cer- abolitionists and civil rights To cushion the blow, a group of senators urged Secretary stitutions, and it may explain folding to the protesters. tainly have such a feeling. leaders arguments to frame of Commerce Wilbur Ross to investigate Saudi Arabia and why so many people con- Then came whiplash, as the Durkheim’s concern about their demands and dreams. Russia for excessive dumping in oil markets. If the Depart- sider street protests to be the president, who just weeks a collapse of social norms They used the founding ment of Commerce found them guilty, President Trump best chance for change. ago expressed solidarity and laws isn’t just that no- documents to show that the would have had the authority to impose tariffs on foreign oil. It might be why many with a resistance to being body wants to live in a social founders were wrong about But companies and consumers alike would Americans embrace conspir- in lockdown, threatened wasteland. He wrote that in women and people of color, have suffered under that strategy. Here’s why. acy theories and myths, to martial law to halt peaceful a state of complete freedom, and we can do so again. Even though the United States is a net oil exporter, we still try to make sense out of the protests of police brutality without laws or social ex- If we Americans still disorder. And it may explain against minorities. pectations at all, one does agree that these words are import lots of foreign oil. That’s because not all types of why our elected officials, Where Americans once not experience fulfillment. the foundation of our de- crude are identical -- oil from different sources varies wildly even the ones who are smart, supported both freedom of Rather one feels despair. mocracy, then we are not insulfurcontentand viscosity. And many energy companies decent people, cannot get a speech and the rule of law, What got our people on the verge of a revolu- have configured their refineries to process foreign crudes. suddenly, those values seem through these periods was a tion designed to burn down foothold in leading us. The America imported roughly 530,000 barrels of oil each ground keeps shifting. to ebb and flow depending shared faith in God and, for America and replace it with day from Saudi Arabia and 510,000 from Russia in 2019. Durkheim in the late on the politics and color of many, hope in the American something else. Instead, we If the United States imposes tariffs on that oil, refin- 1800s fretted that industrial- the people involved. values outlined in the Decla- are on the verge of an all- eries would face higher costs and would pass them ization would create separa- It shouldn’t be surpris- ration of Independence and encompassing transforma- along to consumers. Tariffs could even cause sup- tions in the labor force that ing that the destruction and imbued in the Constitution. tion designed to stretch the ply shortages in some areas, For instance, refin- would leave people feeling violence in the wake of the Can Americans in 2020 do protests has been nationwide impact of the words to all eries in California rely heavily on imported oil. disconnected from the fruits the same? Plus, tariffs are a two-way street. Saudi Arabia could have of their labor and, worse, and has lasted for days. It Unlike the colonists, pio- Americans, to fulfill com- pletely the ideas that the responded to such measures by slapping new taxes on U.S. disconnected from each oth- also shouldn’t be surpris- neers and Texicans, we do er, each performing a repeti- ing that hooligans on the not share a common faith in founders originally applied exports of various goods and services. With the U.S. econ- omy severely weakened from the coronavirus, the last thing tive task that seems to have far right and far left seem to a higher power, and we do too narrowly to white men. no relation to an outcome or have used the opportunity of not all learn the stories of the This change will not be American workers need is a trade war with a major ally. Luckily, our leaders turned to diplomacy and pres- another human. peaceful protests to hurt and Old Testament or Greek my- comfortable. But the need What happened since destroy, antagonizing police thology as a cultural founda- for change is self-evident. sured the Saudis and Russians to stop this destructive Durkheim’s writing was an and further angering protest- tion. For early Americans, Elizabeth Souder is the price war. Tariffs would have immediately backfired. commentary and Sunday eventual breakdown of the ers. Anomie. their time in the wilderness H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. is a Heartland senior fellow on hold on the economy these The word describes other alone may have forged a Opinion editor and editorial environmental policy and the managing editor of Environ- industrialized corporations times in our history, too. Au- common experience, a soli- board member for The Dal- ment & Climate News. had and the rise of a gig thor James Michener used darity against common prob- las Morning News. [email protected]