It takes a crisis to spark change

Nelson Graves
Published: September 3, 2008

It takes a crisis. I’m paraphrasing the book, “It Takes a Village,” written by Sen. Hillary Clinton several years ago. Clinton’s book promoted the philosophy that parents alone can’t properly raise their kids. It takes the village to do so. The “Village” is made up of neighbors, family and friends – the whole community – all needed to turn children into successful, responsible adults.
It takes a crisis means that crises bring out the best in America and its people.
It took the crisis of the Civil War to end slavery. Ending slavery created a crisis within a crisis. No longer could the United States reap the benefits of free labor. The South and the North needed rebuilding.
In the South, machines eventually replaced the no-cost slave laborers. The North was similarly affected. It needed to increase the production of goods (manufacturing) for exporting. Low-paid immigrant laborers were plentiful but they couldn’t replace free laborers. Machines also replaced low-paid laborers.
The crisis of the Second World War and its end led to America’s greatest stretch of economic growth. America showed the rest of the world how to live. The rest of the world included America’s black people.
African Americans wanted to know why they weren’t equal partners in America’s prosperity. Fed up with second-class citizenship, black Americans rioted in the late 1960s. Those riots shed light on the inequities blacks suffered. Though there’s been improvement the opportunity, playing fields aren’t completely level yet.
The next crisis occurred in the 1970s. Prices at gas stations jumped from less than 50 cents to about 75 cents a gallon. The increases began after the oil-producing countries got their heads together and formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, to control market pricing.
America’s response to the crisis led to higher miles per gallon for American cars. U.S. automakers produced smaller cars with less horsepower.
During the 1990s, American prosperity again reared its head. With more money in our pockets we ignored the cost of gas. American people wanted and manufacturers produced bigger, faster and fancier rides.
Almost three years ago to the day, Hurricane Katrina reached land along the Gulf Coast. Many Gulf Coast localities suffered, but New Orleans suffered the worst. Because of poor to non-existent preparation by the city, thousands of residents lost everything they had. To make matters worse FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reacted abysmally.
Response to this crisis caused an overhaul of emergency planning by FEMA, New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. 
The second oil crisis began toward the end of 2007. Again, gas costs rose, this time to more than $5 a gallon on the West coast and more than $4 a gallon in the rest of the country. Right now, gas is down to an average of about $3.50 a gallon. But a new world conflict, say in Georgia, or hurricane, like Gustav, could return high prices in a day.
It seems we’ve finally realized the world’s oil supply is finite. We’re driving less, requiring and buying more fuel-efficient vehicles. And, finally, we’re taking the need of alternative fuel sources seriously.
Nelson Graves, Western Virginia director of the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council, writes a weekly column for The News Virginian. E-mail him at .