War in Ukraine will hurt the global economy

If schadenfreude is your thing, you may welcome the fact that while we rage at high gas prices, and erroneously blame President Joe Biden for them, gas prices in Europe are much more exorbitant.

Europeans are paying up to 34% more for gas than we are, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com. Per gallon, Austrian are paying $7.12. In France, it’s $7.30, Italy $7.59 and in England, it’s $8.10.

Current pump prices can be blamed on OPEC cutbacks on oil production, and flawed household budgeting that assumed market prices for fuel would never rise to where they are now, much less higher.

The ripple effects of other commodity prices, particularly of grains, have already started to hit pocketbooks worldwide thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Developing countries will be hit the worst as they depend on many Ukrainian exports like wheat, which cannot be planted due to the war. Global warming is also sabotaging other food production.

While China is buying up grain stores and futures, other nations don’t have the means to do so. They can expect hungrier days ahead. Besides natural disasters, including drought, floods and COVID-19, man-made disruptions will continue to impact the global economy and lead to the scarcity of products and higher prices. If “rainy day” budgeting is new to you, learn, or suffer. High gasoline prices appear to be just the start. Today’s scenario evokes memories of WWII, when gas, then roughly 25 cents a gallon, was rationed. “Is this trip necessary?” government posters asked. We may have to ask ourselves that question again soon.

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park

‘Bread not bullets’ to combat gun violence

Gun violence, which concerns all Chicagoans, is not new. In a negotiation for jobs in the Black community between Operation Breadbasket pastors and Dean Foods/Bowman Dairy in the summer of 1966, one of our pastors noted, “Bread, not bullets, is the only ammunition against riots in Chicago.” With urban uprisings across the nation at that time, there was fear of such an explosion in our town.

I believe “bread not bullets” is still an answer in a city with large numbers of despairing Black youth who are out on the streets instead of working or attending school. Jobs would bring both dignity and daily bread and would surely reduce the grasping for guns as a tool for power and importance.

When will we Chicagoans put our votes and dollars into a serious Marshall Plan-like jobs program for our city’s youth? It is way past time for more bandages. Too much blood is spilled on the streets each and every day in the city we love.

Rev. Martin Deppe, Operation Breadbasket pastor, Edgewater