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If there's something in the air making folks complain
this summer, it certainly isn't ozone. The near-record
lack of heat waves has led to zero ozone-awareness days
in Chicago and Northwest Indiana.
The White Sox are on top of their division, and the Cubs
... well, they're not doing all that bad.
Throw in the strong economy and the somewhat bland presidential
race, and one might think there wouldn't be much to complain
about.
That someone must not drive.
Because everyone's complaining about the gas prices.
On Tuesday, Gov. Frank O'Bannon announced he would extend
his suspension of the state's sales tax on gasoline until
Sept. 15.
In this election year, he's heard the complaints of residents
like Beth Johnston of Hobart, who said she and her friends
have spent the summer complaining about gas prices and
construction, a perennial area scapegoat.
"Gas prices are outrageously high," she said
as she filled up her Chrysler LeBaron at a Marathon station
on Ridge Road in Hobart. "When I first started driving,
it was just 78 cents a gallon."
Johnston is 17 years old.
People watchers say folks in Chicago and Northwest Indiana
are great complainers, a characteristic fueled by their
legacy of shady politics, gritty labor relations, tough
activism and extreme weather patterns. And high gas prices
came along at a perfect time.
"People around here have seen corporate greed and
unfairness first-hand, and I think some people in Northwest
Indiana are very savvy with how these things work,"
said Charles Gallmeier, an associate professor of sociology
at Indiana University Northwest. "And we're compounded
because we got really pounded in the Midwest earlier in
the year."
Even if the numbers show the Hoosier State now has the
lowest gas prices in the country, big oil is just too
good a target for people in the mood to toss barbs, he
said.
"The gas companies are these big Goliaths, the ultimate
corporations," he said. "We don't even know
who owns them. They represent the quintessential corporate
greed.
"And the people don't have anyone they can complain
to. It's a very powerless feeling."
So powerless, it appears that most folks simply prefer
to complain among themselves.
As chief executive officer, president and part-owner
of Complaint Repair, Matthew Smith fields oodles of American
e-whining every day.
The Naperville, Ill., company takes gripes, posts them
on its Web site and forwards them along to appropriate
companies.
"We really haven't gotten a lot on gasoline prices,"
he said, adding that airline delays and bank fees have
topped this summer's beefs. "But I think people who
use the site really want to resolve the issue, and I think
people would wonder how they could ever resolve the gas
prices problem. So they don't come to us."
In an election year, elected officials are hoping they
can at least appease some whiners.
Area motorists have roundly supported O'Bannon's tax
suspension, and Illinois Gov. George Ryan followed O'Bannon's
lead earlier this summer.
Indiana Attorney General Karen Freeman-Wilson opened
up a hot line to handle gas grousing.
Beth Johnston said she's keeping her complaining to herself
and her friends.
"You can't do anything about it."
Got a gas beef?
Call the Indiana attorney general's price-gouging hot
line at (877) 202-2666 or pick a bone online at www.Complaint Repair
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