Dear Terry Toole,

As usual, I agreed with your editorial and its conclusions. We basically think alike on most all subjects. Unfortunately, our opinions are rapidly becoming the minority. I try not to think about the kind of world our grandchildren will inherit, but remind myself that the Lord is in control, and surely His return is imminent.

Regarding the price of gas in Europe, I think you may have missed what your Swedish friends were trying to tell you. We just got back Sunday from 16 days in France, Italy, Greece, and Montenegro. With two other couples, we rented a Mercedes van and toured Provence. I bought gas three times. In all the countries, the price was about 1.47 to 1.52 per liter, or about $6.00 per gallon, But that is in Eurodollars. Multiply that by the exchange rate of about 1.57, and it works out to about $9.00 to $9.50 per gallon. More than two and a half times what we are paying, so we've got plenty of upside ahead of us. The cars are mostly very small, and driving in the small villages with streets that seemed to be 10 feet wide proved to be a real challenge. When we turned the car in at Nice, the rental guy walked around it about three times, sure that there was a dent or scratch somewhere. None of the cars were familiar; even Mercedes makes some very small cars which are not sold over here. There are almost no pick-up trucks, other than some 3-wheel jobs that were basically glorified motor scooters. And there were millions of scooters and motorcycles. I kept thinking that I might be looking at our future.

Keep up the good work.

W A Grow Jr.