The price of gas shot up this evening. Both Cumberland Farms and the Mobile station showed the same gas price fro the first time in a long time.

At $3.13, the price is not ready to crest. Gasoline prices will continue to climb and have a definitive effect on the "working class" members of our community.

Notorious for its high cost of living vs. payscale, Vermont may very well see a significant increase to the working poor. Families will struggle harder this year to make ends meet and many may not make it.

While there must be a solution to the skyrocketing prices that a community can get behind, I am baffled to comprehend what that might look like.

In the upcoming months, many of us will be contributing what we can to various hurricane aid organizations. We will be giving money and support that we truly cannot afford, however we will do it because our own situations could be far worse and we sense the responsibility that we have for our fellow citizen.

The second part of this must be a commitment to remain strong and find unique ways to help ourselves too. We must band together as a community and install relief from the cold, relief from inflating oil and gas prices, and relief from being dangerously close to not having that paycheck stretch far enough. It is not simply the poor that is in danger, it is the average person who is employed in our state.

Thoughts, suggestions, and plans of action are welcomed.

Have strength and remember our neighbors to the south need our support too.