For all of us older than 40, this oil crisis is deja vu.

Thirty years ago during the Carter administration, we older Americans sat in long, long, long lines waiting to get gas and hoping the gas station still had gas by the time we got to the pumps. We could fill up our cars only on odd or even days, depending on our license plates. We had an energy problem in this country with unemployment rates at 7.5 percent, interest rates as high as 20 percent and inflation at 11 percent.

Years later, we still don't have an energy program. We are even more dependent on other countries for oil. Instead of an energy policy, our Congress and bureaucracy have been putting roadblocks to any solutions.

This is a great country that has overcome many major problems, and we can solve the energy problem. It's time to tackle the problem just as we did when we faced World War II in desperate need of ships, planes, ammunition, guns, etc. We won that war, and we can solve this problem today.

It's time for our government to be focused on energy. Redistributing our wealth to Third World countries to sustain our needs for oil is beyond ridiculous! If Congress doesn't act now and cut all of the bureaucracy, it's time for those lawmakers to go. The approval rate of Congress when I last looked was 9 percent. ...

I want a five-year plan to make us energy independent using oil, solar, wind, nuclear, coal and anything else that the great minds of this country can invent -- and ethanol only if it isn't made from our food. This great country can accomplish anything it sets its mind to! It's time to act!

Marilyn Doremus, Aiken, S.C.