Gee, I like Gregg Easterbrook. I like his articles on affairs and I like Tuesday Morning Quarterback. But what drives his fury at SUV's and pickup trucks in this article in the New Republic?

The article is a review of Ken Bradsher's book, High and Mighty, a scathing indictment of the SUV. Here's an excerpt of Easterbrook's review, including a quote from Bradsher's book:

"They tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors." This is Bradsher's summary of the auto industry's own marketing research about SUV buyers, and he adduces numerous on-the-record comments from auto-marketing gurus to back this up. One such wise man, named Clotaire Rapaille, tells the Big Three that people buy SUVs "because they want to look as menacing as possible." It is perhaps not startling that rather than trying to alter these buyer proclivities, the manufacturers of SUVs have tried to encourage them. There are lots of self-centered and self-absorbed people with little interest in their neighbors. Somebody finally made a class of vehicles designed to bring out the worst in them.

I take that personally. I drive a 1997 2-wheel drive 4-door Chevy Tahoe. It has cloth seats, lots of rubber mats, air-conditioning, power transmission and a radio with a tape player. It weighs a little over 4400 pounds without any load. It's heavy enough to pull a 700 pound trailer. It is a glorified pickup truck. It is our only car. We drive it about 7800 miles a year, which in past years has included two 800+ mile trips to Dallas and at least two 600+ miles to Alabama each year. We use about 485 gallons of gas per year.

We live in a small town at least eighty miles in any direction from a major shopping center, so if I want to visit Lowe's, Dillard's or Albertson's I have to hit the road for Baton Rouge, Alexandria, or Jackson, MS. We keep these trips to a minimum, so we often have many packages to carry. For the past three years we have been renovating our house in Vidalia and a condo on the coast of Alabama, entailing loads of building supplies and furniture, carted sometimes in rain. Our house is situated on an acre of land which entails much maintenance and we garden vegetables in the spring and summer, all of which calls for flats of flowers and plants and many bags of fertilizer and soil additives.

Mr. Easterbrook, I do care about other drivers and I drive safely. I was hit by a car at two and a half, and I still carry scars from an accident at 21 in which I was a passenger and my driver wasn't at fault. I don't want to intimidate you or anyone else. I just want to get my work done.