Time & Perspective Quote by Jo Bonner

Panic doesn’t just empty shelves; it rewires civic virtue into a kind of consumer theater. Jo Bonner’s line tries to hijack that impulse and point it somewhere useful: the “something more important” isn’t a grand sacrifice but a small act of restraint. That phrasing is the tell. He name-checks the familiar moral checklist of an energy crunch - carpooling, unnecessary travel - then abruptly demotes it in favor of the one behavior politicians dread because it can’t be mandated: don’t hoard.

The quote is built like a public-service announcement, but the subtext is market triage. “Save gas during this time” signals crisis conditions (spikes in prices, supply disruptions, long lines), when scarcity is as much psychological as physical. Bonner is addressing the feedback loop where fear of shortage creates the shortage: topping off half-full tanks, filling extra cans, driving across town to chase a cheaper pump. His “buy only the gas which you need” is an attempt to reframe self-control as solidarity, without using the language of rationing that Americans reflexively hate.

There’s also a politician’s careful positioning here. He avoids blaming oil companies, regulators, or geopolitics; responsibility is pushed down to individual conduct, a safer move for an elected official in a polarized moment. The rhetorical trick is that it offers agency without policy: you can do your part right now, at the checkout line. The message isn’t just conservation; it’s crowd control dressed as patriotism-lite.