America is in the grip of a serious crisis. One that causes its heart to quake, its brains to turn to quivering jelly, and its mouth to emit strange gasping sounds. The price of pink erasers has skyrocketed.  The retail price of an average spongy pink, hand-held eraser has risen from 26 to 43 cents over the last four months. Although prices peaked in July, they remain high just in time for America's children to return to school -- which is the heaviest eraser-usage time of the year.  "I can smell the fear," said Natalie Dean, retail manager for office-supply chain OfficeMad. "Our store opens at 5 a.m., and every morning I see lines of nervous parents and office managers. I was here during the great Five Points Eraser Riots of 1979, and I tell ya, I don't want to see that again."  Although economists are worried that the eraser price hike may doom our economic boom, they say there's no single explanation for the crisis.  For one, the Eraser Producing and Exporting Countries, or EPEC, has refused to make more erasers despite international pressure. Secondly, the United States continues to maintain its economic sanctions against Luxembourg, which has much of the world's eraser reserves.  The frustration is building around the world. Erasers are wearing thin. People are starting to scratch out their answers, leaving an ugly blotch. Even Europe, which is used to prices of $4 for Pink Pearl hand-held erasers, has been rocked with strikes.  And this September, in a desperate (campaign) measure, Vice President A1 Gore allowed 30 million erasers to be released from the nation's Strategic Office Supplies Reserve, bringing down prices and returning the springy pink things to the hands to the nation's pencilers.  Why erasers?, you may ask. Why this one specific consumer item?  What is it about that these rubbery little scrubbers that inspire such devotion - nay, even a sense of entitlement?  Perhaps it's that our lifestyle was built on erasers. It was erasers that built the American economy-that allowed the suburbs to blossom, to bring us the power of the SUV to the American roadway.  But I think it's more than that. To Americans, the eraser represents our most sacred freedom. The freedom to wipe out our mistakes.