Don’t Rush It. Dig In: Defining Advice for the Possibilities Ahead
Let’s face it things aren’t going well “out there.” California is in flames, the Southeast is in horrible drought and the title of the Common Dreams e-mail that I got on Thursday October 27 th was “Earth is Reaching Point of No Return.”
“Holy shit!” I thought, not for the first time that day, “the end is near! What should I do?”
My stomach sank and my heart raced. Then I looked around me to find I was still sitting in front of a computer, my stray kitten purring on my lap. I noticed that the ocean was not yet lapping at my door, and that the leaves outside my window were beautiful.
This is not the first time I have grappled with the end of the world. Usually the images that flash through my mind, involve drowning, fire, or thirst; it always ends the same way: I calm down and go back to the work I was doing before the news flash told me the world was ending.
In short this is how I spend most of my crazy “environmental” life. Everyday I work, in my own small ways, to create a more sustainable world; but I oscillate constantly between the practicality of these small daily actions, and the need for large-scale change with the greatest urgency.
On the one hand I wake up everyday with pressing urgency. “Go, go, go, there is not much time.” And there isn’t. There is not much time in a day, or in a life, or in ten years, which is the amount of time we have to “stop increasing carbon and start decreasing it,” according to Bill McKibben in an October 19 th speech at the Great Turning Conference.
McKibben stressed that we are at a unique moment in history, racing against a global deadline. That’s heavy stuff. And it’s a heavy feeling that presses on my chest when I live all day racing against an invisible clock, hanging above us, ticking away seconds like a time bomb from a bad action film. It’s also information we’ve been hearing for years, so I can’t help but wonder, what the hell are you panicking for, you knew this was coming?
I met a man the other day on the street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He approached me with a CD about Global Warming. He wanted me to make copies and distribute it amongst my friends. I told him about my own work, with a grassroots organization in the same city. Then he smiled and said,
“That sounds nice, but I don’t have time right now, I am working at 200 percent on the global climate crisis.” We must be kindred spirits, both full of our own importance. I think we both need to take a step back from the edge.
On the other hand, we cannot act hastily. Large scale hasty responses to climate change thus far, include nuclear energy and ethanol. Both of these “solutions” add to the unsustainable use of dwindling water supplies (we have anywhere between 10-50 years depending on who you ask, although if you live in Atlanta right now you might be saying something different), both are already happening.
In another speech at the Great Turning Conference, Winona La Duke, celebrated Anishinaabekwe, environmental activist and wise woman asked:
“If nuclear power is the answer, then what the hell was the question? Was it the further contamination of groundwater? Was it how can we be bigger jerks and consume more resources? 70% of available uranium is in indigenous communities.”
She has a stunning way with words.
As for ethanol, I’m just going to give you a few statistics drawn from Gerry Rising’s July 15th, 2007 article in the Buffalo News.
According to Rising’s calculations, which are based on the work of Ted Patzek and Gerald Cecil, for one gallon of ethanol the equivalent of more than a gallon of oil must be expended.
If every acre of this nation’s corn were assigned to ethanol production, it would only provide 7 percent of what the nation’s cars use today.
One element of ethanol production that Rising doesn’t mention is the fact that corn, as currently grown in most of the United States, is one of the most land intensive plants in the world. Planting it continuously causes soil erosion, unsustainable water use, and loss of diversity.
Lastly, counting the growing of the corn, the processing of the corn, and production of the fuel, it will take millions of gallons of water on a daily basis to create ethanol.
I draw again from Winona LaDuke: If ethanol is the answer, then what the hell was the question?
So this is the point in the article when I am supposed to give you alternative solutions. Excitingly I have many. They are not original, most have nothing to do with large-scale national solutions to environmental problems, and they require an active imagination:
- Turn your lawn into a garden.
- Quit your job if you hate it and start doing what you’ve always wanted (after all if McKibben is right you’ve only got about a decade).
- Look at what you do on a daily basis and ask yourself is this harmful to me, to others, to the planet? Act accordingly.
- Learn how to can and preserve to eat locally year round.
- Turn off your T.V., Computer, cell phone.
- Read a book, play a game, dance around a bonfire.
- Install a grey water system to create a closed loop for your water use.
- Be dirty more often.
- Use rain barrels.
- Find a place you love outside; visit it often.
- Learn the names of trees, shrubs, birds, say hello.
- Stop blaming: We are they, they are us.
- Start a conversation with someone who intimidates you.
- Cross neighborhood boundaries, be uncomfortable.
- Never ever drink out of a plastic straw again.
- Carry a mug, a re-usable bag, a water bottle, plate, and fork with you at all times.
- Unplug, unplug, unplug.
- Make a leaf collage
- Compost (1/3 of the household waste in landfills could have been composted)
- Trust that what is happening will unfold well if we keep working on it.
- Do not try to do this all at once. I did and it wasn’t pretty.
Finally, I end with two of wisest pieces of advice I have ever received about how to change the world.
The first is from a man named John Francis, also known as the Planetwalker. He spent 22 years walking all over the country, 17 of them in silence. His advice, also at the Great Turning Conference, was this:
“Ask yourself: what is your dream, say it out loud, and then begin taking steps towards it. Don’t rush it.”
The second is from Winona LaDuke:
“Get some place. Stay there. Live in a way that is peaceful to that place. Dig in.”
This is what, each time that I panic, draws me back from the edge. It is trust in the universe, the will to follow my dreams, and the knowledge that I am not alone, far from it. There are millions of people out there making the world better everyday; my guess is that you are one of them. So Don’t Rush it but Dig In.
Paige Doughty is an environmental educator and freelance writer. Learn more at www.paigedoughty.typepad.com
I’ve had the time, at 68, to do what Francis and LaDuke recommend. It’s good advice that works.
My life is fine, although the country that gave me this oportunity, isn’t.
The trouble as I see it is: creation is being destroyed and part of my “dream” is being part of the whole. The community, nature, etc.
So the advice leaves out the queston: I’m OK but then what?
Inddividual solutions are easier than collective solutions.
We need help with the latter.
Help is on the way.
Have no fear- the cavalry is here! Bush will save us! Read a headline this morning that White House has determined that global warming is for real and is a threat, but that it wasn’t two or three years ago.
He can bomb the hell out of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Cuba, and any other country he decides might someday be a threat to the U.S., while handing Blackwater and the religious corporations control of the new Global Warming departments he’s created so more of our tax dollars can be siphoned off into their black holes.
Or maybe I just dreamt that headline??????!
“Inddividual solutions are easier than collective solutions. We need help with the latter.”
Indeed. Here are a few:
1. Share with others of like mind, and don’t be afraid to talk with those who aren’t.
2. Remember that organizations that don’t have clear goals that serve functional purposes become self-involved and self-interested. As such, focus on the work more than enterprise.
3. Utilize your connections with friends to build affinity groups, so when things really start to get tough, you’ll already have worked through the bulk of your interpersonal/cultural/ideological issues, especially the potentially fatal ones.
4. Encourage forms of resistance that are horizontal, not vertical. Examples: Spokescouncils, APPO, Argentinian worker collectives and neighborhood councils.
5. Don’t be daunted by fluidity - the world is changing rapidly, and so is the movement.
6. If the people you work with are cowed into silence, regroup and find another way to keep the work going.
This is just a start, but I think I’ll stop there. Feel free to ask questions.
Thank you Paige for expressing what I feel. If we only have ten years, I wonder what it would be like to spend them in a beautiful, natural place with like minded people? The Xtians are moving to So. Carolina. The libertarians to New Hampshire. Is there a place for liberals, progressives, environmentalists, artists, scientists, inventors, hippies here maybe like the one in Denmark?
get rid of your car…
stop giving money to the major oil industries….
stop shopping at big box stores..
the list goes on…
and on…
Fact- stressed people buy more stuff.
global warming is real, but maybe Bushy is just cranking up the stress nob on everything else and watching profits soar?
I may just sell the house hop in a boat and head elsewhere.
STOP buying STUFF.
Great suggestions!
Paige:
I Know how you feel. Just came back from two weeks of being disconnected,no t.v., internet, avoided the newspaper.
When I returned and re-connected, I was greeted with “Melting Greenland, Forclosures at record highs, oil at $93 a barrel, ten years before the environmental point of no return, Bush and World War III, etc.
It gets you down, especially if you have children, and tests your will. Should I “learn acceptance”, as my equally wise friend suggests, and turn my back on the planet and the future? Does my choice to abandon owning a car, make much of a difference, when my neighbors all drive S.U.V.’s?
Everything I read indicates that my individual efforts are meaningless. That global solutions are nearly impossible.
and then…
Today I joined with over 10,000 beautiful people in San Francisco as we marched to end the war. Young people, rich people, ladies in pink, muslims, jews, black, white, native americans, conservatives, progressives, bikers, children, latinos, and on and on.
And we marched, and layed down in the street, beat drums of peace, smiled, cried when the Goldstar mother spoke, clapped, and danced to hip-hop.
So yes Paige, you are not alone, and neither am I.
I have never lost hope and I hope I never will.
Ramsay
In my view, one of the bigger struggles in our culture is the huge subject of interpersonal relationships and community, i.e., the “collective solutions” area the author cited as challenging. “We, the people” isn’t golf or isolation. It’s a team effort. In my experience, building community and unity are essential to solutions of every kind, including environmental, a la “United, we stand; Divided we fall.”
There are myriad ways to approach the start of building community and a new group. Be creative! Sometimes, it’s quicker to simply join an existing group. If starting a new group, ask some questions first, research some small groups that work, what they do and why they work so well.
What’s your vision for this group? Also discern from your personal experiences and queries what does not work. Factor in your own passions, interests, convictions so that you spend time doing something you love doing and believe in. This isn’t about martyrdom or control. It’s about caring. A few personal experiences with starting new groups include:
1. Start small and informal, such as a weekly or bi-monthly coffee, lunch or pot-luck supper discussion group to discuss X with a few people. Take the initiative to get this group off the ground. After the get-acquainted introductions and stories that also give the personalities time to loosen up and relax, focus the group on the prepared topic for discussion. Work to include all participants in the discussion. Prepare so that all exchanges are respectful, neutral, non-threatening, calm. Honest, friendliness, compassion and humor are enormously useful. Big egos aren’t. It’s not about me or the other personalities. It’s about us. After several discussions and gatherings, maybe watch a documentary together on the discussion topic. Sustainable agriculture, say, or water conservation. Once the group’s self-consciousness is waning, discuss and plan next steps to determine if the group is willing to actually do something together about it. Find out what the action steps and objectives are. Get commitments. Tip: Keep it clear, simple and manageable, whatever it is. Go slowly and methodically. Keep from burdening people with too much work. There are enormous opportunities for local groups to change local ordinances into environmentally-friendly building and zoning laws.
2. Gender-oriented. A new men’s or women’s group. Go from there.
3. Parent/family-oriented.
4. A broader, deeper, more esoteric healing approach such as a circle group to help specific individuals (family members, neighbors, friends, community members) heal from a trauma, misunderstanding, or difficulty. A fabulous inexpensive book called “Circle Processes” is available at
www.GoodBks.com
5. Variations on #4 include important awareness work such as a small-group’s learning and practicing togther Dr. Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communications. Details at www.cnvc.org
Some useful guides and parameters about how to build good human relationships are at:
www.gandhiinstitute.org/Library/LibraryItem.cfm?LibraryID=869
I wonder how many folks who posted in this thread own cars.
I wonder how many folks who posted here buy what food they can from local farmers, directly from the farmers.
Yes, yes, yes to buy less stuff. I am increasingly appalled by all the junk in the world.
I do go into a big box drugstore once a month for medical prescriptions. There are no small, local pharmacies where I live. Those stores are full of many thousands of items that nobody really needs but the people who manufacture, distribute and sell all that consumer gunk need their paychecks.
It’s a complex world.
Winona Duke says, Get some place. Stay there. Live in a way that is peaceful to that place. This is important advise. Seems to me way too many people are not happy where they are at. Hell if I could afford it I’d stay home for weeks at a time. I own a car, only drive it to get supplies in quanitity, still don’t know how to operate all it’s features like CD player. Are you all enjoying the full moon the last couple of days.
We just returned from a 6,000 mile vacation trip, going through 18 states, from Arizona to Pennsylvania, down the Eastern seaboard to Georgia and back to Arizona. The max speed limit in most states was 70mph, up to 80 in Texas for cars, 70 for trucks. We also noticed that a lot of the tractor trailers were hauling cargo containers with the Chinese brand names. We saw several trains with up to 200 or more cars, powered with four locomotives hauling double stacked cargo containers with Chinese brand names.
Traveling at at 65 to 70 mph, we were passed by almost everyone else, a goodly percentage of cars and pickups carried only one passenger and the high percentage of private vehicles were SUVs or pickups. We counted only two of the electric hybreds during the entire trip.
Will anything change in those respects during the next few years? My opinion is, nothing will change until the depression hits. Most of the Americans we had conversations with are oblivious of the problems we have with government, or the enviroment. Governments are doing their thing, you now need a fishing lisence in every state except New Jersey to fish in the oceans or tidal bays. It costs from $20 to $30 to use a state park for one night.
Everyone IS aware of the high cost of food and fuel, most are unhappy with the Bush administration and not satisfied at all with the current gang of presidential hopefuls. No one we spoke with ever heard of Common Dreams, FEMA prisons or the fact that DU is being used for weapons of war. Most believe we should build 2,000 atomic power plants and most don’t think global warming is caused by humanity. Most shop at Wal-Mart, and many are now recently laid off and are looking for a job. The new car dealer lots in every state were overloaded with new vehicles with no buyers in their quiet show rooms.
Water levels at lakes and rivers in almost every state were very low, some almost totally dried up. On Interstate 20 in Texas, every town from east to west looked like a depressed ghost town, deserted businesses, run down homes with junked vehicles parked on the property.
Traffic was heavy from 3am to midnight on every interstate, it never stops and during rush hours near all metro areas, the traffic was bumper to bumper stop and go with periods of 75 mph with everyone driving three feet apart. ____ I do believe, we Americans are mostly crazy.
Hear Iz Kilroy October 28th, 2007 8:11 am
“Traveling at at 65 to 70 mph, we were passed by almost everyone else, a goodly percentage of cars and pickups carried only one passenger and the high percentage of private vehicles were SUVs or pickups. We counted only two of the electric hybreds during the entire trip.”
Uh, hate to be captain obvious here but, you seem to be complaining about others use of fuel while you are on a 6,000 mile driving trip for vacation. How much fuel do you reckon you used for your personal pleasure?
The phrase, We shouldn’t complain about the mote in someone else’s eye until we pull the log from our own, comes to mind.
Lobo Gris
Not to worry, the millions of cooking fires in India, China and Indonesia will keep carbon going up until the final solution for bipedal carbon based work units is found. So convince all of those humans that don’t own cars, or houses to quit cooking on charcoal, dung, or even wood because we think it would help continue our lifestyle. Yup, good luck with that, and remember to roll down the window of your SUV when talking to them, it makes it more personal. There are no easy solutions except to lower the population of Earth by about 50%, how do we do that? Global Climate Change, on the way for you and me. Enjoy what you have while it is here because big changes are on the way even quicker than you think. Good luck all.
I have been at the point of ‘the edge’, and very disheartened by what appears to be people’s apathy. It seemed to me that I made no difference, that I was just one person what could I do?
The other night while visiting with some liberal/democrat friends at a local pub, my signif.other, a marine veteran, whose family members are staunch republican voting, Bush supporting people ,who had also voted for Bush both times…injected into the political discussion of candidates. He amazed and surprised us all by stating that the only man he thought that would be able to get the US on board for the environment was Al Gore.
Regardless of what many may say about Al, my s.o’s comment was groundbreaking. I have only been with him less than 2 years, and we have had some pretty intense political discussions. He is a decent loving man, but on the issue of politics, we had agreed to disagree. My jaw pretty much hit the table, as did all of his friends who have known him much longer. My gentle talks about ‘the system” and taking a broad look at politics, the corporate effects on both political parties and the issues facing us as globalization, NAFTA, PNAC, etc take their toll had shifted his views from the narrow focus he had. It gave me hope. I know we face an uphill struggle, but I have found this small glimmer in the maelstrom. My little rock thrown into the pond made a ripple. I am going to hold onto that thought.
HI LOBO, we have an electric/gasoline powered vehicle, got 58 to 64 mpg depending upon the area, not so good in the mountains. In addition, if one drives 55 or less on the interstates they are a road hazard.
You know when the feds mandated 55mph everyone complained. If the max speed limit was 55 and enforced, we would not have to import any fuel from the mid east. Enforced of course is a joke, on I-95 in Pennsylvania the limit is 55, and if you are doing 70 you will be passed by half of the vehicles.
As for the idea of what can we do collectively, I hope that this will spark some ideas:
In my adopted town of Olympia, WA, I helped to start a new group called the Gleaners’ Coalition. What we do is harvest vegetables and fruit from local farms and gardens that would otherwise go to waste, and then distribute that food to food banks, shelters, Food Not Bombs, etc. Our philosophy is that capitalism leads to waste, and that food security must have a community solution. The GC is a small organization, but we have had a noticeable impact on the health of our community. This impact has led to the growing awareness of food security and what buying local means. What we are doing in Olympia has given me a lot of hope for the future, even in these times of increasingly depression-inducing headlines.
Happy Trails
Lilleth
www.gleanerscoaliton.org
Operating from an “end of the world” mentality can lead to a sense of resignation, but even worse, it seems to be breeding a kind of “how can I improve the quality of MY life in the time that is left” mentality. The reality is that the poor have always carried the burden of environmental destruction, waste and greed. Only by empowering the poor and marginalized can we solve the problems that threaten our planet. In one of the comments on this article someone mentioned the problem of population. It is important to remember that as people become more economically secure and empowered the number of children that they choose to have drops. Among very poor people children represent economic security. Without other kinds of social security having lots of children is the only way to survive. Further, people who have been given a stake in the means of production tend to take better care of the inputs involved in that production, whether it be farmland, forests, or factories. If you are a migrant laborer or tenant farmer the long-term environmental health of the land you work is not as much of a concern to you as it would be if it was YOUR land. If the ownership of a factory is in the hands of an absentee owner or corporation the toxic products that that factory emits are of less concern to the owners than to the workers in that factory, who, when they have a stake in decision-making, will be more likely to do something about them. There is a danger in focusing on the problems of the environment without seeing that environmental degradation is linked to problems of economic justice. That danger is that we will build “solutions” to environmental problems that still leave those at the bottom carrying the burden of our quality of life. Vinoba Bhave, Gandhi’s successor in the nonviolent movement in India, was once travelling with a group of people and they decided to spend the night in the ruins of a Majaraja’s palace that had been built only a century before. He reflected on the amount of work that went into building a palace which now lay in ruins. He went on to say that “just as in the Gita, where Krishna says ‘those who will die are already dead, those that will be destroyed are already destroyed,’ so, too, God tells me that just as the age of kings has passed, so, too, the age of the rich is coming to an end. So let us build the future, not future ruins.”
BTW Lobo, I was not complaining about anyone, I was just stating what I observed. I will restate, I believe we are a crazy society, selfish also and don’t realize it.
Some of us realize it.
Kilroy,
Instead of driving, You should consider instead going Amtrak on your next cross country vacation. Amtrak has three different very scenic, east coast-to-west coast routes, plus routes up and down the coasts. The Coast Starlight up the California coast literally follows the edge of the sea cliffs up the Santa Barbara coast, then up the Salinas valley, up the central valley overnight and around Mt. Shasta at sunrise and through the Oregon Cascades. Get a sleeper compartment. They even have compartments with their own showers and bathrooms (but pricey). Otherwise, you have showers on the lower level of the car. Most Americans don’t seem to be aware of the amenities available on the long-haul Amtrak trains. The food in the dining car is not 5-star but is still probably at least as good as first class food on US airlines. Some of the routes have lounge cars with wine tastings and such. No, the trains usually won’t run on time - especially the Coast Starlight - but you’re on vacation, right? And you will still contribute much less CO2 than your Prius.
Here’s a confession: the person who most captured my imagination during the 2004 American presidential campaign was Teresa Heinz Kerry. She was attractive, out-spoken, and very, very rich. And her job was to distribute the assets of the Heinz Family Foundation in ways most calculated to benefit humanity. How cool was that? Wow, I thought, I wish I could be a billionaire–I wish being a philanthropist was my job! It didn’t seem like a reasonable goal at the time, but it was heartfelt.
That wish came true.
To be completely honest, I’m a billionaire in terms of Vietnamese currency (at an exchange rate of 16,000 Vietnamese dong to one US dollar), and I don’t draw a salary in my new role as “professional philanthropist”—but I do run a US-registered non-profit organization from my new home in Vietnam. I am certainly rich by Vietnamese standards and my family lives quite comfortably here, while I am free to do the work of my new organization: Steady Footsteps. How cool is that?
What would you do if you realized that, compared to most of the world’s population, you were very rich indeed? What would you do if you decided that the things that you were clinging to –job security, rising home equity, readily available health care, and a democratic government—were illusory? Would you hold fast to your present lifestyle—or would you consider doing something “radical”?
“A View From Outside the Box”–from the blog, Steady Footsteps:
Tales of an American Physical Therapist in Vietnam
Kilroy says thanks for the suggestion PJD, however he would have had to rent a car or hire a taxi, wherever he stopped to fish during the vacation. Yeah he polluted he atmosphere with exhaust fumes and is one of the crazy Americans who love their mode of transportation. He’ll attempt to make up for it by staying home for the next 11 months and use his vehicle to get to town once a week.
He is very sick and asked me to respond for him and his wife.
I would say do not take the train. We did the Starlight from SF to Seattle and it was a hellish trip, slow and late and by the end of the journey totally gross. The sleeper is soo expensive, something like 3x the price of coach and at that rate, you are better off taking the plane. Compared to the trains in Norway, Amtrak totally sucks. I agree travel less in general, bike, take the bus, buy local, do what you can. But we cannot hole up and wait for the end times to come. Lives and work and everything else has to go on somehow.
PJD, I read about a study last year that found that a full four-passenger vehicle actually uses less fuel per occupant than a passenger train. Granted, the study took place in England so their average sedan is probably smaller and more efficient than ours, but since Kilroy drove a small hybrid he may have come out ahead, even with less than four passengers.
The speed limit thing kills me. I ‘ll bet the vast majority of cars on the interstate are traveling less than 50 miles, so going 70 instead of 60 saves them no more than 7 minutes, at a cost of fuel, increased chance of an accident, and greater chance of injury or death if a collision does occur.
Actually I heard the exact opposite. I have heard that train travel has a lower carbon footprint than driving or flying…
WE NEED MORE TRAINS NOW!!!!
“I would say do not take the train. We did the Starlight from SF to Seattle and it was a hellish trip, slow and late and by the end of the journey totally gross. The sleeper is soo expensive, something like 3x the price of coach and at that rate, you are better off taking the plane.”
Some things to keep in mind about train travel:
1. You will be late, so plan accordingly.
2. Bring a blanket, some snacks.
3. Use the sightseeing car.
4. Don’t be afraid to talk with strangers, and be aware that there’s usually a couple of people who are a pain, especially on long trips.
5. If you like being super-clean, bring some face wipes.
Advantages of train travel:
1. You see more of the country.
2. It’s slower and more relaxing.
3. No TSA, no random searches.
5. More comfortable seating than planes or buses.
I would encourage you to get a little bit out your comfort zone here, and give the train another try. Air travel is horrible for the environment, and besides, even if you’re late, you won’t be held overnight.
One more thing about Amtrak delays - many of the delays on the long-haul routes are caused by freight railroad incompetence. Although by law, passenger traffic is supposed to have precedence over freight traffic - this was part of the deal that allowed the railroads to discontinue passenger service - it’s rarely followed.
If your train trip is under 24 hours, you’re probably better off in coach, and then the prices are competitive with air travel - the Coast Starlight from the SF Bay Area to L.A. is about the same as a plane ticket. And yes, there’s much more legroom and no TSA.
We often used the train for going to the airports in Phila and or Newark and New York. It was a pleasant ride with nice big seats, inexpensive, no traffic to fight, no vehicle parking fees and the trains go directly to the specific terminals. I would love to see the return of trains and don’t see any need for the expensive to operate and maintain 200 or more mph jobs. 80 to 100 mph is fast enough and a hell of a lot safer and far less expensive. However, don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen. We won’t have to hold our breath very long for the depression to hit and when it does all of these discussions will be moot.
Sluggy, I would agree with you on the sightseeing car and a couple pain in the butt passengers and a handful of nice ones. We did pass the time, but we froze because we did not bring blankets and my request for pillows went unanswered, I tried 3 times. It’s the 3-5 hr delays with a small child waiting in the middle of the night that was bad and the fact the bathrooms got totally gross by the end of the trip. The US train system is a disgrace. I mean we were crawling slower than I could walk overnight, to let the freights pass. I mean dont tell me that there is only 1 track in and out of California that can be used by trains. If they could spend a fraction of what they spend on highways on trains and upgrading the track, we could have a train system. As it stands now, we dont even have a train to go from Madison WI to Chicago or Milwaukee. We have to drive 40 miles to Columbus to get Amtrak. Christ a major city like Madison does not have its own train station. They keep talking about it and doing feasibility studies, and nothing comes out of it ever. 100 years ago I had far more opportunities for train travel than now.
Love those feasibility studies FREIA.
The local government elected hire a firm with “experts” who first ask, “What is it you wish to hear”? They get paid $150,000 with your tax dollars to conduct the study, re-writing dust covered studies that were conducted years prior. They likely insure the elected who hired them get a few gifts and the beat goes on. We are a courrupt society.
We can spend $170 million every single DAY to promote democracy in Iraq, kill off the civilian population and insure they don’t come over here and attack us with weapons of mass destruction. We can afford an unjust war, but we cannot afford to upgrade our railroads, insure there is a fair and decent healthcare system or even insure it’s safe to be walking in the nations capitol at night. We no longer deserve to exist as a nation and we will get our come-uppance. It really pisses me off.
Here’s a thought for you Americans who never leave your USA. Travel abroad, and learn about the world. There’s a whole world of cultures and experiences out there. Americans are extremely ignorant about them. They have this idea that US has everything, so why leave! What a limiting way of thinking. You may find that other cultures and countries actually do it far better than the US, and far more cheaply. Expand your horizons, then practice what you learn when you return. You may lose that ugly ignorant self-centered arrogant American label.