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  Transit Sleuth

If you play video games and surf about on myspace or other social networking sites you might know what OMG, WTF, and BBQ Ponies come from.  I’ll give you some quick clarification.  I use those terms because it is the trend of the young, rather immature and not yet educated individuals in the US and around the world.  It is the common verbiage of young people around the country who are not yet old enough, or don’t care enough, to know and understand the context and history of the United States.  They don’t know about our transit history, nor do they care.  They also don’t know the real reasons or understand why car usage and single family homes are so common in the US.  They’re often conditioned to believe that it’s because the market decided somehow.  They’re rarely taught, nor do they have the opportunity to discover the intense and massive subsidies and encouragement directly from the Federal, and sometimes the state Governments to socially engineer us into the behavior and development that necessitates massive sprawl, auto usage, and single family home ownership.

It’s so massive now, that the entitlement mentality of individuals the country over, often dictate that they are owed a single family home with a car or three (gotta have one for each member of the family!) and a huge yard that sprawls as far as one can run!  The attitude is that those that proffer we don’t need these excessive and superficial things to be happy, or efficient, or economically vibrant be damned!

I point to the history books, the simpleton ideals taught in public schools, the lack of forethought and creative thinking exercises.  Most of the blame rests squarely on the failings of our education system, but even more so on the Government that funds and controls that education system.  Again, if you aren’t aware of this please whip out some reading material.  Some of the books that come to mind are;  Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, The Tycoons by Charles R. Morris, Empire Express by David Hayward Bain, and even the very famous The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.  I just recently picked up and read The Death and Life of Great American Cities, as I had already heard so much about it, and it has confirmed much of my belief that I already knew to be true.

As I read the following entries;  Command and Control on The Bellows, and When Do We Get to Win? on The Overhead Wire I stumbled onto this entry.  Specifically in my head I could just see a young girl crying her eyes out that is politically involved (one of the few) but still screaming, “OMG The Democrats hate transit!  WTF BBQ Ponies” over her MSN Messenger to her disinterested cohorts in suburbia.  But at the same time I see entries like the one on The Overhead Wire about the Democrats letting down the pro-transit folks.  As anyone knows that reads this blog of mine, I don’t purport that the Democrats are anymore pro-transit than the Republicans, it all boils down the constituents and what gets them into power.  Once either party gets there they often grow so cowardly any hope of “change” is destroyed.  We the American people don’t even have the bravery to truly vote someone in that COULD create REAL CHANGE.  Ron Paul or Ralph Nader (not that I’m pro-Nader, but he’d have definitely made some SERIOUS change) would have truly brought change.  We also seem to expect far too much of the President.  Even though Andrew Jackson and other Presidents, such as Lincoln significantly strengthened the position of the Presidency, the President still can NOT do as much as the people of this nation seem to think the President can.

So we fall to the other points of my rant.  Democrats have historically not done a damn thing for transportation besides subsidize roads.  Republicans have historically also done the same thing.  The two largest efforts by the Government to expand infrastructure are the Interstate and transcontinental railroads.  The Interstates took huge Government spending and coordination to build, the transcontinental railroads took almost no Government spending and plenty of coordination, almost all done by the private sector.  However, BOTH where initiated by the Federal Government.  Also if one looks at the two, the most successful of projects by far, where the transcontinental railroads.  We went from a minor nation in the world scene to an industrial powerhouse within a few decades.  The Government got this started, but by no means did it play a large part in our rise to imminence.

In both of those major infrastructure improvement efforts a Republican initiated the charge.  Lincoln and Eisenhower.  Both are individuals that Obama must live up to, in major ways to achieve the build out that we want, and desperately need in today’s age.  However he does NOT hold the transportation and transit ideals of either of those leaders.  I do hope that he gets the right people in place to make a difference in the infrastructure realm, but by far, I don’t expect much of a change.  Slowly but surely we the citizenry of this nation will have to continue acting and pushing for better infrastructure and more friendly, human, and livable cities.  Even though it is the responsibility of the Government (which I strongly believe is a mistake we citizens have made in giving this power to them) it will still be us, the worker bees of this nation that will have to “gitr done”.  The Federal Government will need prodded, it will need the hand of the private sector to assist, it will need the buy in of the market.  All of these things, we are getting closer and closer to by the day, but we are still far from.

What I am trying to write, in summary, are two things.

1. It’s still and always has been up to us, the citizens of the United States, to get something done about our lackluster infrastructure and pathetic transit and intercity network we’ve ruined over the last 60+ years.

2. The Federal Government will NOT, and can NOT do this efficiently or by itself.  Until we involve ourselves, our businesses, and our livelihood in making things better we will keep getting the same ole’ same ole’, no matter if the power holder in office is a Democrat or Republican.

Hopefully, for anyone that reads this, they open their eyes and realize these things.  So until the day I can’t take action myself, I’m off to continue taking any action I can.  Namely, I’ll keep taking transit and living the urban lifestyle that the US needs to stop abusing.

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