America’s Infrastructure: On a toothpick

In the Northeast, the colonial footprint is large and the evidence of mass urbanization even more evident.  Up and down the coast, the government, through subsidized agencies such as Amtrak, established methods of transportation designed to take cars off the roads.  The most recent and breathtaking maneuver is Acela, an American bullet train designed to race through the American metropolis at speeds approaching one hundred fifty miles per hour.  Unfortunately, it seems, the government made critical flaws in the development and execution of the plan.

An incredibly popular method of transportation, Amtrak serves millions upon millions of passengers annually.  With such a flood of daily commuters and tourists alike, several delays, spurred by confusion among the masses, plague the system.  Undeniably, with people come delays and lines – problems Amtrak, in the past, dismissed to the best of their ability.  Unfortunately, the subsidized agency, with a lack of foresight, failed to straighten the tracks in the historically and stereotypically curvy tracks running the coast from Baltimore to South Boston – this, at best, yields to hundreds of problems, many of which are potentially fatal.  Furthermore, the meandering tracks both limit comfort and top speed of their fastest train, Acela.  With tracks so bad on the run from Boston to Washington D.C., the train can, at best, only hit its top speed about fifteen percent of the time on a clear day – normally the train, relatively speaking, must idle at ninety miles per hour in several parts of the tracks.

Though this is a mere inconvenience to most who, as a matter of fact, fail to realize their current speed, this situation raises several disheartening questions about the current infrastructure of the Northeast.  The government, through Acela, is capable of providing relatively cheap high-speed service to its citizens (Last time I paid $40) but through bureaucratic messes fails to expend the full potential of its assets.  What other industries that the government controls have the express capability to fail?

This August, a major artery, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, collapsed evidently from a state of disrepair.  Daily, I drive on roads and bridges and land on runways with the confidence they are constructed with care and are maintained with diligence.  Is my confidence misplaced?  While the next major disaster looms in the future, let us consider its consequences.  For example, the bridges on Interstates I-40 and I-55 connect two Americas: the Western and the Eastern.  Memphis, home of freight super player FedEx, handles more air cargo than any city in the world.  If this city was severed off by a natural disaster and these pivotal spans crumbled, the implications would be immense.  Trucks would have to be rerouted, global trade stopped for at least a day, and the increase of shipping rates by leaps and bounds are all reasonable implications from a likely event: a New Madrid earthquake. 

Not intended to be a scare but a wake-up, the nation as a whole, from coast to coast, needs to furbish its internal infrastructure.  On the East Coast trains run slower even in the face of advancing technology.  A relatively small earthquake can literally crumble the world’s economy in five minutes.  I think there’s room for internal improvements.  

Who Cares?

Americans are close-minded and gullible people.   They follow fads religiously which they vehemently pledge to be true.  As a result, they remain blissfully ignorant of the collateral effects of their beliefs/actions.  The same applies to their media.  This is the reason their knowledge and concern for issues that matter is, at best, diminutive and ordinarily nonexistent but their knowledge of “fluff” is astounding. 

 

The American media, if you have not noticed, is chalked full of “rallying points,” issues that are simple and enthralling – perfect for the common proletariat (or as “elitist” Daniel thinks, the simple man).  However, for public awareness, such issues are poison as they are easy to polarize (which makes them tres easy to understand), sorting the American public without an actual understanding.  This lack of grey area in today’s media is menacing to the overall intelligence of the audience of the newscast that, thanks to globalization, covers millions upon millions.  This distillation of critical and impending issues for the ease of listener comprehension leads to the inflation of cretinous news as illustrated by the modern focus upon illegal immigration, same-sex marriage, and abortion – in the grand scheme of things, frivolous.  It is worth noting that these three prime examples are also key political issues of the day. 

 

One blog which I recently read called the use of profanity “a decline in the morals of America” and, in context, named the issue a pressing one (said blog and author shall remain nameless and citeless).  With no insult to the author intended, who actually cares about a news anchor’s diction when taken into the big picture?  Or is that the problem, do the people of today not see in the big picture but let merely narrow minded maxims guide all of their opinions? 

 

Today there are mass genocides across the continent of Africa and the outbreak of World War III looms on the eastern horizon – two matters which, in my humble opinion, deserve far more attention than this degrading fluff filling the AP wires. 

 

Where are the reports of Darfurian genocide and the atrocities that plunder nearly the entire African continent?  The American people need to realize that just because a problem isn’t headlined on primetime it isn’t a problem – that’s why the civil rights movements took so long, especially after the Civil War for the blacks. 

 

Where are the reports that flood reputable news sources (aka foreign ones) that offer rounded views on the aggressions of Iran and its intentions? Do they not exist?  Of course they do but just not on the teleprompter of American “journalists” as they are too far worried with local murders and profanity in the schools.  What a joke! 

 

Important issues, in comparison to Nancy Grace’s muttonheaded rants, are trivial in the social atmosphere of today.  This, for the future of the human race, needs to stop.  Americans hold dear the false conception that everything worth knowing is on CNN or MSNBC – that is as true as believing “if Wal-Mart don’t got it, you don’t need it.”  Judge for yourself.

 

The Clinton – Obama Epic

Obviously, unless you reside inside a cave, you are aware of the race for the Democratic Presidential nominee, the race of all races (no pun intended, Barack), the match up of all match ups.  My friends, this is the modern day Rumble in the Jungle, the jungle of American journalism – the deceptive jungle, that is.   The question is:  will Ali, the veteran, Hillary, snatch victory from the opening jaws of defeat?

 

Yes — although the Clinton political dynasty currently looks to be on the downward side of a slippery slope, one can never count them out – Hillary and Bill know how to play the game, they’ve helped make the rules. Without question, the catalyst for the downward regression of Clinton’s poll numbers is the media and its representation of Hillary as one whom categorically operates on evil motives.

 

In order for Clinton to both turn her career around and secure the nomination, a drastic swing in the media must occur, and fast.  Hillary must shed this draconian, demonic, impersonal reputation to gain votes which, if she does, she will get faster than Mitt Romney shed his tan after being dismissed from the race.  But why?  Why can Hillary Clinton, baring media prejudices, vanquish Obama head-to-head?  The answer is simple: experience.

 

However, barring the outstanding stances of Clinton compared to those of Obama, one must consider the commercial and moral appeal of this deadlock without personal bias.  Democratic turnout this primary season is extremely high – same for grassroots.  The Democratic schism, it seems, energizes the Party, benefiting whoever is the nominee as well as giving the Democrats a vision for a better deal – something to fight for.  If the surge continues, an exciting general election will result which, in turn, will bring about higher Democratic participation, leading to both a gain in the Executive Branch but also in the Legislative. 

 

This all reduces to the fight between the ages, Hillary, 60, and Barack, 45 as both candidates provide the party with inspiration.  Sure Barack is the young gun, the “candidate of change,” but does he have all of the weapons necessary to take down a political legend, Hillary?  No, as was shown in the Congo one summer evening, experience matters. 

 

Mr. Obama, your time will come.  Unfortunately for you, the Clinton dynasty lives.