Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 182 Editor's Choice: 38
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Trains
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The airlines need competition to help them treat their passengers better. Not from more airlines ... the skies are already too crowded, but from trains.
Trains are relaxing, fun and a great way to see a country or state. Unfortunately, because legislators fall all over themslves to help airlines who give them lots of campaign contributions we have allowed our train system to deteriorate to almost non-existence.
Last year I planned to visit Tennessee and wanted to take a train to Nashville. But Amtrak does not service Nashville, which was a major rail hub for more than a century. I was shocked to learn I could only reach western Tennessee taking a train through Chicago and then south along the Mississippi to Memphis or taking a train to Washington and then to Birmingham, Alabama with a 200-mile drive after that. Each would require more than 24 hours of travel time. I eventually flew to Nashville. My plane had a mechnical problem so we had to return to the gate. We disembarked because they said it would take an hour to fix. After we wandered to the restrooms and the coffee bars they announced we would reload immediately on a new plane they rolled out for us. I just made it.
Here are some steps to bring back train travel:
1. We should immediately infuse Amtrak with billions to buy new equipment, upgrade service and buy the tracks they use for their major, money-making routes such as the northeast corridor and the NY-Chicago run. Where to get this money? Hmmm, we are spending $1 billion a week somewhere that we shouldn't, aren't we?
2. Develop high-speed mag-lev trains for coast to coast service (NY to Seattle and Miami to Los Angeles) and top to bottom service such as Boston-NY-Washington-Atlanta-Miami, Seattle-Portland-San Francisco-Los Angeles-San Diego, Detroit-Chicago-St. Louis-New Orleans, and Minneapolis-Kansas City-Oklahoma City-Dallas-Houston.
3. Restore service cut from mid-sized cities and communities in the past 30 years.
4. Subsidize Amtrak to make their long-distance fares competitive with the airlines'.
5. Offer incentives to companies that ship their goods via train instead of trucks or who send their representatives on business trips by train instead of by air.
6. Put a price floor under all fossil fuels, such as $3.50 a gallon, to encourage people to drive less. All proceeds above the market price for fuel go to Amtrak and to support research and development of alternative fuel sources.
If people could get from Penn Station in NY to Union Station in Chicago in under 8 hours or from Boston to Washington in under 3 hours or across the country in less than 24 hours, the airlines would have something to worry about.
Improving our train system is not just good for competition, but it would help ease some of the strain we place on the environment, would help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and would aid the devlopment of new fuel sources.
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CEO?
[Read the article: If the United States were a company, would George Bush be our CEO?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In a real company Shrub would not have advanced far from the mailroom where Daddy Bush would have gotten him a summer job.
In real life Shrub has ruined almost every company for which he was an officer or director. Daddy found a buyer for Shrub's oil company when it foundered. Using insider information he gained as a director, he sold his shares of another oil company just before the share price tanked.
The only exception was the Texas Rangers where he was the front man for the other owners. He paid great dividends when he became Texas governor because his appointee made the decision (wink) to use Texas taxpayer dollars to help build the BallPark at Arlington. Having a commitment for a new ballpark greatly increased the team's value just before it was sold. Shrub's investment of $600K in the Rangers yielded $15 million which accounts for most of his personal fortune.
Shrub wanted to be baseball commissioner but Bud Selig, if you can believe it, outmaneuvered him for the job.
It's nice work if Daddy can get it for you.
Instead of impeachment, offer Shrub and Darth Cheney $1 billion each to just go away. No questions. No taxes. Just go away.
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Am I missing a century?
[Read the article: Military history is for male writers only]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is 2007, yes? I was afraid I missed the 20th century when I read this article.
My two best history professors in college were women, and that was 30 years ago. JFK made "The Guns of August" required reading for everyone at the DoD.
Can't the New York Times stop embarrassing itself? Every couple of months for the past five years there is a fresh faux pas for the Grey Lady.
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Ian Richardson, etc.
[Read the article: Regarding Oscar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ian Richardson, a fine Shakespearean actor, died recently and was not mentioned last night. Pity, because he was one of Helen Mirren's mentors when she first took to the stage.
People have been complaining about the Oscar telecast since I was a child and no one does anything about it. If you just handed out the awards, had clips of the 5 nominated movies, a summary of the year in movies and the dearly departed, you could do it all in 90 minutes. Skip the songs. They are usually forgettable in their movies; taken out context they are dreadful.
I can only take Ellen DeGeneres in small doses but getting Speilberg to photograph her with Clint was a funny moment.
When the Three Stooges Directors came out (note Speilberg's Moe moment just before opening the envelope ("Spread out!")) to give the director's award, it occurred to me that even though Scorcese would have been given the award as long as he had made anything that was not a complete piece of crap the three amigos might have been tipped off.
I thought Cameron Diaz' dress was rather nice. I am sorry to see that no one takes the chance of wearing something truly out there anymore. The fashionistas have cowered everyone into conservative colors and styles. Ellen D should have shocked everyone by coming out mid-show wearing an off the shoulder gown. I remember Whoopie Goldberg's purple gown a few years ago that was stunning.