Witness To Change

The long haul across the Arizona desert, and the mountains of California, for me, the road more traveled. Whether on old highway 66, or the run up out of El Paso, I’ve seen the change on these American roads. By truck, by camper, car, and motorcycle, I’ve crossed these highways. I’ve traveled the trains that parallel these roads, as they cut through mountain passes. This last time coming across was different, I’ve never seen so many freight trains going east. This was january 2007, and for the first time, I saw that as a country, we didn’t make anything anymore. One hundred car trains, double stacked, all going east, like clockwork, every fifteen minutes or so. Nothing exciting about these trains anymore, its not the same. They all are just moving stuff, nothing in their cargo is tied to the fabric of our nation. Crossing the desert at night, heading west, from a distance, in the rear view mirror I’d see a faint light, a freight train, carring products manufactured in our midwest Sometimes an hour could pass before the train caught up. I was always fascinated by the dance of trains, their system of sidings, what train has right of way. On this trip I saw that anything going East had the right of way, nothing was moving West, I guess its not so busy out there now, there’s just not a whole lot going on. In the name of greater profits, all of what fueled our growth as a nation has been out sourced, we ship all the “Stuff” we need in. Corporate profits increse, if we are able to knock down labor costs. This cash for clunkers program is interesting, the economy is kicking as a result. It sounds a lot like Christmas to me, you know, the gauge of how healthy the economy is, measured by the amount of money that has been spent. We got a whole lot of people, spending a whole lot of money, they don’t have to spend, and I am to believe things are picking up. We need to move away from this service, and security economy. The concept of hiring someone for a security position at $12 an hour and he carries a gun. What disturbs me about this, is a person would put his life on the line for a $12 an hour job. What is his motivation, to feed his family, to show to his boss he is a good risk, maybe get that loan he can’t afford, the guy he’s working for will put in a good word. At $12 an hour he’s a bargain, let’s keep him happy. We are a great country, because we can make things better than anyone else. We need these skilled jobs coming back to the US. In this corporate formula for success, what was left out of the equation, was the working people of America. We need some two way train tracks in America, we need to unclog the system. There are a lot of things we could do to make things better in America. Why are people driving 100 miles, everyday, just to sit at a computer? Why not work from home, eliminate the commute, draw the community’s together, use the automobile for pleasurable pursuits. When we produce more than we consume, we win