Dear President-Elect Obama: Remember Amtrak

The railroad bridge in Fredericksburg, Virginia with an early morning Amtrak Train crossing, on Flickr by Andrew.dici

This post is my entry for the Green Mom's Carnival for December. Check it out at Diane MacEachearn's Big Green Purse.

Dear President-Elect Obama (oh, how I LOVE the sound of THAT!),

You are undoubtedly receiving many pleas for change. And I imagine that you are a tad busy. So I'll keep my request short:

Please remember Amtrak.

Please increase Amtrak's budget, for regular and high-speed rail service, for maintenance, for new trains. Remember that our country is vast, and that ecologically-sound, dependable, economical transportation is needed beyond the Northeast Corridor. Remember the little towns all across the Midwest which essentially shut down when the trains stopped stopping, and it became necessary to have a car to get from place to place. America needs our train service back.

The first test of Amtrak's spending plans will come in February, when you submit your transportation budget with how much you want to give the carrier. Please do not follow the pathetic example of your predecessor George W. Bush, who in his final budget sought to cut Amtrak's subsidy by more than a third, or $500 million. Please be the change that we all seek. We are counting on you.

Respectfully,

Alline Anderson

Train rider

Amtrak Interior by Wigwam Jones on Flickr

**Additional info from Bloomberg.com and Trainorders.com

**Providing passengers with safe high-speed rail will have significant environmental and metropolitan planning advantages and help diversify our nation’s transportation infrastructure. Our domestic rail freight capacity must also be strengthened because our demand for rail transportation has never been greater, leaving many key transportation hubs stretched to capacity.

**The government-owned carrier set its sixth straight year of record ridership, with 28.7 million passengers for the 12 months ended Sept. 30. The 11 percent increase came as train travel was spurred by highway congestion, $4-a-gallon gasoline and air- traffic delays in the Northeast, Amtrak's busiest corridor.

Amtrak Observation Car at San Luis Obispo by porsys on Flickr

76 Nobel Laureates Endorse Obama...

...so does The Economist, and so do at least 30 Dancing Rabbits, although we're not making any headlines!

In this encouraging article (below) Tom Schueneman of Red, Green and Blue, (a site that "brings together voices from across the political and ideological spectrums to discuss and debate critical environmental issues and current events") writes:

"As of last Friday, the number of Nobel Laureates endorsing Barack Obama for president has risen to 76, saying Obama will end Bush-era trashing of scientific research, integrity, and competitiveness.

In an open letter, the Laureates cite the politicization of science under the Bush administration, particularly in the fields of heath and climate, saying that “vital parts of our country’s scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support,” adding that through an advisory process “distorted by political considerations” America’s “once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk.”

Despite John McCain’s claim that he is the true agent of change for all that has gone wrong under George Bush, both he and his remarkably incurious and misinformed (at best) running mate show how they plan to continue Bush’s appalling lack of regard for science; combining an inexcusable ignorance of the importance of basic scientific research, with the morally bereft penchant for using science as yet another divisive wedge to promulgate their politics of intolerance, fear, and derision - aiming straight at the lowest common denominator the body politic.

The vital role of science to address the most pressing issues of our time, from economic competitiveness to climate change, energy, and sustainability, will return under an Obama administration, say the Nobel scientists:

“We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation’s competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take – through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research – to meet the nation’s and the world’s most urgent needs.”

The letter stresses that the country is in urgent need of a “visionary leader” saying, “We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him”.

McCain and Palin would surely continue us on the resolute path back to the Dark Ages upon which George Bush set out eight years ago.

And there is no more time to waste on such foolishness."

I couldn't agree more. Please take the time to vote!

So register to vote already (and get your friends registered, too!)

Loved this post on Sludgie about the oh-so-terrifying Sarah Palin (aka evil spawn of the devil). I felt much better when I read this quote by Former Republican John Cole on Daily Kos:

"Sarah Palin is the distilled essence of wingnut.

She has it all.

She is dishonest.

She is a religious nut.

She is incurious.

She is anti-science.

She is inexperienced.

She abuses her authority.

She hides behind executive privilege.

She is a big spender.

She works from the gut and places a greater value on instinct than knowledge.
And most dangerous of all, she is supremely self-confident to the point of

not recognizing how ill-equipped she is to lead the country."

I also enjoyed reading this column by Roger Ebert and received this email from a friend today.

And then I just got this:
"I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....(hope I'm not offending anyone)
* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
* If you graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable.
* If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, *much* clearer now. "

I hope that it means that McCain/Palin will be soundly defeated in November. What are you doing to help? Are you registered to vote? Are your friends? Family? We've got serious work to do here. Make a donation, and get to work. And thanks!