America the Delusional
This is in response to Richard Spellman’s letter to the editor (“Dept. of Truth Hurts II, Oct. 26). Mr. Spellman believed John Grooms’ article “Gouged” (Oct. 12) to be fiction and implied that the European model of mass transit is a system forced upon Europeans by their dictatorial governments. For the record, I am European, born and raised, and a resident alien here in the U.S.A. I have lived here for 15 years. There is much about the U.S.A. and Europe that I love and cherish, but I feel compelled to make a defense of Europe on this point. The facts are these:
1) Europe has never enjoyed easy access to oil;
2) Discovery of North Sea oil occurred relatively late;
3) North Sea oil is already past its peak production year.
The impending tragedy of American life is linked to the following important facts:
1) Americans are living under the delusion of unending easy access to cheap oil; the most obvious evidence for this is the continued investment in exurban sprawl and the continued production of huge, gas-guzzling, cars;
2) Americans seem hard-wired to believe that the individual is more important than the collective; this is a mindset that will be seriously challenged as easy access to cheap oil becomes a distant memory.
The E.U. is not a collection of dictatorships; it is a complex union of Democracies, made up of citizens who seem to be hard-wired to believe that the collective is at least as important as the individual. Furthermore, we have never lived under the delusion that oil is cheap and easy to get. Time will tell which mindset is better prepared to deal with the end of cheap and easy oil. The mass transit issue in Europe is not discussed in abstract, ideological terms; it is a very practical matter.
Finally, I recently purchased a home in the SouthEnd, about two blocks from Charlotte’s first mass-transit, light-rail line. When it becomes operational I intend to use it; housing prices in my neighborhood are already going up in anticipation of that day.
Bravo, John Grooms.
— Mark Bridgwood, Charlotte
Regarding the editorial letter from Richad Spellman, MBA, CFBE, SPHR, FOS, etc.; would someone please drive the final nail into the coffin of that oft-repeated conservative/libertarian canard, that the American shift from commuting via rail and bus to dependence on the private auto was merely one of personal choice, made possible by post-WWII affluence. Freedom of where to live and how to get to work, who could argue with that in a free society, right? Well, if only it were true. The great conservative deity “The Market” was not the sole guiding force behind this transition. America’s artificially created reliance on the automobile was enacted by the auto industry, the oil industry and tire manufacturers, aided and abetted by a pliant federal government in no hurry to bite the hands that were feeding it during the postwar boom.
In the earlier part of this century, nearly all major cities and many smaller towns had “interurbans”, i.e., light rail. My hometown had the last system in NC, ceasing operations around 1950. While true that some systems had met their demise in the 1930s due to the Depression and to successful competition from buses, those which remained met an ignoble end: bought up by a holding company formed by the aforementioned interests, closed down and turned into scrap metal. The ever-vigilant Feds charged to the rescue, arraigned the bad actors, found them guilty and charged them accordingly — the sum of $1. In one fell swoop, corporate America’s heavy hitters eliminated the competition, the only alternative for commuters (save walking) from which they made no profit. Choice indeed. Then from the mid-1960s, desegregation ensured that successive generations of white commuters would neither set foot upon a city bus nor comprehend why their taxes should fund city buses, an institution “took over by the nigras.”
Neither “freedom to live where one chooses” (hello, sprawl!) nor “commuting preference” should be blamed (or lauded, for you conservatives) for America’s automotive dependence and suburbanization. Rather, the credit goes to corporate greed, governmental collusion and lingering racist sentiments. The truth does, indeed, hurt. . . all of us.
— Mark S. Horton, AA, BA, MALS, PLS, etc., etc., Gastonia
CMS is Broken
Re: “Walking the Walk to School,” by John Grooms, Oct. 26. My first responsibility is to my children. They attend Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools out of financial necessity, not choice. If there was a voucher system in place, or if I had the personal means, then I would quickly pull them out of CMS, because I believe CMS is broken. Meeting their educational needs is my first priority, performing my civic duty by trying to fix CMS is second. I understand Peter Sidebottom’s decisions on both fronts.
— Mike Eisner, Pineville
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2005.
