From: shenry@cs.rice.edu (Sam Henry)
Subject: Re: Cars and suburbs
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 20:49:10 GMT

>In article <1jsuiqINN8it@morrow.stanford.edu> silva@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Holly Silva) writes:

>>... Exactly where and how does any government in America 'force
>>people into trains'?  
> 
In article <C1EwL3.KMt@quake.sylmar.ca.us> brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us
(Brian K. Yoder) writes: 

>Well, I live in Los Angeles and there are all kinds of incredibly stupid
>things going on to try to make it more difficult to drive here 

Ahh, there is enlightenment on the left-coast, after all.
Houston shares a lot of LA's problems with traffic congestion and
pollution.  I do hope that one of these cities is able to set an
example of how to wean us from the auto-addiciton.

>The government is also forcing us to pay for initially, and then 
>subsidize the operation of them.

Hmmm.  Sounds like the subsidy that auto drivers have received for
years to support their addiciton.  Maybe it is way past time to
redirect that subsidy to underwrite a social recovery program.

>Well, I live in such a place.  Why should any tax monies be
>re-directed for any kind of transportation systems?  Why should I pay
>for your transportation?  Why should you pay for mine?

Excellent questions, but asked about 50 years too late.  You see, the
taxpayers HAVE been paying for auto transportation for years.  We've
even sent our children off to war to pay for outlandish consumption of
gasoline.  The war against Japan?  The war against Iraq?

>I dont care whether you drive a car, ride a bike, or stay home in bed.
>All I care about is whether you start forcing your views on me against
>my will.  (Its particularly bad since your outlook is so irrational.)
> 

But the views of the auto-addicted have been forced down our throats
for at least two generations.  How do we protect a contrary view?

>Oh come on, I live in the city with the worst pollution in the
>country (Los Angeles) 

And that's a thing to brag about?  The Houston City Fathers take every
opportunity they can find to mask news/information about the true
level of the pollution problem here.

>and I see very little real impact from the air pollution here in
>general, and much  of what does exist is not from cars.

Mayhap you should visit one the fine teaching hospitals in your great
polluted city--or even phone the American Lung Association.  Either
would be very educational for someone with your abysmal lack of
knowledge (that's called ignorance--stupidity would be to perpetuate
it).

>As I see it, there have been a lot of mistakes made in US middle
>eastern policy (in particular, not sending in the marines when the
>american wells were nationalized years ago), ...

OK, so who pays for this brilliant piece of political and military
strategy?  The American tax-payer?  For who's benefit--the
auto-addicted?  You have hoisted yourself on your own petard.

>Gee, I thought individual US citizens were paying for their oil, not the 
>US in general.  ...

More ignorance.  Do you really think the cost of a barrel of oil
includes the price of the war with Iraq?  Or the cost of cleaning up
the mess the refiners and drillers made in places like Louisiana, or
the cost of cleaning up after spilled tankers around the world?

-- 
sam henry <shenry@rice.edu>
Wanna ride?
Newsgroups: sci.environment