The case of the Coast Starlight is just another example of the decline of taste, politeness, and general functioning in America. The American century has come to a close. We are watching the passing of the baton to new centers of power and greatness elsewhere on the globe. Have you been on American Airlines lately? Have you been on any of the U.S. air carriers lately? The same petty, narcissistic, self-centered attitude in our government that allowed a stupid turf war within the FAA, dressed up in the garb of American Airlines, to be visited on the flying public this week, is precisely the same self-centered and tiresome attitude that keeps Amtrak from being funded as a viable entity. Our government is content to ride rough-shod over the American people. Our elected leadership would just as soon have all of us living in Section-8 housing as they would have us wallowing in a neurotic fear of not getting a mortgage bail-out. Our leaders have distilled themselves down into an oligarchy hostile to the fabric of individual human dignity. Since well-run and pleasant travel facilities enhance the individual's spirit, just as good food and safe cities do, we are sure not to see these in the present century. Today's Amtrak, like the airlines, like the big-box stores, like the retail giants selling us junk, are symbols of the sacrifice of excellence and good taste to the pitiful and petty.
