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dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/2mQ22YP
so a while back my dad got put on the Terrorist Watchlist.
That’s a good story opener, yeah? Sounds pretty badass? I’ve told it before, though, it’s a really dumb story. Thing is, he’s got a really common name; currently, about seven thousand adult men are living in the US and have his identical first and last name. (Including a very prominent government figure up until last year, as it happens. Fuck that guy.) Anyway, one of these seven thousand guys did something, and is on the list, and that’s the entire level of detail anyone is able to surmise; there’s no court of appeals, there’s no process, for the Terrorist Watchlist. As it happens, my dad was in the Army for approximately ever, and has retained Top Secret clearance, and this did not help him. The TSA was going to strip-search him every time he flew, and that’s that. There is, let me state again, no way to be given any kind of information about the Terrorist Watchlist, and no way to appeal to be removed from it if you are not in fact the correct person with that name, and so on. It’s a hellscape and that’s not what this post is about but do think about that. (I do think we’ve moved beyond the point in our collective Discourse where any of us thinks there’s any good reason for the government to keep any kind of lists about any of us at all for any reason, haven’t we? I suppose that’s a nice side effect of the tire fire of politics of late; last time I talked about this was because people including my Senator were theorizing that some kind of watchlist was a good idea, which was horrifying. So, live and learn.)
Anyway.
My dad’s on the Terrorist Watchlist. Thing is, my parents are retired now, and they’re at an age where they want to travel. Went my whole life basically never going anywhere and then I moved out and now they’re going to see the world. I mean, they deserve it, fine. Also my dang sister had a bunch of babies and lives halfway down the coast, so if they want to see grandkids they’ve got to go hundreds of miles. (Used to be a thousand, now it’s down to like 300, an improvement, but still.)
But now that they’re flying a lot, my dad’s getting real tired of being enhancedly secure. They drove everywhere for a while, but they’re old, and that got old.
So now they take trains a lot. Amtrak is great if you’re not in a super hurry to get where you’re going.
One of their biggest travel things every year is that Dad’s Vietnam unit has an annual reunion. It’s extra interesting because it’s just a generic reunion and now there’s suddenly a bunch of much younger guys who are veterans of other wars, now.
Anyhow this year the reunion’s in Florida, so Mom and Dad are presently on the… I think it’s the Silver Meteor, that goes from New York on down? Not sure.
That’s the other thing about the old Amtrak lines– most of them have wonderful poetic names. The Empire takes you across New York State; the Lakeshore Limited has never once been on time but will take you from New York to Chicago. The City of New Orleans, famous for the song, takes you from Chicago to New Orleans. And the Silver Meteor, I just looked it up, takes you from New York to Miami.
I wish I had the kind of lifestyle where I took trains more. I wish America had high-speed trains, any kind of trains. I wish I could take the train back and forth to the farm instead of the Thruway. (I usually get to do it about once a season, and it’s such a treat. The route runs right along the Mohawk River for a goodly portion of it, with fantastic views of my favorite bit– Big Nose and Little Nose– and some lovely marsh views near the Montezuma Bird Refuge area, and a really neat peek into the back of Schenectady, and the whole time you don’t have to get cut off by anyone with Jersey plates or boxed out by oblivious Ontarians who don’t know why there are two different lanes, and you can read a book or embroider or sew and nobody bugs you and maybe the state worker across the aisle can give you tips about getting around Albany once you get there, as if you’d ever go into Albany in your life.)
Anyway that was kind of what I liked so much about the Green New Deal, which I only skimmed a summary of– the idea of excitement, the idea of proactive changes we could make, none of this “Welp the world’s ending so we gotta give up fun entirely” stuff, but rather “We could make something else, we could change how it works and have so much more than we have now, we could have high speed trains”, and it was so exciting.
Please, I want high speed trains.
so a while back my dad got put on the Terrorist Watchlist.
That’s a good story opener, yeah? Sounds pretty badass? I’ve told it before, though, it’s a really dumb story. Thing is, he’s got a really common name; currently, about seven thousand adult men are living in the US and have his identical first and last name. (Including a very prominent government figure up until last year, as it happens. Fuck that guy.) Anyway, one of these seven thousand guys did something, and is on the list, and that’s the entire level of detail anyone is able to surmise; there’s no court of appeals, there’s no process, for the Terrorist Watchlist. As it happens, my dad was in the Army for approximately ever, and has retained Top Secret clearance, and this did not help him. The TSA was going to strip-search him every time he flew, and that’s that. There is, let me state again, no way to be given any kind of information about the Terrorist Watchlist, and no way to appeal to be removed from it if you are not in fact the correct person with that name, and so on. It’s a hellscape and that’s not what this post is about but do think about that. (I do think we’ve moved beyond the point in our collective Discourse where any of us thinks there’s any good reason for the government to keep any kind of lists about any of us at all for any reason, haven’t we? I suppose that’s a nice side effect of the tire fire of politics of late; last time I talked about this was because people including my Senator were theorizing that some kind of watchlist was a good idea, which was horrifying. So, live and learn.)
Anyway.
My dad’s on the Terrorist Watchlist. Thing is, my parents are retired now, and they’re at an age where they want to travel. Went my whole life basically never going anywhere and then I moved out and now they’re going to see the world. I mean, they deserve it, fine. Also my dang sister had a bunch of babies and lives halfway down the coast, so if they want to see grandkids they’ve got to go hundreds of miles. (Used to be a thousand, now it’s down to like 300, an improvement, but still.)
But now that they’re flying a lot, my dad’s getting real tired of being enhancedly secure. They drove everywhere for a while, but they’re old, and that got old.
So now they take trains a lot. Amtrak is great if you’re not in a super hurry to get where you’re going.
One of their biggest travel things every year is that Dad’s Vietnam unit has an annual reunion. It’s extra interesting because it’s just a generic reunion and now there’s suddenly a bunch of much younger guys who are veterans of other wars, now.
Anyhow this year the reunion’s in Florida, so Mom and Dad are presently on the… I think it’s the Silver Meteor, that goes from New York on down? Not sure.
That’s the other thing about the old Amtrak lines– most of them have wonderful poetic names. The Empire takes you across New York State; the Lakeshore Limited has never once been on time but will take you from New York to Chicago. The City of New Orleans, famous for the song, takes you from Chicago to New Orleans. And the Silver Meteor, I just looked it up, takes you from New York to Miami.
I wish I had the kind of lifestyle where I took trains more. I wish America had high-speed trains, any kind of trains. I wish I could take the train back and forth to the farm instead of the Thruway. (I usually get to do it about once a season, and it’s such a treat. The route runs right along the Mohawk River for a goodly portion of it, with fantastic views of my favorite bit– Big Nose and Little Nose– and some lovely marsh views near the Montezuma Bird Refuge area, and a really neat peek into the back of Schenectady, and the whole time you don’t have to get cut off by anyone with Jersey plates or boxed out by oblivious Ontarians who don’t know why there are two different lanes, and you can read a book or embroider or sew and nobody bugs you and maybe the state worker across the aisle can give you tips about getting around Albany once you get there, as if you’d ever go into Albany in your life.)
Anyway that was kind of what I liked so much about the Green New Deal, which I only skimmed a summary of– the idea of excitement, the idea of proactive changes we could make, none of this “Welp the world’s ending so we gotta give up fun entirely” stuff, but rather “We could make something else, we could change how it works and have so much more than we have now, we could have high speed trains”, and it was so exciting.
Please, I want high speed trains.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 12:49 pm (UTC)It's not the airplanes I hate so much, it's the Unpleasantness, but also the airplanes, I admit-- train crashes are bad sure but I never hear about them, and airplanes, well, it's really hard to sit through a bumpy takeoff and not think "hey we could fall out of the sky about now". It's tiring, a bit.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 12:53 pm (UTC)I've ridden Amtrak exactly one time - August 2013. Kansas City to Chicago. Had to go to the Chinese consulate to get my visa. It was a nice ride. Comfy. Slow, sure. But a lot less hassle than the airport.
*shrug*
The train system in the US is a disgrace.
I recently learned that they make the high speed trains in my city here. I had no idea. I knew that this is basically China's Detroit in that loads of cars are made here. So I guess it makes sense that they'd build the trains too.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 01:51 pm (UTC)Give! Us! Trains!
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 09:47 pm (UTC)But a society that has swallowed an obvious lump of bullshit like a Terrorist Watchlist that people are on for no reason and can't appeal is not a society that builds infrastructure for the future.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-27 01:34 am (UTC)B, I cackled.
I also wish for a Real Train System here in the US.
-If I fly to New Orleans from Austin: ~$300+, 60min flight.
-If I drive to New Orleans from Austin: ~$120 in gas, ~8hr drive.
-If I take the train to New Orleans: ~$100...to take a 3hr train trip to San Antonio, stay overnight and be back at the train station by 6:00am to take a 15hr connecting train to New Orleans. Or drive the 90min to San Antonio, either at fuck o clock to get there by 6am or again, sleep somewhere and get to the train station by 6am...to still spend 15hrs on the train to New Orleans.
IN WHAT WORLD DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
In this stupid part of the country that entirely devalued public transportation of any sort ever.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 05:03 am (UTC)2. the poetic names on the routes are the best and I love them
3. I hear you on the high speed trains, but at this point I would honestly settle for an expansion of the current system that could actually get you everywhere without tons of buses and backtracking. Like, I can go to Chicago and St. Louis from where I'm at (and from Chicago to a lot of places, just not conveniently) but I can't get to Omaha or Denver or, IDK, Texas or whatever? I would take even regular speed trains everywhere if they would just go everywhere
4. ditto on the Green New Deal :/
no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 12:12 pm (UTC)I am in the situation where there is actually a train that goes from almost my house to almost the farm, pretty often. but it's expensive, it's so expensive-- it costs me like $45 in gas and tolls to get there, and a train ticket is $65. So it's not like.... a lot more, but it adds up, so it's a luxury for me to do that, and also once I'm there, I have zero options. I must be ferried to and from the station on both ends, and then I can't run any errands without borrowing a car. Which, mostly I can get by, but there are times when I'm stuck. (There is one city bus that goes from downtown Troy past the farm one time a day each direction, to take people to the beach. Yes really. Other than that, there is no public transport anywhere within the township. We are four miles from the city limits and situated directly on an interstate highway.)