A genuinely modest proposal: Before committing ourselves to putting an astronaut on Mars, let’s make it possible for ordinary people to get from Chicago to Peoria without braving Interstate Highway 55.
Right now, as the president talks of moon bases and Mars missions, there are no rail connections between Chicago and most of our state’s population centers, including not just Peoria but also Rockford, Decatur and the Quad Cities. Carless college students have no easy way to get to DeKalb or Madison, Wis.
And Illinois has better train service than most states.
While Amtrak, unlike NASA, does not produce dramatic photo ops or lucrative contracts for clout-heavy corporations, it does perform a useful, necessary and environmentally sound function. But rather than working to improve and expand our nation’s passenger rail network, the president has persistently tried to starve it to death.
At this point in history, to look for fossil Martians means ignoring the needs of living earthlings.
Our current auto-centered transportation system is not ecologically or politically viable.
When will our leaders realize that “homeland security” means learning to live lightly on our one and only home planet?
