Jim wonders how the media supports the transportation status quo, and seems to wonder what is wrong with the transportation status quo.
The article I cited from SWJ is one instance of media supporting car-overuse, as are recent articles in the Star Trib related to the 35W Expansion and Lake Street project. I strongly suggest that list members in our "literate" city go to a bookstore, and at the very least scan through this book as a way of setting our transportation infrastructure decisions in context: BOILING POINT: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis -- and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster. By Ross Gelbspan. 254 pp. Basic Books. $22. Gelbspan focuses on one ecological impact of "our way of life" -- our status quo, if you will. Our way of life is a form of theft, a form of inflicting irreparable damage on the world. Our transportation system is a kind of "crime against humanity" we refuse to see, because we canot imagine life other than it is for us ourselves, although over 37,000 Iraqi civilians --including people who are frail and elderly, mothers and children -- can die to keep our "normal" way of life going. Of course, we've been conducting a murderous (if quiet) little war in Columbia for years now, wrenching oilfields away from those who live in the way, and we ironically call it "drug interdiction." I can hear them laughing all the way down in Bogata, can't you? If you read the Star and Trib, you will never, ever, be made aware of Columbia. Nor will you learn that Shell essentially bought and paid for the Nigerian military so that the government of Nigeria would carry out brutal murders and beatings to keep our little oil addiction going. Of course, th fact that Shell and Saudi Aramco have grossly overstated reserves to keep stock prices up -- and who has not? -- is under-reported and certainly not analysed in our media. That kind of corporate theft is just "normal" for us. Of course, our government has been trying to oust Chavez in Venezuala -- one of the largest suppliers of our oil addiction as well -- for fear that he is not compliant with our wishes. This has cost blood and suffering in Venezuala, but our media ensures that we do not see or understand this. Has the Star and Trib ever printed anything other than "the party line" about Columbia, Venezuala, Nigeria, or Iraq? Absolutely not. Has the Star and Tribune ever printed anything that assumed we would drve less in the future, rather than more? No. Has the Star and Trib reported anything from such economic and oil-industry insiders as Matthew Simmons, Colin Campbell, Jean Laherrere, Sadad al-Husseini (Saudi Aramco), or Jan Lundberg? Most of our "literate" population has no clue about the real global dialogue about our little energy addiction. I suggest folks do a google search on these names, as I suspect our media has no intention of stepping on corporate toes by reporting on the real global conversation. Our local media will not make us aware that our transportation system causes more sickness, human suffering, and even death in our city than does smoking in bars. Big Tobacco has a weak spot at the moment, but the fossil fuel industry sets our agenda for us. (Fear not, Republicans are absolutely in love with Big Tobacco -- therefore, Big Tobacco "will rise again" in Minneapolis.) The transportation status quo in Minneapolis is that about 93% of people drive, maybe 4% or so use transit (on a good day?) and maybe 3% walk and bike. In three years, we could change that: how about 80% driving, 12% transit riding, and 8% walking and biking? We need to set high goals and then plan to achieve them. Most of our urban trips are actually walkable or bikable. We choose not to walk or bike because we do not feel like it. Even contractors with trucks give me the thumbs up as I ride my pedicab and trailer. One of my clients just fired the lawncare folks who drive a huge truck and trailer in from the 'burbs and fire up the little smog-factory lawn equipment to do yard work. There is a step in the right direction. The true cost of "our way of life" is hidden from us by the media every dy, and we need to fight like Hell to see and understand it. 93% of our metro trips being made by car -- and many of these trips are one-person-one"SUV" trips -- is an obscenity and an offense to well over 90% of the world's population. 93% of our trips being made by car is a long, slow environmental crash doing infinitely more damage than all the car crashes in history. We can do better. I believe that we will do better. -- pedaling for peace and ecojustice: thinking globally, acting locally in Kingfield -- Gary Hoover REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
