Just had a great weekend visiting a friend from the neighborhood who has since moved back to his hometown of St. Louis. I took the Amtrak with another Printers Row pal. The three of us originally met, where else, at the late, great Hackney’s. Miraculously, the trains to and from the Gateway City were very nearly on time. And though it was six hours, I wouldn’t have traded it for a flight, which, door to door wouldn’t have been much faster at all. Every seat on the train is roomier and more comfortable than a first class airline seat. And, heading to the café car gave us a nice walk.
A weekend in St. Louis.
As good as it was, I can’t take a train in the United States without thinking of…Japan. Or Europe. But man, Japan. A bullet train to St. Louis would’ve been more like three hours. It also would have cost more, but bullets in Japan are just one option. There are always cheaper, conventional choices for the same routes. I have this dream: fast trains linking all the Midwest rust belt cities—Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland—throw in Minneapolis. We become a regional economic powerhouse. Climate change/real estate refugees from the West Coast and Sun Belt would flee to the region for affordable housing, abundant fresh water, and the ability to hop around the region to do business quickly and comfortably.
A person can dream.
Apart from that, having ridden the trains in Japan and in Europe, the physical plant here in the United States is embarrassing. I’m talking about tools, old rails, and junk just piled up along track lines and even inside the stations.
Anyway, back to the trip. At one point our St. Louis buddy was driving us back from a day in downtown St. Louis, and we got to talking about politics. Along the way, he said something interesting: “I’m a Democrat, but I’m not a liberal.”
Over the weekend, the three of us talked about a lot of stuff. My fellow traveler from the neighborhood brought up an article he’d read about the student debt problem. Our St. Louis buddy said he wasn’t sure what to think about it. “I’m not so sure I’m on board with just wiping it clean,” he said. He went on. “But you know, maybe if someone’s been on time for 10 years, then sure.” We all agreed that having people saddled with debt when they get out of college—and therefore unable to say, buy their own place—isn’t good for the economy.
Those two moments kind of stuck with me. The first, about being a Democrat but not a liberal, spoke to the power of labels. The second, about student debt, illustrated how destructive labels can be to constructive conversation. My St. Louis friend would be chastised from the right as being, indeed, not just a Democrat, but a liberal, or worse yet, a socialist, for even considering forgiving debt. And from the left, he’d be called some sort of awful neo-liberal market worshiper. Both critics would have a laundry list of talking points they heard on Fox or MSNBC, and there the conversation would end.
Which is unfortunate. Because, as another of my many wise friends once said, “We never talk about the plumbing.”
Which means, when I bring up the thing about the trains, we don’t stop to brainstorm how train travel might be improved, is it a worthy investment for the public good…the plumbing. The practicalities. We’d never get that far. Because someone would reflexively condemn anything that sounded remotely like public transportation. And someone would fatalistically say we could never do something like that here in the United States.
And thanks to them, right now, that’s right.
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