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katallisonEver since the Twin Cities transit strike started a week ago, I've been walking the mile-and-a-half to and from campus every day, and it's been no big hardship for me since the weather's been pleasant -- temperatures in the high 20s to low 40s, and only one big snow dump.
But an Alberta Clipper blasted through last night, and this morning we woke up to 6 degrees and a minus-15 windchill. So I hauled out the down overcoat, which I'd really hoped I was done with for the year, and trudged in, hunched against the wind, warming myself by muttering fiery anathema against Governor Pawlenty, Met Council chair Peter Bell, and that chucklehead from the Taxpayers League who spewed forth idiocy to the effect that since the entire Twin Cities hadn't gone into gridlock the day after the strike started, that meant public transit was unnecessary and should just be done away with. No, I muttered, pulling my scarf up so far over my face that my glasses fogged up, leading to wild flailings as I skidded on an unseen patch of sidewalk ice. No, what it means is that you do not number among your acquaintance any representatives of the urban poor, whose lives have been *fucked* by this -- nor, for that matter, any of the disabled, or elderly, or people who work in highly-congested parking-deficient areas, or students, or...
But after all, that guy is basically a fringe-ish idiot; I reserve most of my wrath for the governor and his policy of "I shall cut taxes! and shall not raise them again! even if space aliens nuke us from orbit and reduce half the state's infrastructure to smoking twisted rubble." I mean -- OK. I grasp that people do not like paying taxes. But you know? Stuff costs money, stuff like having my street plowed and having the cops show up when I call 911 and having clean water when I turn on the faucet and having a bus show up when I need to go to work on a -15 windchill morning. I don't much like having to pay for this stuff; but then I also don't much like having to go to work in the morning, or having to floss my teeth every goddam night so they don't fall out, or the fact that potato chips and cigarettes are not good for me. The only appropriate response to peevishness about these basic life facts is a gentle smack alongside the head and a cheerful Suck it up and deal, cowboy.
So I would like the people of this state to really get a grip the fact that if you want our much-vaunted Quality Of Life (tm), you gotta pay the bills. Not thrilled with that fact? Deal.
But an Alberta Clipper blasted through last night, and this morning we woke up to 6 degrees and a minus-15 windchill. So I hauled out the down overcoat, which I'd really hoped I was done with for the year, and trudged in, hunched against the wind, warming myself by muttering fiery anathema against Governor Pawlenty, Met Council chair Peter Bell, and that chucklehead from the Taxpayers League who spewed forth idiocy to the effect that since the entire Twin Cities hadn't gone into gridlock the day after the strike started, that meant public transit was unnecessary and should just be done away with. No, I muttered, pulling my scarf up so far over my face that my glasses fogged up, leading to wild flailings as I skidded on an unseen patch of sidewalk ice. No, what it means is that you do not number among your acquaintance any representatives of the urban poor, whose lives have been *fucked* by this -- nor, for that matter, any of the disabled, or elderly, or people who work in highly-congested parking-deficient areas, or students, or...
But after all, that guy is basically a fringe-ish idiot; I reserve most of my wrath for the governor and his policy of "I shall cut taxes! and shall not raise them again! even if space aliens nuke us from orbit and reduce half the state's infrastructure to smoking twisted rubble." I mean -- OK. I grasp that people do not like paying taxes. But you know? Stuff costs money, stuff like having my street plowed and having the cops show up when I call 911 and having clean water when I turn on the faucet and having a bus show up when I need to go to work on a -15 windchill morning. I don't much like having to pay for this stuff; but then I also don't much like having to go to work in the morning, or having to floss my teeth every goddam night so they don't fall out, or the fact that potato chips and cigarettes are not good for me. The only appropriate response to peevishness about these basic life facts is a gentle smack alongside the head and a cheerful Suck it up and deal, cowboy.
So I would like the people of this state to really get a grip the fact that if you want our much-vaunted Quality Of Life (tm), you gotta pay the bills. Not thrilled with that fact? Deal.