Success!

"First, he sees the result of their intransigence each and every day he drives to work. Plus, he now knows they don't plan to change the course they are on." 

This is somewhat of an odd title for someone's misery. But there is a reason I chose the term "Success!" for this article. Last night when my son-in-law came home, he was in his usual frazzled state after sitting in stop and go traffic for close to 90 minutes. And then out of the blue came the breakthrough. The words of wisdom. The words we need to hear from ALL of our kids and grand kids.

"We have got to do something about the Met Council! I just don't understand why we can't put more lanes in our major highways!" Strangely, that brought a simile to my face. As a member of the Liberty Tea Party Patriots, our credo is to educate, to motivate, leading people to activate. My discussions with my son-in-law about the Met Council are starting to pay off. First, he sees the result of their intransigence each and every day he drives to work. Plus, he also now knows they don't plan to change the course they are on. 

Our last legislative session was a bust primarily due to Southwest Light Rail. A boondoggle of gigantic proportions. The Governor killed the deal just because of it. Light rail will do nothing (let me say that again - nothing) to solve our growing traffic issues. Governor Goofy himself said we are headed for total gridlock in the metro area with an additional 750,000 folks expected in the next couple of decades. 

The Met Council has made it abundantly clear that once Highway 610 is finished, so is road expansion in the metro area. The focus will then be on trains. Trains that will get folks from the burbs into downtown. Why downtown? Beats me. Most people work in one suburb and live in another suburb. So we could have 100 light rails coming into downtown from 100 different directions and we would still have traffic gridlock.

Most of us already know this, so please don't call me Captain Obvious. That being said, I want to be crystal clear on a few points: 

1. Most people don't like working downtown, shopping downtown, living downtown or even going downtown. Some do, and that is fine. But most do not.
2. The cost per mile of putting in an additional traffic lane is a fraction of the cost per mile of putting in light rail.
3. For the Met Council to determine the pathway of our transit system is not only patently unfair, I question its basic constitutional nature. Since they are appointed and not elected, it is blatant taxation without representation.
4. We like our cars and trucks. It is our nature as Americans. We are not Europeans, we are Americans. Trains work fine in Europe, as they are set up for it. Not here.
5. For people like my son-in-law to have to sit in traffic from 2 to 3 hours each day is just plain wrong. He does not work that far away. And every year it gets worse.

Folks, we need to keeping talking about this issue. Over and over and over again. This is a HUGE problem in our metro area. We are headed for Atlanta or Chicago type gridlock if we allow this bunch of renegades to keep running amok. 

Young people - this needs to be your fight too. Get motivated. Get active. Let your representative know how mad you are. In fact, to quote a popular movie from yesteryear, tell your representative you are madder than hell, and not going to take it anymore! You are a voter - use your power!