Off Track

The train disaster that happened a few days ago was terrible. Like most Americans, we all want to point the finger somewhere to make ourselves feel better about why it happened. I am in no way talking about the victims of the families, here. In my opinion, since they are directly affected, they can point their fingers wherever they damn well please. All the power to them.

If you're not in that bubble of people who were directly affected by the train disaster, then it is important for you to think about things logically. It's important for you to take all of the information you were able to gather about Amtrak, our govt., the driver, the tracks, etc. in order to formulate your own opinion and come up with potential solutions to the problem to make sure something like this never happens again. Accidents happen all the time, but like drinking and driving or texting while driving, a lot of accidents can be prevented or avoided.

If you haven't been able to read any articles or watch much news about what happened because you're busy, that's understandable, but I implore you to check out some of these written/video documents, because it might mean the safety of you or any of your family members who wish to travel by train in the near to distant future. If you're in that bubble that hasn't been able to really read or discuss this topic, I am going to list for you the facts that I know about the situation in it's entirety:

1. The driver was definitely speeding around the curve. Preliminary findings show that the train was likely going over 100mph.

2. The speed limit for the tracks around the bend were 50mph, but according to someone I know who works for Amtrak, I can tell you that the area of that track can handle 90mph.

3. In recent years, there was a $200M decrease in Amtrak's budget.

4. Track sensors, ones that can put the brakes on a train by itself at certain points of a track, are not mandated by the government. Despite this fact, many tracks have these sensors, but for this part of the track, these modifications could not be done until December 2015. According to many sources, the reason for the December 2015 date is because it is believed that Amtrak would not be properly funded for this project until that point.*

5. Barak Obama believes that if we, the govt., put more money into the system, then these reparations can/could have happen(ed) much sooner rather than later. John Boener thinks people who think this way are "stupid."

My opinions:

I generally dislike when a crisis of some sort happens, and certain politicians react to these occurrences with this, "Let's continue to do nothing," kind of attitude. It's the worst. It's an attitude that keeps us from moving forward, and it's an attitude that needs to end from our politicians.

People (conservatives) get very upset with the liberal mind, because those damn liberals keep trying to get the country to progress in a positive direction. As I've said in posts before, a different direction tends to be a "bad direction" according to most conservatives, because they root themselves in tradition. So as far as changing goes, forgive me and many of my liberal friends for trying to find solutions to problems! And, ya know what, I include Libertarians in that problem-solving category, because even if I may disagree with them about their ideas, at least they're different!

I saw an article today from a conservative source that talked about income inequality. The article is posted with a picture of a black basketball player with his starting salary underneath of his picture. Next to him, a white enlisted private with his much lower starting salary along with the caption "You wanna talk 'Income Inequality?"' This irked me incredibly. The article tells you to read the rest of it before commenting on it, and of course I read the article and understand it's points until it tells me that it is our "God-given unalienable right" to strive for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which was written by our founding fathers, and not God. I actually appreciated the article all the way up until that point, because, although the picture in the article lead you on to believe that it was about income inequality between blacks and whites, it was more so about people who serve next to those who have glamorous jobs. I whole-heartedly agree that enlisted personnel are grossly underpaid, I just wish the writers of the article did a better job at not insinuating that black minorities don't have a reason to complain about income inequality, because OF COURSE THEY DO!

The whole point of deviating from the original reason I posted this article--the train debacle--is because I was reminded of the words in the Star-Spangled Banner. The one where we say .."One nation, under God, indivisible..." I've been the one over the years to advocate for the removal of the words, "Under God." I thought THAT was the biggest problem, but actually, the biggest problem in that "patriotic hymn" is INDIVISIBLE.

Aside from the Civil War we as a nation had only 160 years ago, our media, govt, and other entities of people do their absolute best to divide us from finding the actual truth to really important situations. Even if the truth is staring us in the face, there is a group of people saying, "No, that's not the truth at all," and then they make up some bullshit narrative so that "their side of their own agenda" go, "YEAH! SEE! You're so wrong, and he/she is right!" These people, these sheeple, I cannot stand, because they are taking it from the horse's mouth that certain insinuations are true. Not to mention completely derailing the idea that our country is "indivisible."

This leads me to my conclusion of this long-winded rant: If you consider yourself someone who is open-minded, then actually BE open-minded. Don't just say you are and then reject new information. I, and from what I can see a large majority of this country, WELCOME SKEPTICISM! The only way you can truly BE a skeptic is if you do the research to ease yourself of feeling uneasy. It sounds really simple to it's core, and IT IS! All you have to do is keep searching for the truth, and then you will find it! If you follow one side of the story--even if it IS the truth--you're not trying hard enough to find the truth! You're just blindly siding with one person based on some quasi-amount of reputation given to them by people who also like agendas.

The conclusion to that conclusion: I'm not saying that either Obama or Boehner is right or wrong about the train debacle, but generally when someone uses the words, "stupid," to convey that the ideas of a populous are worthless, I'm going to assume that there is more agenda behind his/her words than someone who does not do that! Do not brain wash people into siding with you by using that sort of verbage! Implore them, ask them, hell, even DEMAND THEM to search for the truth on their own! Why do politicians always feel like they are walking encyclopedias that are able to divulge a large quantity of information and consider it 100% truth like they're infallible?

Why?

I actually wish that one day we have a set of leaders who can look into a camera lens and say these three words seriously, "I don't know." I respect people who actually say this from time to time, because that means that they are humble enough to accept that they are not knowledgeable on a subject and are likely to do the research to find answers and form their own opinions. When someone just strikes the gavel and exclaims, "Let it be written, let it be law!" without any real motive or logical reasoning I kinda hesitate to trust them.

Don't you?

Is it too much to ask for a country that comes together to help one another instead of help their agenda? If the answer is "yes," then I don't think we're much of a country at all. And even though I kinda disprove of it, I can kinda see why there are people stepping on the American flag. Some are doing it without even knowing why, but some are doing it to say, "This isn't the country we're supposed to be, and it can be a whole lot better."

The point is: this whole country has been falling off the tracks. On Tuesday, 200+ people felt the effects of a falling country first hand. Instead of coming together to find a solution, we're still just fighting one another. And guess what?

Nothing's changing.

- PatInTheHat

* As you can see, I do not know this part as fact, and although I have it here, I still question the validity. If someone can prove it wrong or contrary, then by all means bring your proof forward. The whole point of this is to bring truth to the situation, anyway.