As the era of cheap gasoline ends, Americans have begun searching for a different way to travel.  But years of concentrating federal subsidies on automobile and air travel at the expense of more efficient bus and rail travel have left people with few options.  The assult on mass transit has come from the same free-market devotees who have been recklessly taking apart our social system since Nixon was elected.  And the whole time, John McCain has been supporting every move.

All over the United States, transit ridership is up for the first time since the seventies.  The long, slow decline in public transit ridership parallels the long, slow decline of the great American cities.  The recent rise in gas prices (oh, you hadn't heard?) has led people to search for other transportation options, only to find that they don't exist.

Long ignored transit systems are scrambling to add capacity to accomodate the new ridership, while sprawl apologists continue to tell us we can't afford it, that the people choose cars, that the gas tax is a highway user fee that shouldn't be used to fund public transportation.

Would you be willing to pay taxes that would drive gas to $7-8/gallon to fund public transportation?

Every once in a while, I like to find out what the wingnuts are saying.  I used to put on Limbaugh once in a while if I drove to get lunch, or Hannity on the way home for work now and again.  It helps because I when I engage a wing-nut (aka visit my dad) I know what the arguements will be before he opens his mouth, and I have my answers already worked out.

A diary I read today on a right-wing blog has stuck in my head.  In it the author goes over the same tiresome ranting and raving about Reagan, Limbaugh, and liberals, but then does something I've never seen on a right-wing site.  He invokes Martin Luther King.  And with that he enters a bizarro world, destoys the meaning of the word "liberal", and sends a warning to us all...

...and two steps back.  That's the way Florida's education system is heading, with a recent decision by the state's House and Senate to allow public schools to teach "alternatives" to the theory of evolution.

A lot of times politicians, pundits, analysts, experts, loudmouths and other Very Important People seem to believe that the working poor don’t exist.  It seems to go against the very mythology that has been built up around this country.  "Anyone can make it" they say, "it’s the land of the free!".  If those lazy people just had some moxie, they’d hitch up their Conestoga and head out west to make their fortune.  If the weren't so lazy/pregnant/on drugs/or Democrat, they would be fine.  But the working poor are a reality, as American as apple pie.  They are doing what they are supposed to, and they still aren’t making it.  There are over 300,000,000 people jammed into our borders now, and if we can’t figure out how to make it work, well, things may get ugly.

Look out, BushCo is trying to sell off another piece of your country.  This article appeared in the Washington Post last week about Bush appointees in the Department of Transportation and their plan to privatize your roads.

I have been writing a series of diaries this week on my Peace Corps experience .  I was a volunteer working in the environment sector, Morocco 2004-2006.  Today is the Day of Action, designated by the National Peace Corps Association, in support of members of Congress who believe in the mission of the Peace Corps and would like to see it expanded.  I know that this is also an important primary day.  If you cannot take action today, do it another day.  But check out the info at the end.

Also, there are some of my thoughts on the world, and some pictures of some Moroccans that are very special to me.  Look closely.  They are just people.  (Well, people and a partly skinned sheep.)

The views expressed are my own.

Thanks for reading.

This week I have been posting a series of diaries in honor of National Peace Corps Week.  I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 2004 to 2006.

In this entry I give props to my friends that I served with, and show off two projects that we worked on with the community.

Part 1:Peace Corps History
Part 2: Peace Corps Morocco Programs
Part 3: Beni Ourain
Part 4: Tazekka National Park
Part 5: Life & Work

This is the fifth part of a series I am writing in honor of National Peace Corps Week.  I served in Morocco from 2004 to 2006.  In this diary I discuss some things about life and work of volunteers in rural Morocco.

Part 1:Peace Corps History
Part 2: Peace Corps Morocco Programs
Part 3: Beni Ourain
Part 4: Tazekka National Park

This is the forth part of a series I am writing in honor of National Peace Corps Week.  I served in Morocco from 2004 to 2006.  In this diary I go into the lifestyle and some of the environmental issues that face the people in the community were I worked.

Part 1:Peace Corps History
Part 2: Peace Corps Morocco Programs
3: Beni Ourain

This is the third diary in a series I am writing in honor of National Peace Corps Week.  I served as a volunteer in Morocco from 2004 to 2006.  The previous two can be found here:

In this entry, I discuss some of the history of the region in which I lived, and I give some info on the Berber people and language, and barriers to rural education.

I am not an expert on any of these things.  Everything I know is from my experience, how I understood things to be.

Part 1:Peace Corps History
Part 2: Peace Corps Morocco Programs

This is the second in a series of diaries I am posting in honor of National Peace Corps week.  In the first diary, I gave a brief picture of the history of the Peace Corps.  

In this diary, I will give an overview of the program as it stood in Morocco while I was there, 2004-2006.

Part 1

This week I will be posting a series of diaries in honor of National Peace Corps Week.  I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 2004 to 2006.  I hope that this series will increase your understanding of the Peace Corps, of Morocco, of the develping world, of international development work, and of the people in my community in Tazekka National Park, near the city of Taza, who turned by view of the world upside-down and taught me more than I could ever pay back to them.

Recently, on a blog hosted by my local newspaper, a blogger who focuses on language and writing posted a blog titled:

"Are 'Dumb Blonde' Jokes/Polack Jokes, Etc.. 'Politically Incorrect' and Thus 'Offensive'?"

 
He followed with two lame blonde jokes and an equally lame Polack joke.  I left a comment about how I don't personally find them offensive, but that if a person is offended no one can tell them that they should not be.  I ended up with some other thoughts that I'm going to make my first diary.

Follow the bouncing ball-