Monday, June 23, 2003
Mass Transit In Buffalo
Found this site quite by accident: Citizens Regional Transportation Corporation Homepage. Sent the following note:
Stumbled on your website quite by accident. Since I grew up in Buffalo and am preparing to return within the next few months I thought I might offer a few comments.
First let me state unequivocally that I am in absolutely in favor of mass transportation and passenger rail transport in particular. In fact I am one of those screwballs that thinks one of the worse things that ever happened in this country was the destruction of our urban and inter-urban rail systems coupled with the building of expressways that destroyed our cities.
That said, being a conservative/libertarian type fellow, I am largely opposed to government involvement in any of these things.
As to Metro Rail in Buffalo, as some one who grew up in the inner city and lived both before and after the system was built, I have also considered it an unmitigated failure. Growing up in Buffalo we rarely drove anywhere. I didn't have a driver's license or car until after high school, and then because I had to commute to ECC South. Time was you could walk down to the corner, without consulting a schedule, and catch a bus within about 15 minutes. Trips downtown with Mom were a regular part of childhood. Then came the Metro Rail. The first immediately noticeable effect was the need to transfer since all busses ended at the train. Then came the schedule cutbacks. Suddenly getting a bus wasn't so easy anymore. Long waits were common, and forget about late nights or Sundays. Throughout this time the media was increasingly carrying stories about budget woes at the NFTA. Near as we in the public could figure out the NFTA was well within budget until they built their big expensive hole in the ground. I had the privilege (or misfortune) to be in the chambers of the county legislature throughout one late night session as the deadline for shutdown approached. To say that I was not impressed with the proceedings would be an understatement.
I'm also not so sure that expansion to the suburbs should take precedence over providing a usable service to the thousands of city residents who are currently under-served and who did not flee the city.
I've often wondered what it would take to put rail service back on the old belt line? What private (for-profit or not-for-profit) transit organizations might be able to help improve the situation?
As I said I'm getting ready to move back to Buffalo. I'm looking forward to the manageable urban lifestyle of a small city. I'm hoping that Buffalo and other cities will look to the past to see where both success and failure lie.
John T. Cotton
Warrington, PA
posted by JTC 3:33 PM
Friday, June 20, 2003
Found this article on Catholic Exchange Had a problem with the author's assessment of the military means used so I sent the following reply:
Read your recent article on Catholic Exchange with interest but found the following statement confusing:
"That raises the question of whether, good intentions notwithstanding, the enormous destructiveness of sophisticated modern weaponry makes observing just war criteria like "proportionality" and "discrimination" a practical impossibility in a largescale conflict today."
Do you mean to suggest that we were capable of greater discrimination in the past?! Even if largely exaggerated by the military and the press I don't see how there can be any doubt that we are capable of more effective proportionality and target selection. In both Iraq wars we've delivered massive levels of destruction to both military and industrial targets. To achieve that same level of destruction in previous conflicts cost tens of thousands of innocent lives to "collateral" damage in each attack. Witness the strategic bombing of Germany in WWII or the B-52 raids on North Vietnam. Surely you don't suggest that we've taken a step backwards from that kind of indiscriminate slaughter.
As to the overall "justness" of the war in Iraq I too have reserved judgement. There are obviously many political, economic, and security considerations that we haven't been privy to in the general public. But I think it is perhaps a bit careless of you to suggest that the means we used to achieve victory were somehow unjust in and of themselves.
Best wishes,
John T. Cotton
posted by JTC 2:21 PM
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Taking Toddlers to Church: Actions Speak Louder Than Words! I've talked about this with people before. I've heard arguments on both sides. Truth be told, maybe I'm just getting older, the kids don't bother me anymore. Yes it's frustrating when you can't hear or are distracted by children. Yes I'm bothered by parents who let the kid wail abit longer than I think they should. Mostly though I'm just heartened to see whole families at mass. I can't help but smile when Mom & Dad trek into church trailing a handful of little ones. These are kids for the kingdom. If anything, being interminably single as I am, perhaps I'm a little jealous:-)
JTC
posted by JTC 1:03 PM
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Read this:Kathleen Parker: Brinkley's death evokes memories of Father's Days. I wasn't around for the Huntley-Brinkley report but as I came of age through college and thereafter I was a fan of This Week with David Brinkley. I couldn't stomach any of the other Sunday morning reports, I can't handle any of them today. Brinkley though, whatever his politics may have been, always seemed to bring some common sense to the fray. He seemed as if he wanted to just grab everyone and tell them to grow up and get it together. Kind of like Andy Rooney, but less loopy.
JTC
posted by JTC 7:41 PM
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
A Prayer Request
My friend Tucker sent me the following note concerning his sister:Dear Friends,
Today I found out that my only sister Heather has a rare form of cancer. She is unconscious, on a ventilator, and is not expected to live. I humbly ask you to pray for a miracle. I do not know her spiritual condition, suffice to say at our last conversation it was not favorable. I am trusting that God is able to amazing things, and that he would not take her from her six year son, and loving husband with out a great cause. I am asking for a miracle, trusting in your petitions, and believing in our loving and merciful heavenly Father. Please add Heather to your church prayer lists. Thank you all for love and support. May God richly bless you an yours. May Jesus be closer now than ever before.
Sincerely,
Tucker W deHaven CTS
Please pray for Tucker's sister and family.
JTC
posted by JTC 7:40 PM
Thursday, June 05, 2003
See this Linda Chavez Article, Intentional Deceit, on Catholic Exchange. Once more we see that the far left will go to any length of dishonesty to promote their anti-constitutional agenda.
JTC
posted by JTC 12:46 PM
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Got this one: Cardinal's speech upsets university - smh.com.au from Michael Dubriel's Blog. Please note that the professor quoted as apologizing on behalf of Catholics may actually be a member of a schismatic church and not a loyal catholic.
JTC
posted by JTC 10:24 PM
Monday, June 02, 2003
I've always been burdened by an excess of nostalgia. Old music, old buildings, old ideas, these have often been my home. Somehow I've always felt that some other time in America was better. I know that in many ways that it's foolish thinking; that it's easy to romanticize the past, especially a time you haven't lived in. If I had to pickup a year, a dividing line, today I'd say it was roughly 1950 (or perhaps 1945). Today I had the thought that up until the end of the second world war we were building toward something in this country. After that it seems to me that we began to tear down that which we had struggled to achieve.
JTC
posted by JTC 10:36 PM
I'm thinking of changing the name of this Blog. How about Stumbling Through Life or Swimming Upstream?
JTC
posted by JTC 2:01 PM
Read this: Women Who Won't Take "No" For an Answer. It would probably better be called: "People" who won't take no for an answer. The simple fact is that this debate, like others, boils down to one simple question: Do you accept the authority of the one Holy, Catholic, & Apostolic Church? If you do then even if you don't understand why women may not be ordained, or why contraception is wrong, or why living a homosexual lifestyle isn't acceptable, you must still give the assent of faith and accept the teaching of the Church. If you don't accept that authority then you really aren't Catholic anyway. I don't say that with the intent of sounding mean or excluding people, but I wish that people would take a more serious look at the church that they claim to be a part of. To me all these dissenters are roughly the equivalent of people saying they want to join the Boy Scouts but they don't want to wear uniforms, earn merit badges or go camping. If you really believe the Church is wrong on all these issues then why haven't you joined up with one of the 30,000 other denominations that offer Theology du'Jour? Perhaps these folks are less convinced of the truth of their arguments than they appear to be. Perhaps they are frustrated by the fact that living the life that the church calls us to is not an easy thing. Perhaps they're jealous of the vast majority of people in the Church who struggle to live that life even if they face failure and setbacks. Perhaps the dissenters should stop and look inward for the source of their conflict.
JTC
posted by JTC 1:45 PM
Hans Zeiger: The End of the Boy Scouts in Philadelphia
posted by JTC 1:27 AM
