Last night, I attended a candidate’s night in Valley Springs. Speaking was Jack Uppal and Will Moore, both Democrats, running for the same seat in congress. Since Will is my brother, I naturally was there to support him. He stepped in the race when there was no one running on the Democratic ticket. Now, Uppal has joined the race and it was interesting to see the difference in the two candidates. Will is running as a “hard-hat” and actually wears one during his presentation. Uppal is a retired CEO of a big company, currently the anti-thesis of the type of candidate we want. Well, maybe, maybe not. I liked Uppal. Both candidates had good points. Also speaking was an old friend, Tom Aja, involved with the labor unions. He is working to make sure working people have a voice through their unions. The Chamber gives a voice to small and large businesses, corporations have a huge voice, but unions should not? That is what Republicans are pushing, to eliminate, the voice of unions. Realize, I’m talking about the GOP higher-ups, not my Republican friends on the street.
Much of the discussion was about high speed rail coming to California, something the voters voted for and the GOP is pushing to reverse? Why? Money, money and more dirty money funneled to GOP lawmakers from automobile interests and big oil. They don’t want public transportation. Just like Shell Oil and Goodyear Tires bought up every company building a decent start on mass transportation. They trashed those companies, like the Red Car. They wanted the gas guzzlers, tire burning, and cement barons to be king in California. So, now the same interests are attacking high speed rail, which will be built with union labor.
Don’t be fooled. Truck traffic is choking highway 99 with billions of imports coming into our ports. Having high speed rail will get the goods to market better and faster and safer. It’s a people train. We can eliminate high-octane expensive flights to Los Angeles from Modesto. Rail will be faster and quicker than the drive to Sacramento, and the two-hour park, inspection and wait to get on the plane. High speed rail will give food vendors like dairy, nut growers, vegetable and egg, snack vendors, soft drinks, and coffee an uptick. It will bring huge benefits and jobs to Californians during the building of it. Those wages will be taxed. Those workers will spend. Then 120,000 estimated permanent jobs to maintain and run public transportation. And, remember, the naysayers will tell you it is too expensive to SPEND that kind of money. It isn’t an expense, it is an INVESTMENT. When you invest, you get a return on your money. It will keep giving back to the public for many, many years to come, just like the Bay Area BART system is doing now. The same anti-voices were present in the 1960′s when BART was proposed. I know, I was there. And, my candidate brother was too. He worked on BART’s infrastructure.
Much of the discussion was about high speed rail coming to California, something the voters voted for and the GOP is pushing to reverse? Why? Money, money and more dirty money funneled to GOP lawmakers from automobile interests and big oil. They don’t want public transportation. Just like Shell Oil and Goodyear Tires bought up every company building a decent start on mass transportation. They trashed those companies, like the Red Car. They wanted the gas guzzlers, tire burning, and cement barons to be king in California. So, now the same interests are attacking high speed rail, which will be built with union labor.
Don’t be fooled. Truck traffic is choking highway 99 with billions of imports coming into our ports. Having high speed rail will get the goods to market better and faster and safer. It’s a people train. We can eliminate high-octane expensive flights to Los Angeles from Modesto. Rail will be faster and quicker than the drive to Sacramento, and the two-hour park, inspection and wait to get on the plane. High speed rail will give food vendors like dairy, nut growers, vegetable and egg, snack vendors, soft drinks, and coffee an uptick. It will bring huge benefits and jobs to Californians during the building of it. Those wages will be taxed. Those workers will spend. Then 120,000 estimated permanent jobs to maintain and run public transportation. And, remember, the naysayers will tell you it is too expensive to SPEND that kind of money. It isn’t an expense, it is an INVESTMENT. When you invest, you get a return on your money. It will keep giving back to the public for many, many years to come, just like the Bay Area BART system is doing now. The same anti-voices were present in the 1960′s when BART was proposed. I know, I was there. And, my candidate brother was too. He worked on BART’s infrastructure.
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