In Search of America's Steady Decline

Hey, Soldier, couldn't agree more with your unofficial boycott of airports. Now that American Airlines is charging ca$h for the right to check luggage, Congress ought to sue and take away rights to the use of the name "American." But we also need to return to our roots and bolster that forgotten middle ground of travel -- the railroad. Trains played a huge role in making America great, and were the tool that united our coasts and got our commerce flowing from sea to shining sea. My daddy -- an Iwo Jima vet, I might add -- worked his way through college vending in the aisles of the California Zephyr as it sped through the Far West. I had several tastes of that idyllic travel as a kid, seeing the sights from sea level instead of from 35,000 feet up. There was civilized food in the dining car, and if you wanted to smoke a cigar you could just step outside, on the spaces between cars. Let's divert some of Washington's wasted money, rename it AmeriRail and get the trains rolling again. Whoo-whoo!