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S: Are there trains that run from Chicago to Champaign? W: Ah, yeah. S: Are there any that run straight to your door? W: Ah, no. S: Why not? W: Because a whole lot of savvy businessmen have misplaced resources and put a lot of our resources go into developing cars. S: And the oil companies, and the rubber companies, and the steel companies have conspired to keep us free from public transportation. W: That’s right. . . . The government owes it to its citizens to provide reliable, safe, clean public transportation. S: Free. W: Ideally, yeah. S: And health care too. W: That’s a different issue but yeah. S: No, I—I think it’s the same issue, William. (Rustling of microphone.)  S: . . . Actually, what I would envision would be a public transportation system that is also actually a public health system. You’d have trains running anywhere, you know, within ten blocks of walking distance anywhere in the country, and on those trains there would be hospitals, where anyone could get on, take a ride, say, from here to Gary, get an appendectomy, and be back within ten blocks of their dwelling within, say, three hours. W: Reliable, safe, clean and free. S: On the trains. W: Public Health Transportation. S: You could get to the hospital anywhere. . . . It could be kind of bad in emergency situations, I suppose. W: Not at all. You’d have a hospital coming to your door. S: Yeah, but what are the schedules gonna be like? I guess maybe they’d have to have little train ambulances as well. Or they could use helicopters. And loading docks on the trains for the helicopters. So you could be airlifted, and put down some kind of a chute, on the train, safely, right into the rolling hospital. W: Then the highway system can be converted into bicycle and footpaths. S: With ponds. W: So people can get from one place to another, and see all the places they’ve been to eat, and this will rebuild a sense of community in America. S: And there will be vendors with mangos. And ecoles. Ecoles? W: I’m not sure. A: Elotés. S: Sweet corn with cheese and red pepper and— W: All the good things. . . . And no more Kinko’s or Starbucks. S: Yeah, no more Starbucks. Kinko’s would need to be replaced with by lots of Mom and Pop Hi-Tech Hi-Speed printing facilities. W: And in the America that I envision, you would never be alienated from the labor that went into the making of anything that you use. So something like a cup of coffee, you would start by picking the beans and preparing them and grinding them. |
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