Train Meeting Tonight

The Army Corp of Engineers, whose slogan should be "Doing for Easton, What We Did for New Orleans," while be holding its fraud public hearing tonight at 7 at the Qualters Middle School in Mansfield. The heroes who scheduled this meeting and the one in New Bedford tomorrow put them in towns that will be only too happy to kowtow to Senator Pacheco's plan to get himself elected mayor of Taunton while helping his friends get a casino in Raynham. Meanwhile Easton sleeps on dreaming of "mitigation" from the bloated bureaucrats at the T.

Do I sound bitter? Yes, I am. I believe government subsidies for passenger rail transportation in southeastern Massachusetts are a waste of money in a dinosaur technology when we could waste money on the ultimate dinosaur technology: canals. Yes, folks I've been converted to the idea of the Boston-South Coast Canal. Think of it, instead of dividing Easton with numerous rail crossings, our roads could be routed over the charming canal with quaint bridges. Our Smart Growth apartments could all overlook the beautiful canal. Beacon could forget about their project and reopen the Shovel Works to provide tools for the Bigger Dig and needed jobs for the poor of South Easton finally getting them off the dole and into those Smart Growth high rises. Travelers could see deer, coyotes, and blue spotted salamanders coming to the edge of the canal to drink further enhancing their lifestyle in the Hockomock. The increased construction cost of the canal, beyond even the excessive cost of rail, would allow our state's politicians and bureaucrats to line their pockets for years keeping them away from boondoggling the price of smaller projects. Now I'm not a complete troglodyte-canal boats wouldn't be drawn by horses or oxen as in the old days. Trash and freight would be carried by solar powered submarines (designed with a subsidy from Beacon Hill) while passenger boats would be rowed by the passengers themselves building personal fitness while cutting the expected travel time by rail in half. If ridership fell below the rather bloated expectations, the boats could switch to being powered by the hot air from the empty promises of the Patrick Administration. Special boats to the Raynham Casino would be pulled by formerly unemployed greyhounds. I'm sure if Senator Pacheco just thought about this he could see that tearing up the streets of Taunton and building feeder canals could turn his already scenic city into the new Venice of the North and assure him of public office for life. And a canal would indeed give the Army Corps a chance to do for Easton what it did for New Orleans. It's a win-win!