The modus operendi of most Governments is to fix things after they break, much less before a crisis. Infrastructure is the last thing anyone wants to spend tax money on. Where does that come from? Maybe the electorate has had someting to do with this… Read our lips. “No New Taxes”

There is a social commentator, James H. Kunstler, who has authored two books, “The End Of Suburbia”, & “The Long Emergency”. Most people seeing this column read the actual writngs of Mr. Jandt, and maybe discuss them in their peer group. Some read the letters, a minuscule take time to comment. So few will trouble themselves to read some titles referenced in “Comments”.

That leaves Mr. Jandt & Mass Transit Editors with the job of taking a critical look at Kunstler’s books, which deal with a culture, us, the USA. We are a people that have made some very questionable assumptions about our energy supply, our infrastructure, and staked our future on the “The Dream” - THE GOOD LIFE- we think it can go on forever. Not! Oil security is getting too expensive, even without well depletion catching up with new sources.

We got into uncharted territory about fifty years ago, when we set out on a rubber tire journey that required a steady annual increased dependency on imported oil to build our economy, year by year. Of late, not only have we got into a very crucial area, needing some 2/3 of motor fuel from foreign suppliers, but we have also counted on more & more borrowed $$ to keep going.

Homeland security is more than guarding against attack. We must rethink our commercial & societal cohesion based on a soon to be passe’ energy source. Not overnight, mind you, but plateauing, so that growth is stymied, and we begin a long period of time just trying to maintain what we have already built. I.E., a “Long Emergency”.