Costs of oil-dependent car culture are also very high Re: “High-speed rail: Obama’s gift that nobody wants,” editorial, Feb. 11
The Examiner’s ongoing anti-rail/public transportation bias, so visible in its reporting, continues in this tirade against the move to balance our oil-dependent, highway-air-only public policies.
These policies have resulted in multibillion-dollar wars, congestion around and through virtually every city for hours a day, 40,000 highway deaths and countless people maimed yearly, oil
companies profiteering despite massive subsidies, a broke Highway “Trust” Fund, pollution, unsustainable and wasteful land use, etc. with few rail alternatives.
Highways, roads and streets have sucked up $600 billion in subsidies in excess of gas taxes. The folks being “forced” out of their cars are already crowding Amtrak and rail systems beyond their capacity, yet you suggest more of the same.
James Churchill
Alexandria
Lessons to be learned from unrest in Egypt
Re: “Egypt near chaos as regime digs in,” Feb. 11
Democracy can be messy, sometimes even in this country!
There are two lessons we can learn from the protests across the Middle East that began in Egypt. First, real change comes from within,
as it did not so long ago in the former communist bloc. It is not imposed from without, as we have attempted to do for
the past 10 years under the
mantra of 9/11 to cover our thinly
disguised interest in the region’s oil.
Second, we cannot save the world and demand an orderly
conversion to our ways. We need to recognize that we no longer have the military muscle to even try.
Given the above, were our adventures in Iraq a waste of life, resources and time? Should we have just waited?
Karen Ann DeLuca
Alexandria
Multicultural experiences are good for all students
Re: “More children of immigrants enroll in earliest grades,” Feb. 7
Regardless of their background, most parents want their children to be exposed to other cultures and, as Montgomery County spokesman Dana Tofig said, “access to a world-class education.” Those goals should be central in the minds of educators as they continue to partner with immigrant families. School diversity will continue to increase, and collaboration and flexibility is essential to student progress and overall success.
As a pre-kindergarten teacher in the D.C. public charter sector (whose ethnic percentages are not noted in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey), I have not personally seen an increase in immigrant students at my school, whose population is over 95 percent African American. However, we offer all students from age 3 and up the opportunity to learn Spanish.
Sylvia Hennessie
Elkridge, Md.
