Graham out of touch with Metro’s deteriorating service
Re: “Graham: Board couldn’t have prevented crash,” Aug. 10
Regarding Jim Graham’s “What could I have done?” comment: Mr. Graham, you really are out of touch. Metro has become a monstrous, inept bureaucracy where riders come last.
For starters, you could start riding Metro regularly. How can you claim to represent longtime Metro riders like me when you don’t even know the hassles we endure as we’re asked to pay higher fares?
I think about you every time I wait 17 minutes for a train when there is another one two minutes behind it, or when it takes three months to rehabilitate a one-story escalator. Have you ever been in the Van Ness or Bethesda stations at rush hour and seen the mobs try to trudge up the escalator? Or the “Metro sucks” stickers frustrated riders plaster on construction areas?
I thought about you when I saw a station manager trying to help some tourists figure out the ridiculous new fare system you and your colleagues dreamed up: regular fares, peak of the peak surcharges, off-peak discount, paper fare card surcharge. Only a bureaucrat could come up with such a system.
I know Metro is starved for money, but a lot of the problems could be fixed with better management — and better oversight.
Joseph C. Anselmo
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Anti-family policies undermine school reform efforts
Re: “Number of D.C. schools meeting national standards plunges, ” Aug. 10
Despite the energetic work of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, it’s unlikely that she and her teachers will succeed in improving education in D.C. given the almost nonexistent traditional two-parent family.
Unfortunately, city legislators advance anti-family policies, such as promoting free condoms for teens. As a result, 70 percent of black children are born into impoverished, single-parent families without fathers to discipline and guide them.
There are so many fatherless families because Planned Parenthood, which has received over $3.9 billion in government funds since 1987, taught two generations that premarital sex is the norm. But it’s been a disaster for D.C.
John Naughton
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Michelle’s Spanish trip should have been a ‘lowlight’
Re: “10 lowlights of the week,” Aug. 8
We now have a socialist president and a royal presidency, reinforced by the actions of the first lady and her entourage. I was surprised not to see Michelle Obama’s vacation trip to Spain listed among the 10 lowlights of the week. The cost to the government was at least $250,000 for the 68 security guards that accompanied her, as well as use of Air Force 2.
During a time of economic difficulties, would not the money have been better spent encouraging foreign tourists to visit the United States rather than buttressing Spain’s coffers?
Nelson Marans
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