Archive for September, 2008
September 26th, 2008
Tomeka Watkins lives in Park Forest, Ill. She and her two children, Amarie, 4, and Aaron, 8, are traveling to Jackson, Miss., today along with a cousin, Aeriel, 8, to visit family.
Watkins is in her final year of nursing school at Prairie State College in Chicago. When she graduates in 24 weeks, “I’m going to Georgia, where I can make more money than in Illinois. The economy is better there,” Watkins says.
Her issues in this election year are jobs, taxes, the war and the stock market.
” We need to create a lot of new businesses that provide jobs for our community,” she says. “Taxes are too high, my (property tax) just went up.” The middle class is subsidizing health care for the poor, she says, and if the squeeze continues, “you’re going to end up with only rich and poor people. The middle class will be gone.”
About the financial mess on Wall Street, Watkins is flummoxed. “I think it’s bad we have to make up for their mistakes, but if we don’t do it, more businesses will close and we’ll lose more jobs.”
Watkins plans to vote for Obama on Nov. 4. She hopes that the Democrat’s talk of change is more than just a campaign promise.
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Tomika Watkins studies for nursing school with her children Amarie Watkins, 4, niece Aeriel Turner, 8, and Aaron Watkins, 8, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, on the City of New Orleans Amtrak train between Chicago and New Orleans, La.
September 26th, 2008
Artie and Pat Jones live in Hammond, La., and they ride the passenger trains frequently. When I meet up with them in the dining car, oops, the “Cross Country Café,” I learn that they’re on the way home from Ann Arbor, Mich., where their son is a lawyer.
Hammond, a city of 18,000, is home to Southeast Louisiana University, 50 miles from New Orleans. Nevertheless, the Joneses’ home suffered water damage after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and minor water damage at the hands of Gustav and Ike this September.
“We think maybe a small tornado came through; there are a lot of limbs down,” Pat Jones says. Both Art and Pat believe tonight’s presidential debate at Ole Miss should go forth. Both explain that there are too many important issues to discuss.
Pat says she’s relying on the debates to make up her mind about who will get her vote. Art doesn’t need a debate. He already knows. “The last time I voted for a Democrat was JFK,” he says. That was in 1960, and he explains that the reason had to do with him being Catholic, same as Jack Kennedy. “I’m leaning toward McCain,” he says. It is a strong lean. “I should tell you that I’m a registered Democrat, because in Louisiana, that’s what you have to be” to make your voice heard in local elections, he says.
As with all the people I have talked with so far on this trip, the Joneses are angry about the proposed $700 billion bailout of failed financial institutions that made risky mortgage loans that turned out to be worthless.
“I think we have a crisis, but when I get in a fix, nobody bails me out. I have to work my way out,” said Art, a retired auto parts salesman. He’s not for a bailout. Pat Jones said if there’s to be a bailout, the priorities should be vastly different from what’s currently on the table – a rescue of failed financial institutions. “Why don’t they just bail out the people in the foreclosed houses instead of making rich people richer?” she says.
Art is concerned with the Iraq war, the economy in general, and the price of gas. He can’t understand why the government bans drilling for oil in much of the continental shelf, “when we’ve been doing it on the coast of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana for years, with no spills.”
Art says he has a connection of sorts to Rockford, Illinois. “My grandfather’s nephew was a priest in Rockford, his name was Father Joseph Guagliardo.” Maybe, he says, someone in Rockford has heard of him.
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Artie and Pat Jones of Hammond, La. eat breakfast Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, on the City of New Orleans Amtrak train between Chicago and New Orleans, La.
September 26th, 2008
It’s 4:28 a.m. The train has stopped at some godforsaken Podunk of a place. Some people got off. I don’t know what state we are in. I can’t sleep, so I fire up the PC. I’ve talked to quite a few people already, kept up with the news on the computer and TV, and frankly I’m getting rather alarmed.
I know I’m on a train, but I’m thinking of buses. As in, Are the wheels really coming off the bus? Our country seems to be in one of those times when the leaders are small men, and now, small women, with few ideas, few qualities that inspire. The Wasilla City Council could do a better job than this Congress and president. Maybe we should draft them.
We may indeed need to bail out failing investment banks with all their once fancy, now tarnished “instruments.” I’m not sure of that. What I do know is that a lot of people I’m talking to on this trip are livid at the thought of being ordered to send their tax dollars to Washington to pay for the very people who sold the U.S. down the river. This crisis is not abstract: Folks are losing their savings. There is nothing in any of the proposed measures on Capitol Hill that has any relief for people with foreclosed mortgages, which were based on home prices that were wildly overpriced.
Many of those I interviewed were also appalled that people routinely bought houses they in no way could pay for, suckered in by the lure of “free money” offered by irresponsible lenders. There’s more than enough blame to go around for the mortgage meltdown.
And for all John McCain made a show of “suspending” his campaign to go back to Washington to solve the crisis, people in the White House meeting Thursday said he didn’t say much. He did do several TV interviews, though. This, then, qualifies as a “suspended” campaign. I think the suspension has more to do with campaign strategy. McCain needed a new surprise.
The train has started up again. As we gain speed, the train lurches from right to left, up and down. I’m bouncing around like crazy in the middle of a country whose government can’t understand that we must have a First World infrastructure if we are going to remain a First World nation. Small men. Small women.
I’ve put Brad Paisley on the iPod. I feel better. “Time Well Wasted.” The title seems appropriate.
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Rockford Register Star columnist Chuck Sweeny rides the City of New Orleans Amtrak train Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, between Chicago and New Orleans, La.
September 26th, 2008
Joan Brumfield of Chicago’s South Side isn’t worried as much about the economy as she is about her mom, whom she’s going to see in McComb, Miss.
“I’m going to see my mom and dad, and she’s very sick,” Brumfield said. Her 13-year-old daughter accompanied her.
The owner of an adult day care business, Brumfield says she feels sorry for a lot of people who don’t have jobs and savings accounts, but who also have families to raise.
“This is an unfair economy,” she says. “We are bailing out wealthy people, a $700 billion gift to financial giants who were bad businessmen. We are not doing anything for the small people whose mortgages have been foreclosed.”
She likes Obama, who she says is smart and adept at the art of politics: “He knows how to work a room.” Friends and associates tell Brumfield that “they’ll never let a black man become president,” but she tells them, “yes, they will. He’s a smart, black man. He listens to people.”
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Joan Brumfield (right) and her daughter Tiffany Brumfield, 13, of Chicago talk while sitting in the dining car Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, on the City of New Orleans Amtrak train between Chicago and New Orleans, La.
September 26th, 2008
While I’m interviewing the Rockford woman in the dining car, one of her fellow diners chimes in from the next booth.
“I guess I’m one of the bad guys you’ve been talking about,” he says, laughing. It’s Tracy Wiswall of Memphis, formerly of New Orleans. He’s an officer of a brokerage firm called Wunderlich Securities.
“I’m not getting bailed out,” he hastens to add. I figure, good, we have an expert. What’s he think about what’s going on in the fiscal universe? Is it curtains? Or not?
“There’s a reasonable debate about what’s happening. They don’t know who they’re bailing out. Nobody knows.” A lot of the softness in the economy is the result of bad mortgage debt, he says.
“And the reason we have a mortgage crisis is because of all the Ninja loans that were made,” Wiswall said.
Ninja loans? What in the world is a Ninja loan, I ask him.
“Ninja. No income, no job loans. They were loaning readily available cash to anybody.”
Oh, that makes sense, I say.
Unlike President Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, our man Wiswall says. “I’m glad they said, no way, we aren’t getting this done right away, the process is too rushed.”
Wiswall says he’ll vote for McCain, but he’s not enthusiastic about it. He would have preferred libertarian Ron Paul.
“If I had a choice of McCain, Obama and Hillary, I might have voted for her,” he said.
I asked the classic right direction, wrong direction question.
“Right direction? No,” he said. We are going the way of the Romans, he added.
“The Romans built a vast empire, but the bigger they got, the more liberal they became, and they got too tired to fight. The U.S. is kind of moving that way. It’s more and more liberal.”
September 26th, 2008
It’s 7:13 p.m., and we are being called to board Train # 59, “The City of New Orleans.” Because Scott and I both have ordered roomettes, we get to waltz ahead of the coach passengers, who growl under their breaths as the Amtrak personnel wave us through the crowd.
As we get on, Terry, who’s in charge of the sleeping cars, shows us how to work the various lights and switches in our roomettes. He has “gotten the memo” from Amtrak management that two reporters are to be riding tonight. Terry says that anything we want, just call. We assure him we need nothing special.
This is a train with a famous name, but for many years under the Illinois Central’s ownership it was the “cheap train”, an all-coach train for poor people going between the Deep South and Chicago. Begun in 1947, it replaced another IC train called The Creole. Railroaders call this train the “Chicken Bone” because of the fried chicken that used to be taken on board by numerous passengers. That doesn’t happen nowadays, but the name stuck.
The exclusive, all-Pullman IC train to New Orleans was the Panama Limited, a name Amtrak kept in 1971 when it took over passenger trains from the railroads. In 1981, when Arlo Guthrie’s recording of Steve Goodman’s song became a hit, Amtrak renamed the Panama “the City of New Orleans,” to bask in the popularity of the song.
Scott and I make our way to the dining car, where we find an actual Rockfordian. She’s Lynda Liberatore of Churchill’s Grove. She’s bound for Jackson, Miss., taking her grandson “to meet her sister.” Her grandson’s mom and dad are coming from Dallas to pick him up.
As she enjoys some cajun-style cuisine, Liberatore tells me she’s a singer in the Sweet Adelines, a well-known Rockford group. I tell her I’ve probably heard her sing because I’ve heard the Adelines perform a time or two.
So, does she think we’re in a dire financial crisis, as our leaders have told us?
“Absolutely. We’re just going to borrow the money (for the bailout of failed banks) from somewhere else and it will be paid back by the taxpayers,” she says, dryly.
Liberatore believes Friday’s debate between Barack Obama and John McCain should go on.
“Let ‘em debate. Everything needs to be out there on the table,” she says.
When she goes to the polls Nov. 4, Liberatore will vote for John McCain. As with other McCain voters I’ve talked to, she admires his military experience and his strength under torture as a POW in North Vietnam.
“I guess I’m just a Republican at heart. I’m thrilled that he picked Sarah Palin. She’s a family gal, seems very intelligent and down to earth. She has good morals.”
Scott and I have dinner; he has steak, I have catfish. We’re surprised to discover it’s included in the price of the sleeping car ticket.
This train used to have both a club car and an observation car. Now it’s just the diner, two coaches, two sleepers and an engine. They stop serving dinner at 10 p.m., but the car stays open all night. I bring my laptop in and begin blogging.
The assistant conductor explains that the train used to be on time all the time, but a sinkhole developed under the tracks in Memphis. Canadian National, which owns the line, is reluctant to prioritize fixing the problem because it does not have many freights on the line. Since April, The City of New Orleans has been forced to make a complicated detour around the affected line in Memphis, throwing the schedule out the window. I wonder how late we’ll be getting into New Orleans. The assistant conductor doesn’t know. “Depends.”
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Lynda Liberatore of Rockford and her grandson Jaiden Richey, 3, of Irving, Tex. watch out the window Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, on the City of New Orleans Amtrak train between Chicago and New Orleans, La.
September 25th, 2008
At 6:15 p.m. in the Amtrak Sleeping Car Passenger lounge, the talking heads on CNN and Fox are reporting that President Bush and congressional leaders ended their summit meeting on the bailout bill in a huff.
The Amtrak announcer, who five minutes earlier had ordered Cardinal passengers to line up at the boarding gate, now says, “All passengers for the Cardinal may be seated. The train is in the station, we’re tying on an engine and will leave shortly.”
Scott Morgan, our photographer, has now joined me, and we approach Chris Juskewycz of Fairfield, Iowa, who’s waiting to board an eastbound train; she’ll get off in Erie, Pa., to see her 91-year-old mother. Chris and her husband own a sports memorabilia store in Fairfield. Business is down, she says.
“I’m very concerned about the economy, although I am not very knowledgeable about it.”
Does she favor a bailout?
“They definitely have to do something. It’s Armageddon if they don’t. To think there’s a Republican in office when this happens. They were always talking about the virtues of deregulation. Bush has very little credibility. People don’t trust him.”
She says a bailout will only work if independent people not connected with the failed banks are put in charge of managing it.”
“Congress has to hold firm. Dont’ give in on everything. Don’t give Wall Street a blank check.”
Although she liked Joe Biden in the Iowa caucuses, “I think Obama is the best hope we have of being bipartisan in office.”
I wondered, did Juskewycz think John McCain did the right thing in suspending his campaign and asking for Friday’s debate with Obama to be delayed?
“The debate should take place. I read somewhere that the McCain people were canceling this debate in hopes of rescheduling it in place of the vice presidential debate,” to keep Sarah Palin out of the line of fire.
She usually flies to see her mom but took the train because it’s difficult to make air connections in Fairfield and Erie. “I came to Chicago on the California Zypher, and now I’m waiting for the Lake Shore Limited. It’s been a great ride. I plug in my iPod, read a book and relax.”
SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Chris Juskewycz of Fairfield, Iowa, waits for her train Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, at Union Station in Chicago.
September 25th, 2008
Ray Clyburn looks at the giant, flat-screen TV in the Amtrak Sleeping Car Passenger Lounge in Chicago’s cavernous Union Station. We were tuned to CNN, but a patron asked if anybody would mind if he switched to Fox. Everybody shrugged, and he changed the channel. On both channels, talking heads were going on about the proposed $700 financial industry bailout.
Clyburn said, “It looks to me as if we are going to be rewarding people for buying homes they couldn’t afford, that we will continue the moral decline of the young people. In a capitalist society, we shouldn’t be doing bailouts.”
Clyburn, 70, lives in Norfok, Va., a military city. He’s retired from a career as a Nationwide Insurance agent.
“I always have been an independent, but I’ve voted Republican mostly because I thought they would do best for the economy. I think McCain is a very good person to lead our country now.”
Clyburn admires McCain for his fortitude during more than five years of captivity in North Vietnam. He has two grown children, “and I have no idea who they’d vote for.”
And what of Obama?
“My thoughts are that he’s a Muslim. I think he must be one and not practicing it, but it must have been instilled in him as a youngster. He has no experience in business or politics.”
Clyburn volunteers that he’s on his is his third major train trip. A decade ago he took a deluxe, $10,000 trip across Canada and stayed in fancy hotels. And then there was the Costa Rican experience.
“My wife and I rode on a banana train. The windows of the coaches were broken out, and we rolled from side to side brushing trees and big plants at 10 mph. When we got to a creek, the train stopped and people got out and went for a swim.”
September 25th, 2008
Sue Allen of Virginia Beach, Va., is one of those “Red Hat Society” ladies who are over 50 and have a sense of adventure. “We go out to eat, go to movies and we love to travel.”
Allen and her friends have just returned from Branson, Mo., where they saw several country-themed variety shows. Now Allen is waiting in Chicago’s Union Station to board a train back to Virginia. She’s a nurse at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Va.; her ex-husband was a career Navy man.
Who will get her vote for president?
“McCain,” she says emphatically. “My number one reason is that he was involved in the military for many years. I don’t think Obama has the experience. My three daughters are staunch Democrats, but I like McCain. He made a very good move when he chose Sarah Palin for vice president. She’s a strong female.”
But Allen doesn’t necessarily agree with her candidate on the war in Iraq. McCain once said American forces may need to remain in Iraq, in some capacity, for 100 years.
“Get ‘em out of the sandbox,” she says. “Sandbox,” Allen explains, is military speak for Iraq and Afghanistan. “I think we need to support them and get them home. I don’t really think either candidate is going to get them home faster.”
I asked her about the financial crisis. Allen said she’s got some savings, “and I think, am I going to lose those dollars? But I try not to dwell on this stuff.” And just like that, she changed the subject, describing the series of buses and trains she’s been on during her “America By Rail” tour.
“It’s my first trip by train. I’ve been very pleased. “
September 25th, 2008
It’s 4 p.m., and I’m ensconced in the spacious, nicely appointed Union Station sleeping car passenger lounge. A group of 20 or so are sitting in the comfortable couches and chairs, eating free munchies and watching Wolf Blitzer and the CNN pundits try to describe what’s going on with the $700 billion scheme to bail out the Wall Street investment banks that made a mess of the economy.
Amtrak passengers shake their heads and laugh in disgust as Wolf explains that the president and Congress can’t agree on what the bailout should look like, and indeed, whether there should even be one. Wolf announces a poll that says by 53 percent to 42 percent, Americans believe John McCain should fly to Ole Miss and debate Barack Obama.
I strike up a conversation with Leo Kennedy of Perrysburg, Ohio. He’s going home with his wife on Train # 30, The Capitol Limited. Now retired, he was plant manager at a factory in Michigan that makes plastic packaging. “See that Coke bottle,” he says, pointing to a nearby table. “I designed that.”
So, what does Leo make of the economic situation the country’s in?
“It’s an absolute disaster,” Kennedy says. “There’s been no regulations, and you have the fox guarding the hen house. People bought homes they could not afford, cars they couldn’t afford. My 401(k) is almost gone. What the hell am I going to live on? President Bush pops up on the TV screen, which prompts Leo to call him an “idiot, a moron” and other words that you know but which I shall not repeat.
“I’m tired of getting screwed. If I were 19, I would start a revolution. The two-party system sucks; you’ve got crooks on both sides. Take that $700 billion and cancel all the foreclosures, just cancel ‘em out. Help the little guy.”
“Bill Clinton may have been an (deleted) but at least we had a surplus, I could afford a gallon of gas and a T bone steak once in a while.”
So, who will Kennedy vote for on Nov. 4?
“Bugs Bunny,” he says. “Obama has pie in the sky; McCain has nothing in the sky, including brains.”
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