The Griffon News

Back in August, I took my significant other to Union Station so she could catch a train down to St. Louis, where her World of Warcraft guild was meeting for a giant land party. She left at 4 p.m. on a train capable of reaching speeds of 85 mph, and arrived at 11 p.m. It occurred to me that when she called to say she made it safely, that I could have driven there at 70 mph and beaten her. On the return trip we arrived at 9 p.m. to pick her up at the scheduled time. Her train arrived two hours later. The hold up on both trips was due to the fact that in America, we run our freight and passenger trains on the same tracks, and if their courses intersect, guess who gets priority?

If you guessed the passengers who pay up to and in excess of $50 a ticket, then you would be wrong. Instead it is the corporation that drops large bills on the safe and reliable transportation of their product. God knows we wouldn’t want to slow down this juggernaut of capitalism and industry even for a second. People should just learn to be patient.

That is America.

In Japan, the trains run on time.

Like clockwork, every day, every hour, the trains run on time.

It does not take much research to see that in many ways, the Japanese are doing a better job in many areas than the Americans. In Japan people are generally skinnier, smarter and more technologically adept when it comes to living in the 21st century than their American counterparts. At the same time there can be seen a greater emphasis in pride and respect for their native culture and elder traditions in Japan than we can find here in the homeland.

Sometimes I think the Japanese culture figured the best revenge on us for nuking two of their cities, was to live longer and better in the future. To do more with their limited land area and resources, than we do with our breadbaskets.

We might as well take a few lessons from those who shine in any given fields and get to know better the neighbors of ours in this cosmic monopoly game. If we learn their stories, we might be able to reinvent our own flawed national thought process. Besides, why be so resistant to globalization? It brought such great things in the beginning, like syphilis. The fact is that globalization is happening and it is a whole new ball game. I am not sure the Americans really remember how to play anymore. It seems like we have rewritten the rules one too many times.

I’d say there is still just enough time for us to figure out what they are doing right that we aren’t, and then change our ways before we realize that the hamster cage is too full and the wheel is broken. Besides, wouldn’t it be nice if the trains were on time?