Living for Letters and TrainsI live for letters and trains, the greatest connectors. Life would be a pale shadow of itself without them. The typed letter on linen paper I have here is dated May 19, 2003, and comes from Cambridge, Mass. I lived in Baltimore at the time, a city desk reporter. The name on the parchment letterhead is Anthony Lewis, the author and columnist for The New York Times, who just died days before his 86th birthday. The world is down one of our greatest champions for constitutional and social justice. But I have a precious piece of paper, addressed to Ms. Stiehm, written with warmth, brio and a bit of rhyme: "I have read 'King George the Second' and enjoyed it a lot. You know your Shakespeare! And you know the present George (W. Bush) all too well. Would he were gone, resolved into a dew. Thank you for the nice inscription, too. It was good to meet you. (In his hand) Best wishes, Anthony Lewis." This kind note meant the world to me. The date is significant — the nation had invaded Iraq. I had written a protest piece in the style of Shakespearean theater, which lent itself remarkably well to the tragic events of the Bush presidency. Suddenly, the Pulitzer Prize-winner and I were tight, seeing eye-to-eye. If it were an email message, it wouldn't have the permanence or heft. I would not have saved it as carefully. I could not hold the letter in my hands as a palpable link between us, between generations. Nor could I see the care the great writer took in composing the words that graced me. My cherished Lewis letter is the latest reason why the United States Postal Service absolutely must be defended and preserved against all marauders and Republicans in Congress. Like, now. They have not (yet) cut the Saturday mail delivery. Same rough political weather goes for Amtrak, another essential part of our collective life. The postal service and our rail network are public goods under siege, threatened with a wrongheaded notion they should turn a profit like a business in the private sector.
Let me bring in brilliant Tony Judt, the late historian who was born in London and lived in New York: "Railways remain the necessary and natural accompaniment to the emergence of civil society. They are a collective project for individual benefit." In his final 2010 book, "Ill Fares the Land," he points out the great railway stations of the 19th and 20th centuries are unsurpassed public spaces, grand, lofty and practical. Thank you, Tony. Train travel between Washington and New York is an urbane pleasure, crossing the majestic Susquehanna River before seeing Philadelphia's Victorian rowhouses on the riverfront. Los Angeles, the last city to release its chokehold on the automobile, is now building a mass transit system to connect Santa Monica and other cities to downtown. The boy next door when I was growing up, Rob, is working hard on it. We should envision Amtrak expanding its infrastructure reach to connect more farms, small towns and big cities over our vast spaces and grids. There used to be a Pullman formal dining service on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's night train to Chicago, one that they still talk about. Trains have a certain je ne sais qoui. You could meet anyone. Both the nation's post office and the railroads have been avenues of advancement for the black middle class, another consideration far from the minds of critics. The post office was mandated by the Constitution, in order to actually unite the states. Nobody could run a private post for the young democracy, but everyone depended upon having one. You could write to anyone, then and now. Let me bring in a Jane Austen character, Jane Fairfax in the novel "Emma," who caught the spirit in 1816: "The post office is a wonderful establishment! The regularity and despatch of it! If one thinks of all that it has to do ... it is really astonishing!" Yes, Jane. Exactly so. The post brings all kinds of things and, once in a while, a gem that charms you forever. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM 
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
