Howdy, howdy, I have returned from Africa, but I will continue to post africa stories, and US stories (for you Africans now tuning in). This weekend I went to Mammoth for my roomates birthday. Friday was quite possibly the worst day I have had in a long time. It started out fine, I finished packing for the weekend, and ran a few errands. At the last minute, I was called by the people in Mountain View who I had been planning to ride with, and they told me that their car was full. There were only two of them, so I could only assume that their car was full of crap as were they. I really wanted to go to Mammoth and so I investigated public transportation. There is public transportation to Mammoth and Yosemite, if you can get past the idiots who work for Amtrak. I went to the Amtrak station in San Jose to try to get tickets, and the women there were the rudest people I have ever met in my life. After I had asked about the possible routes, the woman said I had asked too many questions, and she refused to answer any more. I only had one more: Are there any Amtrak buses that connect to the train going from Stockton to Merced? She said I had to go to the other window to talk to the other lady. When I got to the other window, the other lady said her window was closed, so I went back to the first window...she refused to help me again and said that I had to go to the other window. So I went back to window number two, and told her that the woman at window number one had insisted that I see her. I asked her my question, and she shouted "I told you this window was closed!" and proceeded to slam the wooden shutter down on my hands. At this point I screamed "Ouch!" and everyone in the train station turned to look at me. I went back to window number one, where I very angrily said to the woman: "Look, I have one question about buses to Stockton, and all I want is a yes or no answer." She said: "In that case, the answer is no." She hadn't even looked in her computer to see the bus schedule. So I asked a very nice lady waiting in line if she would please ask the woman if there were buses that connected to the Stockton Merced train, and the Amtrak woman called the police and told them I was harrasing other passengers when the woman tried to ask the question for me. At that point I left, and gave up on public transportation forever.

According to C-, Michael Dukakis is the head of Amtrak, and I think I'm going to write him a letter.
I am in Berkeley, and we are discussing the disfunctionality of the United States. Somehow, Europe manages to have things that are functional, so why can't we. Even rural Africa is more functional that the US in many ways. The only westernized country I have been to where things are even more disfunctional is South Africa. In South Africa it is clear that their inability to function is directly connected to racism. They are holding on to racism so tightly, that nothing works. I was trying to get my insect nets back from Nelspruit, and they couldn't figure out how to send them from one town to another. Even though the towns were not that far away, and there were a ton of buses and planes and cars going from one to the other on an hourly basis. God forbid they should create an inexpensive courrier service -- black people may use it to get things back and forth!!! Only people who can afford cars should be able to transport things! The US is so much like this, that I can clearly see that our disfunctionality is also connected to racism. Our country spends so much energy on keeping a lower class of people, that it keeps us from having basic services like health care and functional public transportation. Anyway, I could go on here for hours, but I have a hungry kitten waiting for me at home, so I better go and tell you about the rest of the Mammoth trip later. Over and out.
- posted by Sarah @ 1:14 PM