President Harry Truman Got It

He once said, “You get a real feeling of this country and the people in it when you’re on a train.”

He was right, too. When you take a long-distance train ride across America, you have time to look and, more importantly, to think about what you see: factories and farms, mountains and plains; scenes of incredible variety and beauty.

But you also see, and have time to think about, abandoned buildings and urban decay and inner city slums and trailer parks and weather-beaten shacks. And if you’re really paying attention, you soon realize that there are a helluva lot of poor people all across these United States of America. And most of them are having a hard time.

I wish every Member of Congress would take time off from their official duties and spend a week just riding around this country on Amtrak. Maybe, if they get it they way Harry Truman got it, we would soon have a whole new list of national priorities.