Quadsville

My column for Sunday's Quad-City Times:

Mutual distrust. Dishonest words. Faulty hearing. Lazy thinking.
Those are a few of the reasons Quadsvillagers cited for the communication failure between citizens and government and between politicos of opposing parties.
I expressed my exasperation at the wildly disparate interpretations of the president’s State of the Union address in my Jan. 31 column, “Two parties divided by a common language.” While Quadsvillagers didn’t offer much hope that Republicans, Democrats and independents would see eye-to-eye any time soon, a few of them did try to analyze and explain their reactions to the speech. I appreciate the effort by these thoughtful Quadsvillagers to explore their different interpretations of Obama’s words.
Haley admitted she tunes out Obama when he brings up the Bush administration.
“I feel people are getting sick and tired of him blaming the previous administration for everything that doesn’t pan out in his administration,” Haley wrote. “He should be above all the criticism and talk, but he’s not. He just sounds like he’s a whining kid that is in way over his head.”
Where Haley hears whining and refusal to take responsibility, Wheezy hears Obama setting the record straight:
“I heard him taking a ‘question’ from a Republican congressman yesterday,” Wheezy wrote, “a long rant that included the charge that Obama has ‘tripled the national debt.’ The congressman has to be either completely dishonest or incredibly ignorant to make such a charge, but it is typical of the way the debate on health care has gone this year.”
Disingenuous words and political doublespeak seemed to turn off Quadsvillagers the fastest. Take this exchange:

Wheezy: The President should be a leader for the country, not just for his party, and he made a step in that direction the other night, chastising both Dems and Republicans for their perpetual bickering.
Just a Voice: To scold both parties for not working together and then scolding the Dems for not pushing a particular agenda through because they have the majority and didn’t need the Reps, makes absolutely no sense. If a group doesn’t need the other group, there is no need to work together, which is exactly what happened. When he was scolding both parties as a whole, he was only providing lip service.

Gene Beenk of DeWitt, Iowa, sent me a letter in which he shared a quote from Bernard M. Patten’s book, “Truth, Knowledge or Just Plain Bull.” It sums up his assessment of how — and why — language is twisted by those in power, and why emotion often trumps fact in debate:
“... Most people can’t think. And if they can think, they can’t think right; if they can think right, they don’t care to think right because it is too much work; and if they do think right, frequently they don’t act on their conclusions.”
The 80 comments, e-mails and letters I received on this subject were from folks eager to work through a complicated topic. Let’s keep the discussion going in Quadsville. Maybe we can set an example for those in Washington.

Steve and I rode the Loop bus Friday and Saturday evenings on its inaugural (FREE!) weekend. Overall, it was great and almost all the other passengers we encountered were having a super time and were very excited to have nighttime, weekend public transportation available to them.

On Friday night, we walked from our house to the District and waited about 15 minutes for the clockwise bus. That was a cold experience. It was windy and sleeting. And since we had no schedules at that point, we had no idea when to expect a bus. We were very cozy once on board. It took a little over 15 minutes to make it to our stop in the Village, which is perfectly located by Lagomarcino's. We walked up the block and had dinner at The Bierstube and then saw "Fool For Love" at the Village Theatre. Then we caught the clockwise bus back to the District and walked home. That bus was 10 minutes late, due to a train in downtown Moline (potential problem for the Loop). One lady, who presumably had to wait longer than anticipated at her stop, said "See you next summer" as she exited the bus.

It would have been a quicker trip for us to catch the counter-clockwise bus on the way home, but since we weren't on a schedule, it was fun to see where all the stops were located in Bettendorf and Moline.

On Saturday night, we had one shot to catch a Loop bus and be at the Capitol Theatre on time to see Burlesque Le'Moustache (and not be there ridiculously early). The 7:26 bus was just about on the dot. We got off at the 3rd & Harrison stop, but noticed 3rd and Ripley - right by the theatre - would be a better stop location. The driver even said he'd had problems with male patrons of Shenanigans coming out and pounding on the windows when he stopped at the light at Harrison. Drop off on the east side of Harrison might be convenient for those going drinking, but with the next stop at the Adler Theatre, I think it makes more sense to have a Capitol Theatre stop instead of 3rd & Harrison.

Our bus home was also on time.

And now for my recommendations for making the Loop experience better:

The buses need to say "Clockwise" or "Counter-clockwise" on their outer digital displays. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

Heat lamps at the stops would be greatly appreciated. A bar in the District close to the Loop stop has one out for the smokers that we stood under while waiting. Made the experience much more pleasant.

Change the 3rd & Harrison stop to Ripley & Harrison.

Add the Loop buses to Metrolink's GPS system that allows you to text the code for your stop and find out when the next bus will arrive.

I think that's all, but I'll add others if I think of them. Did you ride the Loop? Do you have any suggestions?