Something different, something possible, something real?

My great-uncle came through town last night, and I went with him and my aunt and had dinner. Now, this particular uncle is nearly 80 years old, and the man has seen a great many things at his age. During that time, he watched the GM plants be retooled during World War Two, to mass produce materials for the war, instead of automobiles. And I asked him about it, how that worked, and whether or not he thought it was possible for the factories in Michigan to be once again overhauled to be used in a different way.

Because honestly, the idea Michael Moore has presented, at least in part, is one that I like. Converting the major GM factories to stop mass producing cars, which they've already done, but instead hire those workers, and probably more, to construct the materials to manufacture the light rail system that President Obama has been talking about, is a good one. And to manufacture clean buses to run in the small towns nation-wide, is also a damn good idea.

There are flaws in Michael Moore's plan, to be sure. But the core idea is one I like, and my uncle also agreed with it. It would bring jobs, all over the country, as the factories produced both the materials to build the lines, and the people needed to actually operate the trains all over the country. The same for the bus lines, and the people to operate them, and maintain them. American people building them, and running them, and putting people back to work. All over. And this country *needs* that.

If we don't do something, and soon, to bring jobs back onto American soil, and keep those jobs here, there isn't going to be a lot of America left. We import far too many things, and depend far too much on everything else, when this country is fully capable of making the things we need, here at home. A fact which Americans like my uncle still remember, vividly. We can grow what we need, manufacture what we need, and the quality of what we used to make *here at home* far surpassed what we import from other countries.

Certainly, it can be made less expensively in other places, but we're putting our own people out of work to do it, and the goods are not as well-made as a result. And our economy has been and is failing miserably. Our own people are going hungry, and our country is collapsing, and what we have to show for it is going to be a far worse reality than the Great Depression ever was.

This country needs to stop relying on imports, and a good first step would be to start employing the number of people that restructuring the GM plants to bring to reality the light rail system President Obama spoke of. Give jobs to Americans, and boost the economy with American workers, all over the country.