Taking our medicine

Re “No way to build a railroad,” editorial, April 17

I wholeheartedly agree with your editorial, which advocates paying for a system of bullet trains with increased gasoline taxes rather than borrowed money.

Those behemoth vehicles that invade our parking spaces and blast past us on city streets are not only irritating, they are signs of a society intoxicated with a substance ultimately more harmful than liquor or drugs.

Not only are we poisoning the atmosphere, the excessive consumption of gasoline by massive and overpowered vehicles is leading the U.S. down the path toward bankruptcy and diplomatic futility as we become increasingly owned by our creditors in China and the oil-producing countries of the Middle East.

The only practical solution is bitter medicine: high gas taxes, European-style, that would maintain the retail price of gasoline at $4 a gallon or more.

Gerry Rankin

Glendale