A Member, 1943

Photographer: Marjory Collins, Dec. 1943
"Garage mechanic near Newark, N.J.
Badge denotes member of Office of Defense Transportation"
Library of Congress

Office of Defense Transportation?

This summarizes the bureaucratic structure.

I have no idea what being a badge-wearing local member entailed. But this guy sure looks happy to belong.

It's too easy to picture the same man in the 2010 depression: unemployed and too old to be hired for another job, with no New Deal/war effort to offer work and involvement.

Although it seems that we currently have a national transportation policy, proclaimed just weeks ago—

...Through Recovery Act projects, we are repairing crumbling infrastructure, expanding transit capacity, and modernizing our transportation system to meet national security standards and the needs of a 21st-century economy.

The ability to travel effectively also strengthens us as a people. President Eisenhower's creation of our interstate highway system over 50 years ago revolutionized channels of economic and social mobility, drew together distant areas of our Nation, and helped us maneuver through dense metropolitan areas. Today, smart, sustainable development, coupled with quality public transportation, has created more livable and environmentally sustainable communities for all to enjoy. By reducing isolation and bringing neighborhoods together, we can continue to increase access to good jobs, affordable housing, safe streets and parks, and a healthy food supply.

That's us, all over. Surely an unfocused and underfunded Recovery Act, along with issuing a proclamation, makes it so.

Of course, if risking athlete's foot at airports means we're achieving "national security standards," we're right on track.

Back to our friend above—and the many current versions of him—the government isn't visibly doing things to help him, or to at least make him feel he's on the same side. But some very well-funded people are quite visible, and they are busy telling him whom to blame for his circumstances.

Glen Beck didn't need to bother arranging a stunt for today's date; he's focused on hijacking the meaning of August 28.