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Punk also predated us by a few years, so what does that leave? Is my memory failing me, or were the early ‘80s â€" our comingâ€"ofâ€"age â€" culturally void? Actually, I can‘t think of a single style or trend specifically associated with us. Are we all just so unoâ€" riginal and pathetic? Is it just our own damn fault? They had their Woodstock, now we‘ve got ours, boast the young men and women of today. But what about mine? Being caught between the baby boomers and the "Xers" (boomers‘ kids, mostly), sometimes it‘s hard to figure just where people my age (28) fit in. By most definitions, the doors on the baby boom :a‘gr::inhndllammedshmbydnfimwhiflhe Similarly, we rode our ripple into shore long before the demographic wave that represents the boomers‘ kids drowned us. We 26 to 345 are a strange age group: too young to do the monkey, too old to slam dance; too young for tieâ€"dyes and beads, too old for body piercing (darn); too young for bell bottoms and sandals, too old for baggy jeans and Doc Martens, etc., etc. My friends and I love all of the music and much of the philosophy of the late ‘60s, but it isn‘t part of us, it doesn‘t belong to us. * Many of us can also relate to the searching, cynical, confused Nirvanaâ€"Pearl Jamâ€"Soundgarden branch of new music but it‘s not ours, either. * Although disco dancing was part of our grade school phys.ed. curriculum, I take no credit for that regretâ€" table fad â€"â€" besides, I was only 14 when the "disco sucks" movement had already put Donna Summer et al. in their rightful place. . â€" _ up Talking ‘bout my generation Nobody?!? Perhaps Young is leading somewhat of a sheltered existence in which contact with the public is prohibited. Surely he must know someone who rides the train. It is true that ridership is down, but the reasons for that drop are largely attributable to previous cuts in service, Take our own situation as an example. The Sarnia to Toronto route that provides service to Kitchâ€" enerâ€"Waterloo is one of the routes on the chopping block. In 1990, the route was drastically scaled back so that few people would be in a position to use it. What good is a train leaving Kitchener at 9:20 a.m. to a commuter who has to be at work in Toronto at 9 a.m.? Given the inadequate service, it is no wonder that ridership is off. The fact that anyone uses the train at all in the curâ€" rent circumstances is a tribute to the many virtues of rail travel. Driving into Toronto is enough to give many drivers heart failure. Train travel is easier on the nerves. It is also cheaper, safer, and wheelchair accessible (try getting a wheelchair on an interâ€"city bus). What Canada needs is more and better rail On January 15, 1990, I joined about a thousand other people on the platform of the Ottawa VIA staâ€" tion. We were protesting the cuts to train service which had been announced by the Tories in late 1989, but were to take effect that day. ‘When Mac Harb, Liberal MP for Ottawa Centre, took the microphone, he joined the other speakers in condemning the cuts. Unfortunately for Mac, some members of the crowd remembered that the Liberals record on protecting passenger rail service was far from perfect. He was soon drowned out by a chant of "Liberal cuts in 81. Tory cuts in ‘89." We might have added, "And more Liberal cuts in ‘94". Liberal Transport Minister is aiming to shave $100 million off the $343 million subsidy that the govâ€" ernment gives VIA every year. His rationale for the cuts is that "nobody we know gets on trains" VIA cuts don‘t make sense us up so high (in terms of values, expectations, etc.) that we fell hard, the way the beomers did. And these kids today â€"â€" sheeeesh. All that ugly flanâ€" nel, and that noise they listen to, and ... uhâ€"oh, I‘m starting to sound like my parents. Yikes! I doubt it. The problem is simply that there were never enough of us to make any kind of impression. Our grandparents had their children during the poverty of the ‘30s and the rationing of the second world war. For many, a big family would have meant too many mouths to feed. combined with the end of the postâ€"war economic gmn,ldmymtfimfiny,mdmm Looking back, it seems the boomers were so big they rained all over our little comingâ€"ofâ€"age parade by grabbing headlines in the ‘80s when they dove into Nobody noticed us as we tiptoed out of our teens and folded ourselves into the nooks and crannies of Even if trains were to come out on the losing end on a dollars and cents comparison, there is another key reason to continue supporting them: cars are the major contributor to global warming. That‘s one of the reasons that most industrialized nations are expandâ€" ing, not cutting, rail passenger service. If the Liberals do decide to proceed with their cuts, let‘s hope that they have the decency to submit the decision to an environmental assessment (something the Tories refused to do in 1989). Representatives from all three levels of government along the Sarnia to Toronto line have released a joint statement opposing the proposed cuts. Good for them. The problem is that, once again, every politician in Canada seems to want to save VIA â€" except the ones that have the power to do so. Please do your part to let them know that their political future may be riding on the very train that they are cutting. travel, not less. > The inevitable response to these points â€" and the argument that always seems to win out â€" is that the subsidies being given to VIA can no longer continue. It‘s a cheap shot, because rail travel‘s subsidies are far more visible than those for other means of transportaâ€" tion. The $7 billion (yes, that‘s biltion with a "b") spent annually on roads and bridges is spread over three levels of government. That amount doesn‘t even include the expense of automobile injuries and deaths In a way, however, we were lucky: no one ever built Tom Brockelbank *‘fi;] : SavEe mons on Duvets & Towsls, Too: * K WATERLOO 888â€"9166 _ Shmm i: K iC 36 3 35 3i 3C j 3iC 35 3i 3iC 3iC 30 3)C °C WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1994 â€" PAGE 7