The Long Arm of the Communist Military

Firstly I want to thank CSX Corp. and/or Fort Bragg for switching trains in the entirety of last night.  Good sleep on a Sunday night in Fayettenam is contingent upon this, just as it is every night.  The military runs Fayetteville, and I am positive from their perspective because of the economic base they provide, each and everything they do is justified for the national security of this once great nation.  Take for example the Festival Park Fourth of July celebration.  Last Monday evening, because local automotive seller Reid Lallier was accused of molesting a young boy at a race in South Carolina, Stefan Sanders took the reins as jockey for the celebration.  Sponsored by the Arts Council the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra provided most of the entertainment.  I am certain what transpired was Stefan's first encounter with the behemoth beast that is CSX Corp.  At the exact time of their performance, like a tandem ballet, CSX decided to pull a munitions train out of Fort Bragg.  A rail feasibility study was done in Fayetteville not that long ago that is available on the internet.  They concluded that the majority of downtown congestion relating to freight trains was caused by this activity.  The trunk line servicing Fort Bragg crosses the CSX mainline double tracks.  There is no connector.  For a munitions train to be hauled to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, they must crossover the CSX tracks on the Vander line and back down Russell Street toward the DAK America's plant on Cedar Creek Rd.  Incidentally this manufacturing installation, formerly Roman Haas, makes polyester.  They are owned by a Mexican conglomerate.  When this train activity occurs it blocks traffic downtown for several hours.  The study suggested that CSX install a connector track, so trains could directly access the mainline to Pembroke.  There could be no more appropriate time for such a project to take place.  The DOT already has prepared the land with their massive bridge replacement project for the Rowan Street bridge, one of the oldest and most unsafe in North Carolina.  Now that the bridge has been completed and the subsequent land cleared, laying ties for a connector tracks would be simple.  Even if that track had been planned and laid years ago when the study was done, it would not have spared Maestro Sanders from the debacle that ensued.  The entire time his orchestra was attempting to provide patriotic music for the celebration of the independence of America from Great Britain, a rumbling munitions train hovered in the background.  I cannot imagine the experience of a major orchestra and conductor having to perform in such an adverse situation.  It was insulting, and the train seriously hindered the sentiment of the evening.  What it did do was provide the appropriate metaphor for the importance of Fort Bragg.  Which was more important, community citizens celebrating the birth of freedom for America, or supplying a martial military force about which we do not know its intent.  Why is America in Afghanistan?  We are soon to forget the decade of Viet Nam, a ten year period from 1965 to 1975 when American troops fought an unwinnable war for a foreign interest with which the American people disagreed.  Although Mr. Lallier may be a tried and convicted pedophile, he was adebt as negotiating.  He got on the horn and negotiated with CSX and convinced them to curtail their train activity while the North Carolina Symphony performed.  During this time the United States Army directly was involved with the festivities providing cannon fire for the climax of the 1812 Overture.  This year a stark and unsettling dichotomy existed that both undermined and mocked America's celebration of freedom.  The strong arm of the military, in a maneuver that mimicked President's Trump's show of fascist and communist sentiment, prevailed.  If American politics continue on the course of Trump, it won't be long before freedom is just as evasive as intelligent leadership.