Why stop at ‘Taxpayer Express’?

As a frequent rider on Amtrak, I would be quite happy if any passenger train serving Roanoke were to be named the “Taxpayer Express.” I have, after all, communicated with numerous senators and congressmen over the years, urging them to allocate less money to highways and aviation, and more money to Amtrak.

Furthermore, Amtrak appears to have survived yet another round of attempts by Republicans to defund it completely.

Taxpayer Express, however, falls so sweetly upon the ears that it suggests other naming possibilities. Interstate 81, for example, could very appropriately be named the Taxpayer Turnpike. The main building at the Roanoke Regional Airport would have a much stronger identity if it were called the Taxpayer Terminal.

And the GPS system that has eliminated the need to ask for directions; isn’t it really a TPS system? Those satellites didn’t get up there for free. Neither, for that matter, did the weather satellites that allow us to keep track of hurricanes. Shouldn’t the National Weather Service be renamed the Taxpayer Weather Service?

These new names might serve as useful reminders that taxpayers and the taxes they pay are what make life as we know it in America possible.

EDWARD S. STONE
ROANOKE

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