There is a phrase that I have heard uttered many times here when the topic of GLRR, INC. vs. Railstar comes up and that phrase is something along several lines:
“its over, move on”
“they won you lost, deal with it”
“why beat a dead horse”
“what a bunch of pathetic losers, to be whining over this after ( enter year value here) “
I suppose I’m putting this all down in words because I want to , maybe, give those that would use these phrases a frame of reference to understand those of us to which they seem intent on using said phrases on.
One hundred and forty three years ago a way of life; traditions, values, and a culture came to an end. Those that had participated in it were left scattered and disillusioned. All that they and their families had built up over time and passed down , with the hopes of passing it along to yet another generation was gone. They had fought for what they believed in, given it all they had only to see it overwhelmed by a seemingly unstoppable force and taken from them in spite of all they did to hold on to it.
What remained was overseen in a pathetically inept fashion, mired in Bureaucracy and unproductiveness, masquerading as progress. The reconstruction of what had been their world, their way of life was painful to watch because it was being guided by people who had never known what had existed there before. They knew only their vision of what they felt should be there, regardless of whether or not it belonged. In the end those that stood to decry the screwups of the new administration and its woeful misadaptation of what had been were told simple “ deal with it, you lost, its our show now”.
Those people were my ancestors. They were very industrious, hardworking people that had laboured in the soil and built up their world from nothing starting in 1635 and only had the misfortune of founding their new lives in what would eventually become The Confederate States of America. When the War came, they enlisted to fight for their homes against those that they felt had no right or business to be in their land. They fought, some never made it home and those that did had to watch their farms taken, or destroyed their family possessions and heirlooms seized and they were told simply, “ deal with it “.
143 years later , there are still parts of the old south that feel their pain. That still feel the loss they did not as severely but it still lingers like ghosts in the night air.
The final season, even the months leading up to it, of GLRR,Inc. were , in many ways, like the closing months of the Civil War for my ancestors. Hope still prevailed against the odds that had become apparent. There was still hope for a last minute reprieve ; the hope that everything would be alright. The war ,of words instead of bullets, raged on battlefields consisting of billboards, flyers, pamphlets, radio interviews, Television spots, public meetings and heated public and private exchanges across the internet. By October it was all but over. For the first time , I understood what my family must have been feeling in the spring of 1865. It was all but over, all that remained was to sit and wait for the end to come.
I cannot speak for everyone that was there, but I can share my personal experiences. I have never fought for something as hard as I did for the Loop. I gave it my all, and to that end I had to watch it fall. I had to sit back and hand over something that many had given countless hours, blood sweat and tears for 30 years to build up form nothing to the victors of the war, who did not belong there and who had never known nor cared about what had existed there before. Just as the Radical Republicans in the Senate had been in 1865 , so too, had the CHS been less than gracious winners.
By December 22nd , 2004 it was gone.
Those here that would decry “ oh crap not again” have never been through something like this. You’ve never had something taken from you no matter how hard you fought to keep it. You don not have any frame of reference. Many have moved on, some are sill effected by this in the same ways as those 143 years ago. In time whatever will be will be. It will never be the same and just like my ancestors, I too will have to make peace with that reality.
Most of you on this board were not there. Some of us were and if you had experienced it first hand every day , on and off the clock for almost a year as we did, you might understand why there are those that are still bitter because Egos took from us something we took a great deal of pride in.
So the next time you might find yourself tempted to utter those phrases listed at the beginning of this post, you might want to take into consideration, that some of us react the way we do because we experienced it first hand, while most only experienced it on this board or in the local papers.
K.S. Wilcomb
G.B.& L. Ry Co.
Engineer - Ret.
Fairy tales begin "once aopn a time." Railroad Stories begin " now this aint no BS !"
