Last week "the snowpocalypse" descended on Atlanta with an outright fury that left many people trapped on the highway overnight.  There were thousands unable to reach home due to icy roads that led quickly to hundreds of accidents.  I have a 4 x 4 and was terrified to go further than Ponce de Leon as 4 wheel drive means nothing if there's nothing to grip.
In the aftermath, I read a great article (can't remember where) about exactly what happened to the road systems that left so many of my neighbors trapped in their cars, some for 12 hours or more.
The short version is, the weather looked ok when people got up to go to work, so they did.
But by 11-11:30 we started getting flakes and everyone left work at lunchtime in an attempt to get home.
So rush hour got pushed up 6 hours as the snow quickly turned to ice at pretty much everywhere it fell.
The Georgia DOT road crews that were on standby couldn't get anywhere because of the rush hour-like gridlock and the numerous accidents compounded problem on problem.  Semi's skidded across interstates effectively blocking everything and everyone and that pretty much put a bow on it.

But if you look to Slate's online magazine for answers you will find that the problem was "Racism".

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/atlanta_s_snow_fiasco_the_real_problem_in_the_south_isn_t_weather_it_s_history.html

Duh, right?

Snow is white.  White = racist.  Therefore, snow is racist.
Jeez.
Don't need to take a whole lot of Argumentative Writing courses at GSU to figure this one out.

Except it's all B.S.
Atlanta has a traffic problem.
No doubt about it.
Too many cars on the road.
Too many people all trying to get somewhere using the same space at the same time.
Public transportation could alleviate some of the congestion.
Or maybe not.
New York has a great train system but traffic still sucks on any given day.
Ditto Chicago.
So maybe it's not quite that simple.

As for Atlanta's supposed race problem I would say this:
I am 43 years old and I don't know anyone who gives a rat's ass about the color of anyone else's skin.
Ditto their sexuality, nation of birth, etc. and so forth.
I honestly don't.
And I can't remember the last time I met someone like that.
I'm sure they're out there but they certainly don't run in my circles.
I do however know a fair amount of people who are tired of hearing about how racist, homophobic, etc. they are because they disagree with a particular policy or don't like a particular politician.
Definitely include me in that list.

Atlanta has it's share of troubles like any big city and traffic congestion is just one of them.
I would argue that we need to make an enormous shift in political ideology to get any real change pushed thru but I doubt that's likely to come soon.
As the writer of the Slate column so aptly illustrates, it's gonna be hard to fix the traffic problem if our politicians are still on some witch hunt for closet racists.


But, at least Mikey enjoyed the snow.

Editor's Note:  Turns out that Mass Transit may not be the perfect solution that some think.

http://www.nj.com/super-bowl/index.ssf/2014/02/super_bowl_2014_hows_your_ride_home.html#incart_maj-story-1


P.S.  I have finally found an article on Slate that I agree with!  Wonders shall not cease!


http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/02/01/why_amanda_knox_is_innocent.html