Man Bites Blog

Metro has been billing itself as a remedy for the upcoming I-64 construction. The cover story in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch is the latest aspect of this publicity blitz.

What Metro is not publicizing is that not only are they not providing additional services on routes impacted by I-64 construction, Metro taking away service that will be impacted by construction.

At the beginning of the year, I-64 will close between Spoede and I-170. Metro has a park and ride lot at the Ballas transfer station at I-64 and Ballas, as well as two MetoLink stations within a mile of interchange of I-64 and I-170. One would think this would position Metro well to respond to the need.

Instead, Metro is eliminating the express bus service from the Ballas Transfer Station to the Brentwood I-64 MetroLink Station(258) and the Richmond Heights station(158x), running routes south along Manchester Road instead, which is completely useless for commuters who live north of I-64.

I currently use this service to commute from my Maryland Heights home to Brentwood. As a result of Metro’s odd decision, it is likely I will commute by car all the way, adding one more car to the sure-to-be-congested roadways.

It seems that this is the opposite of what should be happening — Metro should be rising to meet this challenge rather than working around it. They have been given additional funds to confront this challenge. For them to abandon the very routes most impacted by construction is an abandonment of their duties, and make their current publicity push a lie.

It’s always a treat when people loudly proclaim how they no longer listen to the Catholic Church teachings in their moral lives, and then proceed to lecture the Church on how is should manage itself.

Our latest example: morning DJ J.C. Corcoran’s commentary on Channel 2 last night. (link is to Channel 2’s discussion — I couldn’t find the original).

Corcoran says that Archbishop Burke has become a joke, compares the archidiocese with the final days of the Nixon Administration, and says that the Church should move him out to regain credibility.

Now why would this be?  Could it have anything to do with the local media’s relentless campaign against the Abp. Burke?  How eager they are to portray him as an ultraconservative firebrand? 

Now that they have pummelled him, they “helpfully suggest” to us Catholics that we replace him because we are losing creibility.  Oh, how thoughtful of you. 

Of course, Corcoran doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.  St. Louis Catholics are hardly quaking in fear of what the Archbishop will do to us next.  Those of us who have experienced the Archibishop through means other than the local media have met a men who cares deeply about the flock that he shepherds, and has great personal warmth, and gives equal stress to the Gospel’s demands for charity toward all.  Contrary to what the media would have us believe, Archbishop Burke does not wake up every morning thinking of who else he can deny communion to.

And it is bearing fruit already.  Revealing his ignorance, Corcoran said something to the effect that young men are note exactly beating down the seminary doors.   I guess he didn’t know that the seminary is having to renovate itself to accommodate a surge in enrollment.  Many Catholics are grateful for the support of an archbishop who will strongly support Church teaching.  The media doesn’t report those kind of things, though; they’d rather just post a sound bite from Burke about women being ordained “Catholic priests” in synagogue.

Do I sometimes wish Archbishop Burke had a defter pastoral touch and did a better job of presenting Church teaching in a way that could be well-received by the wide culture?  Sure.  But that the culture is hostile to messages about the dignity of human life is a defect of the culture, not Archbishop Burke.

You know, I don’t watch the TV news much any more, and pray the rosary instead of listening to morning radio.  Normally, I would think this would disqualify me from telling TV and radio stations from running their business, but following Corcoran’s example, I would tell them they are losing their voice by broadcasting commentaries by people that don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.