Second in a series of speeches for Arts of Communication, at the Kennedy School of Government (the first here).
Assigment: Choose an issue, and creatively employ framing techniques to persuade your audience to your position. (Overused Metaphor Alert).
T alert. Every day this week, the MBTA transit system will carry 1.1 million passengers. T alert. Each of the last twelve months, on-time performance has been above 93 percent for the Red Line. T alert. In two short years, nearly the entire system has gotten real-time, GPS data so customers can track when buses and trains arrive.
How many of you have taken the T in the last week? … Me, too. How many of you have heard announcements like the ones I just made? … Me, neither. Instead, we’ve heard dire warnings from T officials about cutting services and raising the fares we pay. We’ve heard frustration from riders, who see cuts and hikes as yet another attack on folks who already stand in the cold for buses.
This problem isn’t new. If you’ve ever been in a relationship, you know what I’m talking about. Have you ever woken up in the morning, come down to the kitchen, and been faced with a sinkful of dishes? Your partner left them there. You get upset, you roll your eyes, you start complaining. Now imagine the dishes were there because your partner spent all last night making you a home-cooked meal: maybe a pork roast, mashed potatoes, butternut squash. But here you find yourself, bickering about a few dirty plates.
That’s where we are with the T. When I’m frustrated with my girlfriend, something I find useful is stopping and taking stock of all the good things we do for each other. Let’s try that for the T. When I was about eight, I visited my aunt in Quincy. She took me on an adventure—to the old New England Sports Museum at the CambridgeSide Galleria: we rode the Red Line in, switched to the Green Line, and emerged above-ground, over the river. It was my first time taking public transportation. For years, I’ve been an avid transit user; and as a teacher, 60 bucks a month has always been softer on my wallet than gas and car insurance. Like any of us, I look for service that’s rapid, reliable, and can make renovations for the future. Sure, I’ve had the occasional frustration. But those are exceptions in what’s normally an exceptional system. Most of the time, the meal’s good and the dishes get cleaned.
So let’s stop arguing. Our dishes aren’t dirty because our partner is lazy, but because the dishwasher’s broken. The T is 5 billion dollars in debt. Just like a broken dishwasher, there are many reasons. Two thirds of the debt was passed on to the system by the state. And in 2000, lawmakers decided to fund the T with projected sales tax revenue … and then the economic bubble burst. The result? Every year, between 20 to 30 percent of the revenue the T takes in leaks right back out—to service that debt. The projected deficit for next year is more than 150 million dollars.
But if the arguing continues, not only are we not going to do the dishes; our entire relationship will be on the rocks. As in a relationship, both sides have a legitimate point. Those dirty dishes probably should have been cleaned, and you probably should have appreciated that pork roast a little more. It’s fair for T officials to consider cuts and fare hikes, especially given the system’s solid performance. It’s fair for riders to be concerned about the personal impacts.
Let’s stop arguing, and start talking straight. If you need a new dishwasher, it’s time to set aside a little more money each month to buy the appliance. It won’t be easy, but we should ask the same of the T. Remember, it’s public transportation: it’s ours. We must demand high quality—but be willing to chip in, too. Let’s ask the T to find creative new revenue sources. Let’s say no to service cuts. But let’s say yes to reasonable fare increases. As in a relationship, it’s time to stop tearing each other down, and starting building for the future.
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