What Would Woody Say?

Last July, I wrote a I thought Metrorail would eventually be extended to Dulles Airport and beyond, into Loudoun County. It was partly a justification for the project, and partly a prediction.

I still think it will happen. But I shake my head sometimes when it seems that some of the funding partners don’t want to pay their fair share for the extension of the Silver Line from Wiehle Avenue into Loudoun County. As with many public projects across the country, there are those who say, “We just can’t afford it.”

When I hear that sentiment expressed, I reflect on the America that used to dream big dreams. I wonder what has happened to the American spirit, and ask myself, “What would Woody say?”

I climb the rocky canyon where the Columbia River rolls,
Seen the salmon leaping the rapids and the falls
The big Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington
Is just about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Woody Guthrie, folksinger, songwriter and champion of working people, is best known for writing the folk anthem, “This Land is Your Land.” His optimism and faith in this country’s ability to accomplish just about anything are perhaps best expressed in his song, “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done.”

There's a building in New York that you call the Empire State
I rode the rods to ’Frisco to walk the Golden Gate
I've seen every foot of film that Hollywood has run
But Coulee is the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Woody’s heyday was in the middle of the last century. Although he died in 1967, his message would be just as timely today, when most politicians say their top priority is creating jobs to help the nation recover from a painful recession. Add to that Northern Virginia’s desperate need for transportation alternatives to help alleviate road congestion.

A product of Dust Bowl Oklahoma who had experienced the ravages of the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie sang about putting people to work to accomplish great things.

Three times the size of Boulder or the highest pyramid
Makes the Tower of Babel a plaything for a kid
From the rising of the river to the setting of the sun
The Coulee is the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There may be some good reasons to oppose the Silver Line, but I have a hard time buying the argument that we can’t afford it.

If you want to get to Dulles Airport from Leesburg or Ashburn, or around the airport to Tysons Corner, you’ll have to drive, bike, walk or crawl the whole way, because there’s no rail alternative. On your way, spreading across the two counties with the highest incomes in America, you’ll see one enclave of mansions after another.

The folks who live in those mansions, when they’re not choking on exhaust fumes while stuck in gridlocked traffic, enjoy a standard of living that many kings and queens of yore would have envied. Somehow, Americans were able to accomplish some pretty big things in this country in years past, when the average standard of living was much lower.

I'm living with my freedom wife in this big land we built;
It takes all forty eight states for me to spread my quilt.
Our kids are several millions now; they run from sun to sun.
And that’s about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

It’s reasonable to question the funding formula for the Silver Line project, and to look for ways to reduce the overall costs of the project. Those who use the toll road shouldn’t have to be burdened by excessive tolls. But there is money to build it. Funding the project is more a question of political priorities than affordability.

After all, Dulles Airport is the gateway to the nation’s capital. The federal government should pay its fair share for a rail link that will connect Washington, D.C. to its international airport. So should the Commonwealth of Virginia, which receives boxcars full of dollars from Northern Virginia and sends back bushel baskets in return. Fairfax and Loudoun counties should also pay a reasonable share.

The nation that dared to build the Grand Coulee Dam, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, not to mention the transcontinental railroad, interstate highway system and space shuttle – the great nation about which Woody Guthrie wrote and sang – I believe that nation can afford to complete the 23-mile Silver Line to Dulles Airport.

I’d better quit my talking, ’cause I told you all I know,
But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go,
The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is done
That’ll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

 “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done” © Copyright 1961 (renewed), 1963 (renewed), 1976 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI).