As many of you are aware, Community Transit is proposing to close its fixed route and para-transit service on Sundays and holidays.
The by-product of this budget maneuvering is that CT is telling a segment of the population: No, you cannot attend church. No, you cannot go to work. No, you are not to visit family or friends Sundays and Holidays. This is what CT is telling those who are dependent upon public transit.
You may be aware that the senior, disabled and “lower income” communities are the majority users of public transit and depend on it even to buy food and dry goods. Certainly one might be able to wait to Monday to get milk or toilet tissue. But can they wait until Monday to attend church, or make it on time to that weekend job, giving them enough to keep the rent paid and lights on?
If I want to attend church with my daughter, who lives in Everett, I must use Access from my home in King County (Burien), and transfer to DART at the Lynnwood Park &Ride. After June, DART won’t be there on Sundays, preventing us worshiping together.
How about the scores, possibly hundreds, who rely on public transit to attend church? Something we call a “right” to worship at the church, synagogue or mosque of our choosing.
I didn’t choose to lose my legs, my daughter did not choose to have neurological damage at birth. Public transit was chosen for us, though. Now CT is proposing to take a “sacred right” away from many of us, our community and other communities.
Ageism, sexism, racism and ableism are labels CT can avoid by rescinding its proposal and seeking other cuts, until the economy strengthens.
Rev. Jerome W. Pipitone
Burien
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