A Bifurcated life: I Want My LIfe Back!

Here I am, 8 pm, not that late, and I'm stuck.

I'm in Superior Wisconsin, and I can't get back to Duluth Minnesota where I live.

Now, normally, everywhere I've chosen to live, I always live within walking distance of work and walking distance of everywhere I go on a regular basis. That's the way I chose it to be; I don't drive, so I walk, and I'm fine with that.

But I'm in the Twin Ports, where I grew up, and after 7 pm, you can't get from one of the Twin Ports to the other of the Twin Ports without giving someone $20 or so.

I don't have $20.

And I'm in Superior Wisconsin, and I live in Duluth Minnesota, and I'm stuck.

My life is now controlled, and is usually controlled, by folks I have to give a significant amount of money. I don't have a problem with them making a living, some of my best friends are cabdrivers.

But with all the talk about he unity between these two different communities, I can't get from one to the other without $20 or so.

I am certainly not complaining about cabdrivers. When I have to call a cab, I call a cab, when I can afford one. But I sure as hell shouldn't have to pay to get from one half of a community to the other half, unless I'm willing to tolerate a highschool-kid curfew.

And I can't afford to pay for a cab, because I work in the Twin Ports. And the only jobs that pay a decent amount of money, require mostly not being in the Twin Ports. Even the jobs you find in the Twin Ports involve getting on a boat and going down the great lakes for a few months.

I have absolutely no problem with working hard in return for a working-hard sort of paycheck. Can't get that here.

I want my life back. I don't make a lot of money, but I don't want to make a lot of money, and I don't want to need a great amount of money. I just want to regain control of my own life. Like what I had in had in southeast Michigan. I want to work, and make a decent (as compared to pathetic) amount of money, some of that American dream crap they promised us, and be able to live the American dream, even if I'm not a Republican. I am more than happy to walk home. And now, I can't just decide to walk home.

I just want to be able to go and live my (largely karaoke-driven) life, without having my own personal economy destroyed every time I try to do so. I don't need a wonderful place to live, I don't even need to live in Superior. I just need to be able to get from one half of the so-called community to the other half, without having to be treated like some teenage kid. And in Duluth, of course, I'm also treated like I'm not grown-up enough to choose whether I smoke or not.

The PTB can fix it, and they haven't.

I know they aren't providing and will never provide decent and decent-paying jobs in the Duluth MN-Superior WI area. The city councils of both, in fact, have achieved a remarkable level of skill in destroying existing businesses to create new environments that no existing businesses can afford to use, and for which they have found no new tenants who can afford to hire people who are willing to work hard.

I am perfectly willing to accept a crappy job, par for the course in Duluth-Superior. But when I accept damn-all money for pay, I expect at least that's in exchange for living in a place where I can have some fun and enjoy my life.

Or you could create an environment where there are jobs where I can work hard, in exchange for getting working-hard money, which I will spend in the community, so we can have more working-hard jobs.

I'm not asking for much. I'm just asking for my life back.