Pledge: We all successfully pledged allegiance to the flag. Thank you to Tony Villanueva for leading this.

 

Thought of the Day:  John DeRussy delivered a nice reminder to be grateful for all we have.

 

Newscast:  Sheila Canzian attempted to provide levity and actually received some applause—very rare for a Newscaster.

 

Sunshine Report:  Bo Whitehill reports that Peter & Pam Webb had their fourth grandchild, and also that Oscar Lopez Guerra recently received a bionic shoulder replacement. 

 

Visiting Rotarians:  None hath ventured to tread here

 

Rotarians with Guests:  Mike Peterson brought Michelle Privatera; Kristin Jennsen brought Chuck Carnes. Apologies if spelling errorrrsss.

 

Rosemary Azem announced the collection effort for the Rotary Foundation in celebration of “100 years of doing good in the world”.

 

Alan Talansky announced that the Fun Run is looking for sponsors. So for it has raised over $40k for scholarships. Event is 10/22 at Ryder Park (otherwise known as Seal Point Park?), 9am-12pm, 5k & 10k.

 

Stanfurd Football Game Tickets:  Brian Sullivan is working on this, email him if you are interested.  Big Game (Cal versus Stanfurd) 11/25/17 and we will tailgate with the Foster City Club.

 

De-Fining Moments of Recognition:  The following people were victims of President Chris Eckert’s unmanned unconstitutional aerial drone program:

 

Sheila Canzian, 70’s pic was very incriminating.  Barbara Evers, grandchild recognition. Dave Bennett, 70’s pic was actually real. Joy Rudkin, diamonds are forever. Jack Foster, “Foster City was built to 100% perfection”

 

Today’s Speaker: 

 

Martin Harband introduced Mark Simon to discuss “Politics and Transit”.  Mark is from the San Mateo County Transit District, SAMTRANS, CalTrans, etc.

 

Mark says we are all suffering from PTSD—President Trump Stress Disorder.  The game in Washington DC needs to be played a certain way to actually succeed, something that Trump seems unaware of.  Dissemination of information today is very different.  Today we can be attacked instantly for an opinion on Facebook, and “news” items become viral independent of their veracity. Everyone wants to have the moral high ground in their arguments.  What is needed is to find commonality and stop thinking that our opinions are better than someone else’s. Many at SM Rotary are applauding, but “oh wait, maybe he meant it the other way…” Or not. Who knows? That’s the whole point.

 

Feinstein is running for re-election at the ripe old age of 124 or whatever. Both sides are so polarized that someone like Feinstein is threatened just by stating (old school) that “she just hopes the President does well”.  Therefore she is not “Liberal enough”.  However, due to the “perception” of Democrats that Feinstein is not “liberal enough”, her Senate seat will be challenged by even “more Progressive” types… This polarization indeed shows up in the recent runoff election whereby Trump backed a Republican who was “to the right of Darth Vader”, though he lost.

 

Mark discussed that there is going to be a ballot measure in 2018.  SAMTRANS helps people who have no other way around. They want to become a “mobility company”. Traffic is worse now than it was in the DotCom era. The CalTrain bullet service traffic has tripled because it’s a good timely service between SF/San Jose. 

 

We are a different County system now too.  Facebook is adding 25k jobs locally, South San Francisco is adding 10k jobs.  By 2040 meanwhile (and this may not be true in Los Angeles in 2049 per the recent Blade Runner sequel) up here the aging population will DOUBLE.  So there are many many things to consider in terms of older people’s access to transportation via the “last mile” (between their home and public transportation).

 

Thank you for a very interesting discussion.

 

Spinnings Editor, Chuck Cattano

 

Thanks to the Photo Editor of the week Peter Webb