I know I sometimes sound bitter, but that’s not it. In fact, I think negative emotions are a waste of time, and I don’t voluntarily indulge in them. I’m not bitter. But I’m also not forgetful.

I have an excellent memory. Now and then I recollect inaccurately, but that’s so rare that it’s entertaining when it happens. I remember much, and I also take notes which reinforce the remembering.

So when I speak with disapproval about veterans’ benefits for guys my age, it’s because I remember being 18 in 1968. I recall the Viet Nam “conflict,” and how it could be a challenge to avoid. (So could terminating a pregnancy, but it was doable.) Even after the lottery system was instituted, if one got a low number, there were options. Not serving was often heroic.

I don’t want us to turn our backs on any vets, especially the young ones now, whom medical science is saving for challenging lives with missing parts. But I don’t think boomer vets should get any more assistance than other boomers.

And regarding BART, I remember dammit, and I consider it the biggest ripoff of the Bayarea public, ever, which is not small achievement in the San Graft-frisco metropolis.

BART promised so much – silent automatic high speed trains – but from the gate was governed by a board of directors who individually owned Contra Costa property that was uninhabited when BART was built. To this day, the transit system sends its best stock and service to the far east lines.

It was supposed to be quiet, but Westinghouse blew the train detection system and the fix required wheel brushes that whine.

It was supposed to be fast and useful, but Rohr designed cars with only 2 doors each, and the planners drew a system without enough stops, so forget those goals.

It was supposed to be driverless, so when the board decided to hire drivers to make riders feel safer, they paid them in gold bullion and that meant any unification of Bayarea transit had to attempt to bring all employees up to BART wages.

But BART got built. And in the ensuing half century, I got to watch BART suck up all the transit money. There was never enough for buses (and face it, AC Transit was and again could be one of the best ever) or ferries (the ONLY transit that worked after the Loma Prieta quake…hello??)

Now BART holds the Bayarea hostage. And Bayarea public policy has been, progressively, to encourage, wheedle, rebate, and otherwise entice people to ride public transit. So let’s really do that.

Let’s eliminate strikes for transit workers. Let’s eliminate elected boards to run transit systems. Let’s make public transit free, with the cost borne by all. Eliminate the ticket machines and turnstiles: yes.

Enough of this stupidity.

I don’t even want to have a discussion about it.

My daughter coined the word “complainatory” to describe ranting grumpiness. I am grumpy right now. Complainatory. A complainatory editorial is probably a complainatorial.

That must be different than an “op ed.” WTF: op ed? That means “opinion editorial.” Are there non-opinion editorials? Oxymoratoria? Good grief. But I’ll stop now, lest I sound bitter.