Along with a basic silence on our ongoing question about how we in West Seattle will get to downtown if there is no monorail, there is a persisting muttering but little action on statewide and Puget Sound transportation plans.

We are gripped in a paralysis of inaction accompanied by a general desire to pay less and less for the infrastructures we all use, while blaming it on politics and bad government. We moan and whine about taxes being too high and that the "liberals" cram it down our throats, or the "conservatives" are heartless souls who want only to reward their own kind.

Like all generalities, there is some truth in both, but the reality is having no plan is about the same as having no leadership. Oh, we have a lot of people who claim they are leaders and during this political time of year you can listen to them all beat their breasts and tell you in television commercials and at candidate gatherings how great they are.

But all is noise signifying nothing.

The monorail is a creature of the inability of our leaders in the greater Puget Sound to come to some sort of realistic plan for transportation management. An idea in Tacoma was shot down in Seattle. Any idea in Seattle was quickly called another grab by the big city to make the small town folks pay for Seattle's goodies. Squabble, whine, complain.

Breakdown.

Highways are crumbling and bridges rusting and falling apart.

Wild plans are formed, including such goodies as a trolley line to West Seattle, a wide new freeway bypass through the Sammamish Plateau and a tunnel across the city waterfront. Great ideas, but where's the money coming from. With the nation suffering from massive deficits, there is no money available.

So the monorail was born into a world where no one wanted anything, or so it seemed. At the same time the monorail was in its infancy, Sound Transit was going through the same period of near-death struggles, but then, people like Greg Nickels felt it was worth saving. Now the mayor and most incumbent council members want to trash anything that wasn't born in a government agency and midwifed by politicians and bureaucrats.

Sound Transit got its act together and appears to be moving forward, although its toughest period is ahead. We hope the voters will help monorail get the same chance when they vote next month.

Let's face it, folks, we need a Forward Thrust of this new century. We need leaders who will be bold and who have the ability to convince the fearful and self-involved bosses in local communities to take a chance on a plan that will actually fix our problems and put us back on track.

The mayor, the governor, the members of Congress and the Legislature need to work in concert with business, labor, neighborhood activists and the wide spectrum of brilliant people in our Greater Seattle.

In short, just like many businesses, we need a plan. Forget the "my way or the highway" attitudes that are so prevalent in Seattle and the state these days. Let's work together and solve the problems of our region before we become the basket cases we see around the nation and the world.

We can do it if we look beyond our own self-satisfaction and begin to plan to solve our woes.